Jesus has just selected – according to St. Mark's accounting of it – his twelve Apostles whom he would send forth to preach and to have authority over demons. We recognize and celebrate the fact that the bishops of our day are in an apostolic line of succession with the Twelve and it is their duty still to preach and to drive out demons. It is their task to upbuild the flock of Christ entrusted to their care; and to defend it from all attack from the wolves that are ever prowling around seeking to destroy it! And to protect it from those who still are under the influence of the evil one – in varying degrees - some, whether they know it or not!
From the Letter to the Hebrews today we see the "what," the "content," of the preaching that is to be done: a new covenant, with a law written upon hearts, which would involve the forgiveness of evil doing, and the forgetting of sin on the part of God: this would all be brought about fully by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus: Son of God and Son of Man. This seems to have been done throughout the centuries. But what seems to have been relegated to the back shelf these days is the fact that "evil can be driven out" – just as matter-of-factly, and efficiently as it was done by Jesus, the Apostles and early bishops of the Church. It is still a priority of bishops today especially and their helper priests to preach and to "drive out demons" as they may be found. But do they carry out this part of them mandate given them?
The power and influence of the prince of this world is still quite strong: and every false and ill-thought-out decision that is made and promulgated only adds to the perversion and chaos of the world: especially in the area of morality! We are living in very dangerous moral times. The very dignity of human life in all its ages and stages, and the sanctity of family life are being challenged like never before: and the bishops and priests of the world, and especially our country can do something about it (if they choose to): they can first of all pray and lead prayer powerfully that the evil intent in the minds and hearts of those proposing the clearly wrong decisions may be purified; and that it be replaced with what is good and right and pure and holy and truly helpful to all human persons in all the ages and stages of their life! And they can encourage their parishioners to make their voices heard in the public governmental arena: for, as Catholics, our words are the words of life, they are the words of truth, they are the words of Christ himself: and they do have power – BUT THEY MUST BE SPOKEN!
Yesterday we remembered the anniversary of the legalization of abortion; in the coming weeks and months we will hear about the deliberate undoing of any progress that has been made since the law was passed 36 years ago by means of the proposed presidential signing of the Freedom of Choice Act. Both are evils that can and must be blocked. By preaching, prayer for the driving out of demons by the working of the Holy Spirit, and responsible citizenship in making our voices heard regarding laws that are simply "not right, not just, not helpful to anyone at all" – we will all carry out Jesus command to: love one another, as he loved us, as true and loyal friends who would even give their lives for one another!
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation, renewal and reconstruction!
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