It is always an experience for committed Christians to live among people for whom God basically does not exist, people who cannot give direction and meaning to their lives beyond having a job, earning money and indulging in some level of entertainment. For such Christians, Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel passage, “The harvest is great and the laborers are few,” have much meaning. Certainly those words must have rang so true to the early Christians who lived in relatively small communities in a sea of paganism and religions steeped in superstition and fatalism. At that time, the Church was really like the tiny mustard seed or the small amount of yeast put into a large amount of dough. Today there are over two billion Christians in the world, just over twenty-five percent of the world’s total population. Those early workers clearly did not labor in vain. The mustard seed has become a great tree that provides shelter for thousands of people. The invisible leaven has exerted its influence on the seemingly inert dough.
In the first reading Isaiah announces the good news to the returned Jews of the Babylonian exile that the ruined and desolate Jerusalem will care for them “as a mother comforts her little son.” Isaiah assures them that they will live in the assurance of Yahweh’s promises of love, protection, prosperity and salvation.
In today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 66), the psalmist exhorts the whole earth to “sing praises to the glory of God,” for the wonders he has done.
In today’s second reading, Paul removes the confusion between circumcision and uncircumcision and clearly conveys the good news that it is Jesus’ death on the cross that brings one’s salvation and not Jewish inheritance or the practice of Torah laws. Paul reminds us that the mission of every church member is to witness to the saving power of the cross of Christ through a life of loving, sacrificial and generous service.
In today’s gospel, Luke describes the fulfillment of the prophetic promise made by Isaiah in Jesus’ commissioning of 72 disciples to preach the gospel, the good news of God’s love and salvation, in the towns and villages in preparation for his visit. Jesus sends them out two by two and instructs them how to be witnesses of God’s providence.
This passage is placed within the journey to Jerusalem, but it is closely related to Jesus’ sending of the Twelve in Lk 9:1-6. The sending of the Twelve prefigured the sending of the apostles to the people of Israel.
The sending of the 72 prefigured the universal mission of the whole Church.
This universal perspective can be grasped thanks to the presence in the passage of some characteristic elements:
– the image of the abundant harvest (v. 2): in the Old Testament it is an image of God’s final judgment on all peoples;
– the memory of the cities of Sodom (v. 12), a city symbolic of the pagans;
– the symbolic number of 72 may refer to the list of peoples (Gen 10), or to the descendants of Noah’s sons, or to the pagan world; finally, it may come from Nm 11:24-30: Yahweh gave the prophetic spirit to the 70 elders chosen by Moses, but also to two men who were left in the camp, thus 72 men in total.

“Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers to the harvest.”
The mission of the seventy-two disciples was not a human project and, therefore, they needed God’s strength to accomplish the work. In proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, we also participate in God’s work.
It is the Lord who works in us and through us. He gives us the power to proclaim His presence with our lives. Therefore, constant contact with the Master of the harvest is necessary. This means that we must be men and women of prayer, not just for one hour a week by attending Mass, but every day.
Acceptance and rejection
One of the reasons we prefer to delegate the evangelistic work of our Lord to priests, religious and missionaries is that we fear rejection. When we speak to others about Jesus with our words and lifestyle, we sometimes find ourselves labeled as “religious fanatics,” bigots or perhaps simply as “old-fashioned.” Many times, we take rejection personally. Jesus prepared the apostles and us for this kind of rejection, saying, “Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house.” If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest upon him,’ but if not, he will return to you.” This means, “Don’t take it personally. You have done your part, so don’t worry about the outcome.” He goes on to tell them, “Rejoice because your names are written in Heaven” in the Book of Life! “It is not up to us to force anyone to accept Jesus. Our mission is to prepare the way. If a person’s heart is open, the Lord will come in.
The Kingdom of God comes into being wherever God reigns and wherever his will is done. The Kingdom of God is present in the people through whom God acts. “Therefore the early Church equated Christ with the Kingdom of God because God reigns in Christ, God’s will is done in Christ and God acts through Christ” (Lumen Gentium, no. 5).
Entering a home the disciples are to wish for peace, that is, the fullness of messianic goods; entering a city they are to proclaim the kingdom of God by works (healing the sick) and words. God’s salvation is offered to all people; however, it is necessary to realize the seriousness that any rejection entails.
Saint Augustine
What is a purse? It is money enclosed, that is, hidden wisdom. What does it mean: Do not carry a purse? Do not be wise in your own eyes. Receive the Spirit: it must be in you a spring, not a purse; a wealth from which you can take it to make a gift, not to keep it enclosed. (…) He who greets by the way, greets occasionally, for he does not go toward the one whom he greets. He was accomplishing one affair and runs into another. He was headed to accomplish a matter and incidentally found something else to do. What does it mean, then, to “greet occasionally”? To announce salvation occasionally. But what else does it mean to “announce salvation” if not to “preach the gospel”? If you therefore preach, do it out of love, and not occasionally. For there are individuals who proclaim the gospel seeking a different purpose; of these such the Apostle groaning says: For all seek their own interest, not that of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2.21). These such also hail, that is, they proclaim salvation, they preach the gospel, but they seek other advantages, and therefore they hail occasionally (Augustine, Discourses 101.6, 9).

Fr Joby Kavungal RCJ

BASILICA Santuario San Antonio, Messina