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 passage is Jesus' second missionary discourse reported in the Gospel of Luke. If the first was directed to the Twelve, as if to gather the whole of Israel, now the motif is the mission of the seventy-two disciples whose number (see Gen 10) symbolises all the nations of the earth. Luke places this at the beginning of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. The universality of preaching is not a further addition to the Gospel message, it is an integral part of the mission that Jesus entrusts to his disciples from the beginning. He himself, in fact, notes that "the harvest is plentiful," that is, really large, and the labourers are few. Jesus tells them: "I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves." The disciples must be aware of the dangers they face. Blindness to the dangers to the flock is a sign of insensitivity as well as lack of intelligence on the part of the shepherd. And this is all the more important for the task entrusted to them. Jesus exhorts them not to stay in their usual places or manage their usual habits, even religious ones. The Church, the Christian community - and therefore each individual disciple - is by its very nature missionary, that is, sent by the Lord to communicate the Gospel everywhere in the world, to prepare the hearts of men and women to accept Jesus as the saviour of their lives. The encounter with Jesus is the gift of peace that the disciples are called to bring into every home. The Lord's love is strong and overcomes the "wolves" of this world, as Francis of Assisi experienced with the "wolf" of Gubbio. The strength of Jesus' disciples does not lie in their equipment: they do not have to carry anything with them except, precisely, the Gospel and the love of the Lord. With this baggage, which is both weak and strong, they can travel the ways of the world, bearing witness to "him who sent them."