The Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, July 3, 2022

Luke 10, 1–9

At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ ”

This is the shorter option for the Gospel reading today.  The longer option is Luke 10, 1-12; 17-20.

“At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.”  At first, the story of the Lord sending his disciples ahead of him seems straightforward, but a little thinking leaves us with some questions.  For instance.  In his account, St. Luke does not tell us what exactly these disciples were supposed to do.  The closest he comes to this is when he reports Jesus saying to them, “Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ ”  We can assume that the disciples are sent to teach, but from this account, we do not know that nor what they were supposed to teach.  Again, we can assume they were sent to preach the Lord’s basic message: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven in approaching.”  But then we have to wonder what purpose this serves if the Lord is coming to do this himself.  Since the Lord is giving the disciples the power to heal, their purpose is not to have each town gather together the sick and the injured for the Lord to heal them.

Whatever they are supposed to accomplish, the Lord gives them very limited physical means for their task: “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.”  They are to go into their appointed towns as refugees — or, as heralds who carry with them only the news they are to announce lest they be hindered.  Their simplicity of appearance would contrast with that of the Pharisees, who never seemed to be in a hurry.  Their behavior too would provide a contrast with theirs: “Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another.”  That is, if only a family of modest means welcomes you in, do not seek to move up into the house of someone wealthier.  In effect: “Shun ambition.  This is not about your well-being but about their souls.”  And that points us to the purpose of the Lord’s sending them.

At the Last Supper, St. Jude asked: “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (John 14, 22).  The Lord’s answer probably made little sense to him at the time: “If any one love me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him.”  But Jesus was saying that he would indeed manifest himself to the world — through those who believed in him.  They would show their love of the Lord to those who did not know him and draw them to love him too.  First comes love, then comes faith.  The Lord was sending his disciples in order for them to learn that their love and dedication to him would be the principal means of drawing others to him.  And the signs of their dedication to him in their traveling without the means to support themselves, would stoke the curiosity of the people about him and their desire to see him: “Who is this?” (Matthew 21, 10).

May the Lord use the simplicity of our life of faith and our firm dedication to him to draw others to him.