The Call to Continue!

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Gen 41:55-57, 42:5-7a, 17-24a; Mt 10:1-7

In many ways, today’s Gospel is a follow-up of yesterday’s one, with the difference that the disciples are called to embrace Jesus’ missionary response as their own.

We can understand Jesus’ invitation in three ways. 

Shared Mission: When Jesus expects his disciples to continue his mission, such expectation does not come in a vacuum. The fact that Jesus calls his disciples to a shared mission is underscored by his act of empowering his disciples with the same authority with which he performed all the cures. In naming his disciples to carry forward his mission, Jesus shows that they are his extended selves to carry on with the message of love. 

Healing Mission: Jesus wants his disciples to heal ‘every disease and every affliction.’ In Jesus’ healing, his followers found God’s power at work against the forces of evil. Jesus’ healing mission declared God’s presence and nearness. His proclamation of the Kingdom was made effective through the healing miracles. Christian mission is a healing mission because it is about disseminating God’s love to those who have been denied it. 

Targeted Mission: Some of us may grow suspicious about Jesus’ instruction to his disciples to ‘go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ Should we doubt Jesus’ inclusive mission, we must remember Jesus’ command for his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 to reach out to ‘all nations.’ Hence, the current restriction is temporary and strategic. Rootedness comes ahead of expansion. Starting with the house of Israel, the mission is indiscriminately extended to all. 

Let us pray that we may give life to Jesus’ vision through our mission. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar