The mission of the seventy [-two]

THE Lord appointed seventytwo 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.’”

REFLECTION THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND FOR YOU. The feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist, reminds us of our own calling to be “apostles” and “evangelists” of our time.

In the prologue to his gospel account, Luke (1:1-4) expresses his intention to give an orderly account of the Lord’s life so that our faith may rest on solid ground and certitude. Do we have the same zeal and passion to pass on the Good News that the Lord preached? If not, what are we concerned with as modern apostles or disciples of Christ?

Luke particularly shows us how Jesus is so concerned with the marginalized groups of his time that he gave them special attention. Does our own time give preferential attention to those who are in the margins of peripheries, as Pope Francis says?

May we follow St. Luke in proclaiming Jesus as the champion of the oppressed and marginalized.