Jesus appointed twelve apostles to “proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand.” We are the heirs to those apostles, “missionary disciples” in the phrase of Pope Francis. As heirs we are given the same commission the twelve were: “to drive out unclean spirits and to cure every disease.” That seems like an intimidating charge! My old teacher, Joe Donders, told us not to jump to the healing mission of compassion that we feel comfortable with but to notice the order of the commission. First, “drive out the unclean spirits.” We first must work to rid society of the demons of racism, inequality, injustice, poverty, discrimination. Only then will we be able to provide the healing balm to those ills that impact individual people.
JULY102019
By Church Staff