FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Readings: Is 66:10-14c/Ps 65:1-7,16, 20/Gal 6:14-18/Lk 10:1-12,17-20
We are all involved!
May the Lord give you His peace!
Today’s reading brings to mind one of the patriotic songs of Ghana that invites all the youth to arise and get involved in building our motherland. We are equally invited through the mission of the extra labourers to get seriously involved in making others know and encounter the Lord Jesus. “The Christian faith is not simply teachings, wise sayings, a code of morality or a tradition. The Christian faith is a true encounter and relationship with Jesus Christ. Transmitting the faith means to create in every place and time the conditions which lead to this encounter between the person and Jesus Christ.” (Instrumentum Laboris of the New Evangelisation for the transmission of the Christian Faith. N. 18). This is what we are all invited to do.
Obviously, the seventy-two people who were chosen for the mission has a bearing on the number of elders selected to assist Moses in his leadership (cf. Num.11:166, 17, 24, 25), which points to the Lord Jesus as the new Moses. The figure also suggests in keeping with the style of the evangelist Luke, a universal scope for the mission covering the then known world, as opposed to the earlier one, which involved only the twelve disciples (cf. Lk. 9:1-5). The figure ultimately represents all the baptised who are obligated to participate in the Church’s mission of transmitting the Christian faith to every corner of the world.
The seventy-two messengers were sent in pairs to demonstrate that the proclamation of the Gospel is not a personal matter, but rather the mission of the Christian community. Additionally, the messengers must travel together in pairs for mutual support during their missionary journey. Hence, unity and collaboration are essential elements for the realisation of the Church’s mandate. In fact, the Lord instructed the messengers to pray for more labourers for the work of evangelisation (cf. Lk. 10:2). Indeed, many hands make the work light; we are all involved!
The Lord Jesus further gave the messengers some specific guidelines and prohibitions regarding the responsibilities entrusted to them. First, the messengers should not carry a heavy load (cf. Lk. 10:4). They are to solely trust in the ability of God who called them to supply their daily needs. We observe in our epoch certain messengers of the Gospel who ostentatiously display an excessive attachment to material possessions and comforts, which makes them too burdened and rigid to accept transfers and changes in their apostolic assignments. The Lord Jesus wants His ministers to travel light and be modest so that it will be easy for them to move without any ill-feeling. It is quite easy to entangle oneself in mundane things and forget about that which matters in the vineyard of the Lord.
Second, the messengers are to focus on their main mission and not to involve themselves in peripheral things. It will be culturally scandalous in our context not to greet people you meet on your way, but this is what the Lord commanded the massagers to do. What did He mean exactly? The command recalls the directive from the Prophet Elisha to his servant Gehazi to concentrate exclusively on the task at hand, and to avoid greeting or responding to the greetings of others. (cf. 2Kgs 4:29). Therefore, the instruction regarding greetings is not to disrespect anyone, but rather to ensure that the messengers of the Gospel remain steadfast in their mission and are not distracted by marginal issues.
Third, the messenger must be satisfied with whatever he is offered in the mission (cf. Lk. 10:7, 8). The mission is not a profit-driven venture that calls for the movement from one place to another in pursuit of a more favorable opportunity. Hence, we must not focus our attention on what we can receive out of the ministry, but rather on the salvation of souls. Like St. Paul, the world must be crucified to the messengers of the Gospel, and they to the world (cf. Gal. 6:14).
What about those who by their own free will choose to reject the message of the Gospel? There is no need to force them to accept the faith; they are fully responsible for their actions and they will be judged according to how they responded to God’s word (cf. Lk. 10:16). The word of God comes with a personal responsibility. It is tragic to turn a blind eye to the salvific invitation of God: “I tell you, on the great Day it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town.” (cf. NJB, Lk. 10:12).
The result of proclamation of the Gospel at every corner of the world is certainly the defeat of the powers of evil, sin and the fear of death that enslaves humanity. This outcome which they attributed to the Lord Jesus, clearly brought them joy and fulfillment (cf. Lk. 10:17). However, the Lord Jesus cautioned the messengers against the tendency to be proud and overconfident because of the successes associated with proclamation of the Gospel in His name. Their supreme source of joy should be that in the end, their names would be written in heaven. It is indubitably true that our greatest triumph in the vineyard of the Lord is not what we are able to do on earth, but rather, what God has in store for us (cf. Lk. 10:20).
In sum, today’s Gospel invites all the baptised to avoid the tendency to ascribe the call to evangelise to the ordained ministers of the Church. We are all involved in the transmission of the Christian faith in our era. May the Lord give you His peace!
