He summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits

9 JULY (Mt 10,1-7)

In the Old Testament, specifically in the Book of Exodus, when God sends Moses to Pharaoh with the order to free his people, the King’s reply is no, of great contempt towards the Lord. “Thus says the Lord: Free my people.” “Who is the Lord that I should listen to him? Who is your God? I do not know him. I do not want to know him. Slaves you are and slaves you will remain. Rather, it is urgent to make your slavery more painful.” The Lord now has the task to certify his lordship. Saying to be the Lord is not enough. It is necessary to demonstrate with facts, in reality, that he really is the Lord. And he is the Lord if he bends every force, even the most irresistible ones to a perfect obedience. We know that Moses made ten portentous signs through which the Lord in deeds and not only with words manifested to Pharaoh, his Lordship.

Jesus comes. He is sent by the Father to establish his kingdom. But in the world there is already a universal kingdom that governs every man. This kingdom is the empire of Satan, under whose rule the whole of humanity dwells. Jesus destroys the kingdom of Satan with the saving, redeeming and freeing omnipotence of his Father. If Jesus says to Satan: go away, Satan must go. If does not go away and he is told, we certify that we have no real power in building the kingdom of God. Jesus is the strong man who casts Satan that presents himself to man as the stronger. What then is the real strength: that of Jesus or that of Satan? From the Gospel we know that the real strength is that of Jesus the Lord. Satan always gives up, obeys his every command.

The disciples cannot go around the world saying only words. There is no faith in words. Words are trustworthy if they are preceded and followed by facts. Today Jesus gives his disciples the power to act, operate and offer facts attesting that they come from God, since only God is stronger than the prince of this world. They receive power over unclean spirits to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. Since only God can do these things, they are not in the hands of the man without God, of the man who is not with God, of the man who lives away from Him; by carrying them out, the disciples attest to their closeness with Jesus. Jesus is truly with them.

Every disciple of Jesus should reflect, meditate and think. If he has to destroy the kingdom of this world and build the kingdom of God, h must necessarily be filled with the Holy Spirit, he must be really be filled with the Spirit of the Lord and the omnipotence of strength and wisdom, of foresight, and of all other divine powers. He cannot fight and destroy the kingdom of Satan without this supremacy, these powers, this divine force that commands the unclean spirit and this obeys him. If the disciple of Jesus is without facts, without works, without the fruits of charity, love, freedom, the other person will hardly open to faith in his word. A man with no power is always a man with no power. No faith will ever be built in the hearts and on earth for Him. He does not have the powers of Jesus Christ, which are the powers of the Father.

Then he 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 him. 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.’

Either the Church of God is clothed with strength and power in the Holy Spirit, or no faith will be born through her preaching. The kingdomof God is not only preached, it is built and it is built effectively, actually, visibly, operationally in history, in the hearts, in society and among men. Jesus bestows the powers if a person becomes one with Him.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us be one with Jesus.