Jan. 26, 2023 – 2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5; Luke 10:1-9 Saints Timothy and Titus
All three readings today, suggest the dynamic and apostolic character of Christian witness and how it should be exercised in the community setting. Today’s liturgy also offers a choice between two First Readings: the first taken from the Second Letter to Timothy and the second from the Letter to Titus.
In the first, Paul expresses his deep affection for Timothy, his companion in so many missions, and a strong desire to see him. He thanks God for Timothy’s faith, which he owes to his mother Eunice and grandmother Loide.
In the second, Paul reminds his fellow missionary that the duty of an apostle is to bring those whom God has chosen to faith and to the knowledge of the truth that leads to true religion.
The Gospel passage speaks of the instructions Jesus gives to 72 disciples before sending them on mission to the various cities. The mission, however, needs many men because the field of the world is vast, while the possible envoys are few. Jesus glimpses the abundant harvest, the fields that are blonding, but notes the scarcity of the laborers who will have to reap. It was so in Jesus’ time, it has been so throughout the history of the church, it is so even today! Let no one think that there have been times with an abundance of envoys: if anything, there have been times conducive to the enlistment of “hirelings,” that is, reapers unfit for the job or not sent by the Lord… Sometimes there are many “reapers,” but it is not certain that the harvest is then abundant, nor that the envoys are able to reap.
That is why it is necessary to pray to God for Him to call and send out laborers, because the harvest or the vineyard is His and not everyone who works in it has been called by Him. It is necessary to pray, yes pray, that it is the Lord with His Spirit who calls, not we who invent missionaries or impose on someone a mission that will make him not a saint but one more wretch! A missionary’s call comes through the prayer of the church; mission must always spring from prayer (cf. Lk. 6:12-13), just as the work of the harvest must be done in prayer.
Jesus sends the disciples two by two, so that they may first of all live in communion and be one support for the other, one rule for the other in temptations; two by two so that mission is not an individualistic action. He sends them as sheep among wolves, that is, helpless, weak, fragile, aware that they are in the midst of those who oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ; sheep among wolves also to testify that thus the envoys prepare that eschatological day when “the wolf shall dwell together with the lamb” (Is 11:6).
For the good Workers.
– Jesus gives the mandate not only for physical healings, but for all kinds of healing. By doing so, one spreads the Kingdom of God in the places one visits. For love, peace and the ability to live together in mutual care and support are the signs of God’s Kingdom in our lives. Send, O Lord, holy apostles to Your Church… send me, too, to build Your Kingdom!
P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ