“Remember who you are. Don’t compromise yourself for anyone, for any reason. You are a child of the Almighty God. Live that truth.”

It was not for societies or states, that Christ died, but for men. - C.S. Lewis: (1898 – 1963: was a British novelist, poet, & academic)

Gospel Text: (MT 10:1-7)

Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the Twelve Apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus.

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

And where do those unclean spirits reside?  Look around.  They haunt us, possess us everywhere.  They look like greed.  The United States, along with the other 10 percent of the wealthiest nations, consume nearly 60 percent of the world’s resources.  Or like gun violence.  In the first six months of this year alone, the United States suffered through 154 mass shootings (involving at least four victims), more than any other country in the world.  Or the slaughter of innocents.  More than 900,000 unborn children were aborted last year.  Tough numbers to swallow as we sip our $5 latte while more than 14 million children go to bed – and to school – hungry.

St. John Paul II called these unclean spirits the “structures of sin,” sin beyond individual wrongdoing, and yet sin in which we have corporate responsibility.  And just as Jesus “sent out” the Twelve, so too did John Paul II prophetically send us out to drive out unclean spirits.  How?  By taking action; by doing something, however insignificant it may seem, by resisting, correcting, or countering that structural sin, that unclean spirit.

Christ sends all of us.  No exceptions, no excuses.  We begin at those places where the world touches us, and where we touch the world most immediately, in those places where it hurts.  God’s creation is innately good.  But this world is broken and in crucial need of mending.  We are sent out not only to fix those damaged places, but to improve upon it, to bring it closer to the harmonious and loving condition in which God created it.  Only as we work to heal our small part of the world, will we make real the words Jesus summons us to proclaim: “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!”