Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
Luke 10:5-12

Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. Luke 10:16

The most devastating thing to a person’s soul is rejection. Our youth can overcome abuse in all its forms. They can overcome the devastating effects of abject poverty. However, rejection causes them to question the very core of their identity. It shapes the way they see the world. After years of relationship building, some of them share their experiences of rejection with us. Many times it is not rejection per say but a result of a tragic situation. One young man doesn’t remember his mother’s face at all but only remembers that she left him at the orphanage when he was eight. He waited until he was fifteen. She never came. Now, he erased the memory of her face. The pain was too great. The truth was that his mother could not afford to raise him. She made the tough decision and chose one of her two children. As a child, he interpreted her decision as a personal rejection. Others have parents had to work to support their children and left them alone locked up in a tiny shack made out of scrap wood. Most of these parents did not deliberately reject their children. However, the child reads all these as such. This is the tragic situation of life. In the gospel text today, Jesus sent the seventy out as healers. This is the goal of all disciples that we become agents of healing in this world. It is important as healers that we don’t interpret the world like a child. As Paul said,

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” 1 Corinthians 13:11

The healer needs to have a good grasp of the complex nature of Life. Discernment is of utter importance. Healers need to know the difference between rejection and obstacles which life throws at us. Sometimes people misinterpret obstacles as rejection and formulate negative ideas and concepts which become rooted in our souls. Sometimes healers are too quick to shake the dust off their feet when they really need to stay and overcome obstacles hindering healing. I have done this several times. I have misread obstacles and thought that I should leave. I almost made this mistake with our ministry in 2008. I thought I was done because of some obstacles. In the process, I nearly forfeited a blessing which has enriched my life in ways I never imagined.

This reflection is for those who want to be healers. It doesn’t matter if we want to be healers to a specific community like myself or one lonely person we know or a relative who is an addict. Part of the process of being a healer is overcoming obstacles. There are some obstacles which require lots of wisdom. Being a healer, or in other words, a messenger of the good news, requires maturity. Jesus did not send out all his disciples, only seventy who were ready.

In the gospel episode above, Jesus used some key words; “peace”, “listen” and “reject”. Let us ponder a little on these words.

The ministry of Jesus is a ministry of peace. In our final blessing in the Anglican Liturgy, the priest says these words, “The Peace of God which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.” In a poetic and succinct manner, these words define the gospel meaning of peace. The peace of this world is an attempt to appease all sides involved which tends to fail continuously. The gospel is talking about bringing hope and joy to the hearts of those who are spiritually and emotionally exhausted. The young man whom I wrote about in the beginning grew tired of waiting for his mother’s love. Now, he takes solace in things which are detrimental to his body. He needs the peace of the gospel. The peace of God brings hope and joy. It doesn’t overburden the soul. Religion tends to do this. This is why Jesus tells us our spirituality needs to surpass the spirituality of the Pharisees who were the epitome of all things wrong with religion.

Then Our Lord mentions “listen”. In order for people to listen, we need to learn how to communicate. We need to communicate in the language of the people whom God has called us to share His peace. I am not referring to a foreign language. We need to learn to use the proper symbols and expressions which would open up the people’s hearts to receive the healing message of the gospel. This takes time. We cannot learn this “skill” unless we ourselves are open and willing to participate in their lives. We need to listen to them first in order to learn their language. Only then we will know how to use the words of love which will penetrate the walls built around the hearts of people.

Finally Jesus uses the word, “reject”. Now, rejection is real. Some of our children did not just misinterpret rejection from their families. In some cases, there was real rejection. The blow is more devastating to them because as a child they were always ready to love and receive love. When Jesus sent His disciples out, they were challenged to be like little children. They went out into the world ready and willing to love. We will never become healers without this readiness to love. When I first worked in this ministry in the early nineties, I had one objective. I wanted to convince the homeless teens and children to leave the streets. All my efforts were focused on this. Unfortunately, I never succeeded, not a single one left the streets through our efforts, well, maybe one or two. However, I was stressed out and disappointed with myself. Then I thought it was all over and decided to try a different approach, maybe even a different ministry. In fact, many who worked in this same field told me that it was a fruitless task. Then I met an Anglican priest who advised me to just love and enjoy the young people. Sounds like a simple notion but it changed everything. The young people stopped being a problem to be solved. They became people whom I enjoyed spending time with. Then the healing came and consequently their openness to receive our message of healing.

The seventy disciples had Jesus as their model. He was present with them in flesh and blood. They saw Him act and love the people. They heard His words of healing. They had a living example for them to imitate. In some way, we can argue that we don’t share this privilege. However, nothing can be further away from the Truth. The basic foundation of our faith is that Jesus is always present with us. We professed that Jesus is God and therefore, He is also omnipresent in a real and concrete manner. When our Lord instituted the sacrament of Bread and Wine, He commanded us to do this in remembrance of Him whenever we gather together. The remembrance part is the sacred practice of recognizing that Jesus is present in our midst in a real way. We participate in communion to remind ourselves that we need to use our eyes of faith to recognize His presence in the world. Our Lord is present in the hearts and minds of many. Those who respond to His promptings become living examples of His love to the rest of us. If we follow their examples, we, in turn, also become living proof of His real presence in this world. Personally, I believe that the best argument for the existence of God is the presence of people who bring healing love to those around them.

I have had the good fortune to meet many of these people who manifest the Spirit of Jesus in their lives. One in particular is an Anglican clergy who renounced his ordination after a brief stint as a missionary. He was an excellent priest, very well received and loved in all the congregations where he ministered. His faith is a contagious one. It permeated joy and hope. I met him in my teens when he was just a seminarian. I even attended his ordination. Eventually he asked to be send out as missionary to a predominately Muslim nation. I was initially sad for selfish reasons. I wanted him to be close by. However, I eventually left for Brazil, even further away from where we came from. He went with the intention of offering peace to the people. They received it. However, there was an obstacle but it wasn’t religious animosity. It was a peaceful region in this respect. However, the people thought that his message was exclusive to Christians and nothing more. As he tried to participate in the life of the community, he became more aware of the obstacle between him and them. He realized that they did not reject him but his office prevented him from communicating effectively with them. He returned to his diocese and after much prayer decided it was best to renounce his ordination. He did it with the blessing of the church.

To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. 1 Corinthians 9:21-22

It wasn’t an easy decision. However, becoming the messenger of hope and joy was more important to him than a title. In doing so, he lived his ordination vows in ways more profound than one can imagine. He returned to the community and, now, he is well received. They even call him, “father”, which is term of endearment in that particular culture in recognition of someone who is a guide for the younger people. His faith continues to be contagious and full of joy and hope.

We should not be too quick to shake the dust off our feet. Sometimes an obstacle can be mistaken as a rejection. Some young people who once rejected us at are drawing close to us. There is a young man, Felipe, who never was friendly with us. Incidentally, there are many homeless with this name and I have never mentioned this one before. He used to be a petty thief and I think he thought that this was an obstacle between us. Recently, he started being more friendly towards us. He told us that he was “calm” now. This is a street slang to say one has left behind a life of crime. He even hugged us and talked with us for a while. Thankfully we did not shake the dust of our feet in relation with him. He just needed time. Now he is ready to receive something from us.