Fr Lino Moreira OSB
According to the gospel of Mark, when Jesus started his public ministry he went round Galilee saying: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’ (Mk 1:15). These words are not a quotation but a summary: they sum up the whole of Jesus’ preaching. So when we subsequently hear about the twelve disciples that they went out and proclaimed that all should repent (cf. Mk 6:12), we cannot but conclude that their message was exactly the same as their master’s. There may have been some kind of personal input on the their part, but the evangelist makes no mention of this, because he wants to emphasise in the clearest way possible that what the apostles said was a perfect echo of what Jesus had to say – so much so that their preaching was confirmed by the same sort of miracles that Jesus himself performed (cf. Mk 6:12).
The ministry of the twelve passed on to their successors, the bishops, who are assisted by the priests and deacons. Year after year, Jesus continues to send out these messengers, telling them to take nothing for their journey except the things that a shepherd normally needs: a staff, a tunic and a pair of sandals. These instructions are not to be taken too literally, but they are a stark reminder that the ministers of the Church should practice the same kind of detachment as Jesus did.
They should trust that having been made participants of Christ’s lordship over all creation, God will touch the hearts of men and women of good will to provide for their material needs.
Now as in the past, the mission of every shepherd acting on behalf of Christ is to preach repentance, and use his authority over unclean spirits to cast out demons and cure the sick (cf. Mk 6:7.12). This kind of language is not very popular in our time. All too often, the word repentance conjures up the image of a soul tormented by guilt, who has lost the ability to enjoy life, and is always casting a wet blanket of
negativity on anyone who happens to be around. On the other hand, any talk about spirits and demons smacks of a very primitive worldview in an age of widespread confidence in science as the only valid form of knowledge.
All of this, however, is based on a series of misconceptions, which need to be carefully examined. First, it should be noted that the word ‘repent’ – a command which sums up Jesus’ message – is simply the English rendering of the Greek ‘metanoeíte’ (Mk 1:15), a term which has a wide range of meaning and is utterly devoid of negative connotations. To put it more clearly, the gospel of Jesus proclaimed by the apostles and their successors invites us to turn around, and start
trying to attune our patterns of thought and behaviour to the kind of merciful love that God himself has showed by blessing us in Christ with every spiritual blessing (cf. Ep 1:3). This is the only way we can hope to unleash, both within ourselves and in others, some of those positive energies that are needed to transform a world of selfish competitiveness into a home for all creation.
As for demons and unclean spirits, whether we believe in them or not, the fact remains that it does not lie entirely within our power to make ourselves whole again. The accumulated knowledge of finite beings will always be limited, and therefore largely ineffective. We do need the saving word of Christ, and the power of his sacraments, to be healed of all our infirmities and ultimately receive the gift of eternal life.