Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 10, 1-12
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting.
And he said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting.
Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road.
Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, "Peace to this house!"
And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you.
Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house.
Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you.
Cure those in it who are sick, and say, "The kingdom of God is very near to you."
But whenever you enter a town and they do not make you welcome, go out into its streets and say,
"We wipe off the very dust of your town that clings to our feet, and leave it with you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of God is very near."
I tell you, on the great Day it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This Gospel passage contains the second missionary sermon by Jesus reported in Luke’s Gospel. If the first such sermon was addressed to the twelve (9:1-6) and could be understood as intended to gather the whole of Israel, now Jesus is sending out seventy-two disciples, a number that symbolizes all the peoples of the earth (see Genesis 10). Luke places this sermon at the beginning of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. The need to preach to the entire world is not something extra added to the Gospel message; from the very beginning it has been an integral part of the mission Jesus entrusts to his disciples. He himself, in fact, notes that “the harvest is plentiful,” that is, immense, and the labourers are few. The breadth of the harvest is proportional to the magnitude of pain in this world, the full sweep of the loneliness that saddens people, and the incredible frequency of the conflicts that poison the nations. There is an enormous need for people to be freed from countless forms of slavery. And Jesus sees the disproportion between the incredible work of evangelization that needs to be done and the small number of disciples. Jesus is very aware of this discrepancy. But the problem is not just a matter of numbers; it is also a problem of quality. This is why Jesus not only urges his disciples to pray to the Father to send more workers to his harvest but he also prays that their work might be successful. Of course, to communicate the Gospel is not an easy or light job. The disciples must overcome their own laziness and sluggishness at the same time as they face the obstacles, dangers, and hatred placed in their way by the prince of evil. Jesus says to them: “See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” The disciples must be aware of the dangers they face. Being blind to the dangers the flock is facing is a sign of a lack of sensitivity - and a lack of intelligence - on the part of the shepherd. This is made all the more important by the task that is entrusted to them. Jesus urges them not to stay in familiar places or to maintain the same habits as before, including religious ones. The Church, the Christian community, and every single disciple is by nature a missionary, that is, someone sent by the Lord to communicate the Gospel throughout the world and to prepare the hearts of men and women to welcome Jesus as the savoir of their lives. The gift of peace that the disciples are called to bring to each home is nothing other than the encounter with Jesus. And Jesus sent the disciples two by two. Gregory the Great wrote that Jesus sent them two by two so that the first thing they preached would be their love for each other. Love, in fact, is the disciples’ strength, both in the past and today. The Lord’s love is strong, and it defeats the “wolves” of this world, as Francis of Assisi experienced in his encounter with the “wolf” of Gubbio. The strength of Jesus’ disciples does not come from their equipment: they are to bring nothing with them besides the Gospel and the love of the Lord. It is with this baggage, which is both strong and weak, that they travel along the roads of our world, giving witness to “the one who sent” them. They must announce the kingdom of God in every city - indeed in every house - and reveal its presence by healing the wounds of evil: “Cure the sick...and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
