Power to save lives

“I know you can read God’s mind, Father. Should I switch to investing in oil?”

Power to save lives

CHRIST’S IDEA OF AUTHORITY, synodal reflection no 6.

by John Wijngaards

“I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me.” (John 20,21)

“Whoever hears you hears me. Whoever rejects you rejects me, and who rejects me rejects the One who sent me.” (Luke 10,16)

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During my spell as Vicar General of the Mill Hill Missionaries I would visit our houses in the USA every year. I would then also meet some of our returned missionaries, who at the time of retirement had opted to continue some form of pastoral work. One of them was a Dutch missionary whom I shall call ‘Jim’. He had served for almost forty years in Central Africa. On retirement he was happy to accept the assignment to a parish in Manhattan where his main task consisted in being chaplain to a local hospital.

The hospital was 14 storeys high. Every day Jim, using a walking stick, would go round as many wards as he could, moving up from one storey to the next.

“My work is amazing”, Jim told me. “I take holy communion to many people, but it doesn’t stop there. As I move from bed to bed I come across many Catholics in need of special attention. Some have problems at home. Some haven’t been to church for many years because of one reason or another. Some are tormented by doubts. Some are troubled in their conscience because of things they have done.”

“So, you can really help them”, I said.

“Yes, yes, I can. At times it leads to full-fledged confession, more often it only needs a frank discussion which helps them resolve inner conflict.”

“Great!”, I told him.

“Indeed. Often it is hard for me – walking all that distance inside the hospital at my age. Moreover, walking back home from the hospital to the parish which is often late in the evening I got mugged twice. Thrown down onto the pavement. My briefcase snatched from my hand, wallet from my pocket. It was a shock I tell you. But – it doesn’t stop me.”

He then leant over to me. “I’ve done good work in Africa, you know. But this is even better. I can talk to people from person to person, as Jesus would have done. In his name I can resolve issues. Never in my life have I felt so much a priest as I’m doing here these days.”

Ambassadors of God

We have seen in an earlier meditation that the term ‘apostle’, that is ‘someone who is sent’, could apply to public heralds, persons empowered to proclaim a new political reality to the public. ‘Apostle’ stands also for ‘ambassador’. Someone commissioned to meet a specific person and delegated to act and speak on behalf of a ruler.

Fast modes of communication that we use in our own time: phone calls, telegrams, email and-so-on did not exist in Jesus’ time. When the Roman Emperor sent an ambassador to a king in the North of Europe or in the Middle East, that person had to be empowered to negotiate the terms of peace or surrender, or details of a trade deal by himself. The ambassador was commissioned to resolve often complex issues in the name of the authority that sent him.

This means that when the ambassador met the individual he was sent to, he could authoritatively convey the mind and the voice of his master.

Dealing with individuals he met, Jesus acted like the ambassador of his Father. We have numerous examples of persons who benefitted from such a personal encounter::

people whom he invited to join him, such as fishermen Simon and Andrew, farmer Nathanael and tollbooth manager Matthew;
outcasts infected with leprosy;
the paralysed man dropped down in front of him through a hole in the roof;
the man with a shrivelled hand whom he met in a synagogue;
Nicodemus who came to talk to Jesus at night;
Zacheus, the tax collector in Jericho;
the widow of Naim who was on the way to bury her son;
the paralysed man lying near the pool of Bethesda;
the Roman officer in Capernaum whose slave was ill;
the anxious mother in Syro-Phoenicia whose daughter was possessed by an impure spirit;
the woman from Samaria who came to draw water at the well where Jesus was resting;
and others.

What does this mean for the successors of the apostles in our own day?

Questions

Do church leaders realise that a general ministry to the multitude – through sermons at Sunday mass, brief sessions in the confessional or pastoral guidance in print – will not do? That they should create opportunities to meet people in person? That they should give time to listen to people’s individual stories and solve their specific issues?

Text: John Wijngaards; illustration: Tom Adcock.