July 3, 2022
Luke 10: 1-12
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few…” This is probably a picture of what many people see as demanding work to be done today in our world in diverse ways by a variety of people. Many competing demands pass through our minds as we read this Gospel which calls for our attention. I am sure we could all list these demands and sometimes feel overwhelmed by so much that is happening simultaneously all over the world. But we are being sent and we gather from this message also, that we are being sent in peace, to leave peace wherever we are or wherever we go.
Jesus sends us with the condition of simplicity and openness to the people and situations in which we find ourselves. We cannot leave peace where we go, obviously, if we do not cultivate in us first. So obvious but perhaps more demanding now for us than ever before. So much danger enveloping us, financial woes, health challenges and national and worldwide violence and turmoil. We are asked to share the message of “Peace to this household…” We are humbled and challenged that Jesus sends us with this imperative especially at this time. Jesus says that the laborers are few. The conditions under which we are called and sent, demands never-ending trust and to believe that Grace is there before us. We are a part, perhaps of these few. We really do not know but we want be a part of those who go out to others trusting in the mutuality of the Grace shared among us. This quest for personal peace is enhanced by the quest for justice in the suffering of this world. They are inseparable.
May we continue to participate in this journey that Christ sends us on everyday, strengthened with the Grace of our call that is enriched by persons and situations that challenge us to an ongoing call for personal and world wide peace.
Luke 10:1-12
At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two 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.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
Meet Sister Rita Raboin, SNDdeN
