My Sisters and Brothers:
According to today’s Gospel, Jesus sent the “seventy-two” out to the “harvest . . . like lambs among wolves” (see Luke 10:1-3). And he promised to be with them, and to give them all of the strength and courage they needed to accomplish their mission of preparing a way for the Lord. He promises the same for us!
As we contemplate the Gospel, and our calling to give testimony to the presence of Jesus in our own time, we may wonder who the “wolves” might be today. We may also contemplate what these “wolves” may threaten to do to us, and how we should treat them in return. Perhaps today’s “wolves” are those members of our own families who do not share our faith; or they are our relatives with whom we always seem to have problems; or they are the young people on the streets who seem to show respect to no one; or they landlords who do not properly maintain buildings and apartments and who charge high rents; or they are the store owners who overcharge for everything; or other people out there who really want to harm us, the drug dealers, criminals and thieves, etc. The very challenging news today is that Jesus is sending us out to these very people in order bring them the message of the Gospel.
With this in mind, Jesus also commands us, as he did the seventy-two, “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” (see Luke 10:5-6). I love this image. Jesus says that an offer of peace should be given to those who are brought the Gospel. If such people to do not accept the peace, it will come back to the one who offered it. I believe this means we must offer peace to all of those we encounter who are in such desperate need of the Gospel’s message. This must be especially true of those types of modern day “wolves” whom I have mentioned above. Jesus promises us that if they do not accept our offering of peace, then we have done all that we can do, and the peace will continue to rest upon us.
The challenge in all of this is to keep that peace when the “wolves” insult us, persecute us, hurt and ridicule us. We must always be people of peace, and never seek revenge and/or retribution when the “wolves” reject us and/or attack us. But surely this will not always be easy, and at times may cause us great difficulties as we attempt to give witness to the peace of Jesus; we may even suffer for the sake of his Name.
This thought may even explain Saint Paul statement in today’s second reading that he bore “on his own body the marks of Jesus” (see Galatians 6:17). Some suggest these “marks” were the scars and bruises he endured because of the many times he had suffered due to his witness to Jesus Christ. Like him, we may have some of our own scars from difficult moments we have faced as Christians in this difficult world. But Jesus tells us that we must continue the struggle and our witness as his followers, and he makes it clear we must always do this as people of peace.
May each one of us embrace the call to prepare a way for the Lord, even among those “wolves” we meet in our daily lives! Let’s hope and pray that as we venture into the Lord’s harvest, we will always be people of peace, and more than a few of those “wolves” to whom we are sent will change their ways and become followers of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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