We recall that God called Abraham, the great ancestor of the people of Israel, from the Chaldean city of Ur in modern day Iraq and made a covenant with him. Abraham was the grandfather of Jacob whose twelve sons were the pillars of the twelve tribes of Israel. Due to famine in the promised land, Jacob and his family migrated to Egypt for ‘greener pastures’. Eventually, out of envy, the Egyptians turned against the Israelites and enslaved them.

The Lord sent Moses, who was in self-exile from Egypt because Pharoah was after his life, to go and secure the release of the people of Israel from their bondage. Pharoah was obstinate and would not set the people of Israel free from their enslavement until the bite of ten plagues forced him to let them break from their shackle of slavery and depart from the land of Egypt for the promised land.

When the Israelites got to Mount Sinai, led by Moses, the Lord who had called them by name (Is 43:1), made a covenant with them as recounted in today's first Reading. The Lord said to them, "You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own, for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation." (Ex 19:2-6). Per this covenant, the people of Israel would become God's possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. They responded that all the Lord had said they would do. We know that in the life of the Israelites they broke their covenant with the Lord several times. Jesus came as a fulfiller of the covenant God made with people of Israel and through them to the rest of humankind.

The Gospel (Mt 9:36-10:8), narrated Jesus' sending of his apostles on mission to proclaim the Good News. This became necessary to satiate the people's hunger for the word of God. The Gospel related that, "When Jesus saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is rich, but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.'"

Jesus sent his apostles to the Jewish territory with the instruction that they should not enter any pagan territory nor visit any Samaritan town. They should rather visit the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As they visited, they were to "proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand." The ministry of their proclamation would include curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, and casting out devils.

Though Jesus' mission is to the whole world, however, he started his ministry among the Jews for charity must begin at home. He none-the-less had intermittent outreach to non-Jews like his encounter with the Samaritan woman at Patriarch Jacob's well (Jn 4:5-52); his healing of the Roman Centurion's servant (Lk 7:1-10); Jesus healed the demoniac of Gergesene at Gadarenes, whom he later sent as missionary to his people (Mk 5:1-20); he healed the Canaanite woman's daughter. She was a woman of great faith. (Mt 15:21-28).

Jesus later sent out seventy-two disciples to places which included non-Jewish territories. (Lk 10:1-20). After his resurrection, he gave the great commissioning to his disciples to go to all the nations proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. (Mt 28:16-20).

Our society today is still in need of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our families and communities need healing and reconciliation as there remains a need for ‘exorcism’ on some world leaders who are war mongers!