The Gospel passage records the 72 high-spirited disciples rejoicing as they returned. They were outstanding when it came to subjugating demons. However, their success stories are like icing on the cake, whereas the instructions given by Jesus highlight the demanding conditions to which they were sent. These counsels remain relevant to those who proclaim the Gospel.
Firstly, Jesus sent them out like sheep amongst wolves. This attitude invites a vulnerability amongst those who volunteer to serve, most especially those who have given themselves to full-time ministry. This mindset is coupled with the second instruction given. Have no security for the simple reason that disciples should trust that God’s providence will supply. Our achievement-obsessed universe does not allow for “vulnerability” seeing it not as a compelling sign of faith in Providence but a symptom of low self-esteem or a lack in self-confidence. We are constantly motivated to be go-getters. Instead of waiting for events to overtake us we must control our destiny. Otherwise, why send little toddlers to pre-schools? I am sure if there were such a thing as a pre-natal school, some progressive parents would be signing up their babies in the womb.
Mastery, domination and control are skill sets even more urgent to have if the default mode of engagement is “achievement”. If our goal is to meet some performance indices, then the mission landscape will always feel urgent. In a way, it should be, because, as Jesus stated, the harvest is rich and waiting. However our problem is a spiritual blindness that does not appreciate fully the challenges we face today.
At every turn of history, the Church has had to face challenges. It is like every age has its own beast to slay. Maybe, we should rejoice even more than the 72 others did. They were ecstatic as they defeated the demons whereas we do not even have to lift a finger, let alone raise a hand to drive out a demon.
During the time of Jesus, diseases were indications that forces inimical or hostile to God were at work in the lives of those afflicted. Healing a sick person was a definitive expression of Jesus’ authority over evil. It would appear that we are better than Jesus because we have driven these hostile forces into the margins occupied by the occult, superstition and magic. As long as an observed phenomenon cannot be repeated and tested in the laboratory, it should be relegated to the private realm and therefore should have no place in the market square of reason.
This implies that religion is immediately suspect. We cannot scientifically prove God’s existence. Moreover, religion deals with the supernatural and anything out of the ordinary spectrum of nature which cannot be proven must be banished. Therefore, Satan does not exists except in the “fantastical”. In a way, science may have proven itself to be more “powerful” than God.
However, what science cannot fully account for is our fascination with “beauty”. Beauty is alluring and attractive whereas evil is not. Our problem begins when Satan appears as the angel of light. We are quickly enamoured because we can no longer differentiate between what is good and evil appearing as good. We readily embrace evil only because we think it is beautiful and good.
In this confusion, we labour naively failing to notice how easily evil infuses itself into our worldview. We may be staring at Satan in the face and not know it because blinded by our lack of imagination, we have trivialised the reality of evil to the point that it does not exist. Or if it does exist, as mentioned, it is narrowly restricted to the non-appealing, that is, to the grotesque. Just watch all the horror movies we have. The satanic is reduced to the repulsive which is but the crudest expression of evil. When evil is ugly, the comparison with good is like the difference between black and white. We know day from night. But when evil appears “beautiful”, the discernment is harder. It is like judging or differentiating between white and off-white.
Indeed, like lambs sent amongst wolves, the beast of this age are the closed minds that are unable to identify the true face of evil hiding behind the seemingly beautiful. In this almost sinless world which does not account for evil, we have to settle, at best, with conspiracy theories, or at worst, with plain pure nutters. Anyone who dares to speak of the reality of evil is possibly mad.
The antithesis of a closed mind is not openness. For this openness might suggest that one should accept any and all positions put forth. If openness, in the shape of tolerance or acceptation, is not the opposite of a closed mind, what should it be? How do we slay the beast of closed minds?
Most importantly, openness has to be anchored. As the Disciples returned to the Lord, they returned to the harbour from which they sailed forth. We are not bobbing ships in an open ocean sailing without any sense of purpose. Our connexion is to Christ who is the Truth that anchors our mission endeavours. In fact, the noble values of equality, liberty and brotherhood link us back to who we are in relation to God because they are dependent on God’s design for us. When creating, God did not just mess around with plasticine. Instead from the earth, He fashioned us in His image and likeness.
Thus, our dignity does not come from nowhere. It is derived from God Himself. We may have made all the technological advances in the world and are not afraid of “demons” but they are real because these demonic forces are hard at work to make us forget this sacred origin of ours. Without this sacred link to God, we may not even realise that our souls are in danger.[1]
We should be mindful that the Devil works hard to thwart the establishment of God’s Kingdom. If Satan were not a part of this spiritual reality, what are you doing here? And, a lot of our rites makes no sense if there were no spiritual battles for our souls. Remember the Prayer to St Michael the Archangel. Satan is relentlessly undermining Christ’s mission to save souls. It is to the peril of our salvation that we ignore the spiritual reality.
The instructions that Jesus gave the 72 others keep us grounded because they direct our attention to who we are, Whom we should depend on and what we are fighting against. Ultimately, in the mission to establish God’s Kingdom and to save souls, these counsels keep us close to God as we make our pilgrimage to eternity.
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[1] This anchor on God gives us our stability because fluidity, meaning that truth is dependent on whichever the winds that blow at this time does not lead to a more fulfilled life. If anything, it leads to despair and hopelessness. The so-called progressives elites who are fighting against racism are a good example of shifting sand of fluid truth. We are cudgelled to accept the principles of BLM (black lives matter) and are supposed to embrace critical race theory and fight against “White Privilege”. Well and good. Now that Roe versus Wade has been overturned by the SCOTUS with the power to legislate being returned to the individual States, the knives of the progressives are aiming for black justice Clarence Thomas. So much for black lives matter. He does not fit into the progressives’ profile of what a black person should be like and that is a sin.
