“Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.” Then Jesus instructed them saying: “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.” Many of us reading this today may wrongly think that this specific mission was entrusted only to the twelve back then and now belongs to the priests and religious. However, this mission belongs to all of us baptized. We are now called to make the same proclamation -- ‘the kingdom of God is at hand!’ But how about curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, and driving out demons? - you may ask. I can’t do that. And no, you may not have any extraordinary power to do these things. But you were given the power of visiting the sick, helping those who are ill, asking if they need anything. You have the power to ask for eternal life for those who have died, you have the power to fight evil, injustice, temptations, immorality and you do have the power to accept those ‘lepers’ that are rejected by our society -- those who are marginalized, poor, immigrants, those who have a different color of skin, different beliefs and different sexual orientations. We have the power to change this world and to make the same proclamation that the kingdom of God is at hand.
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