18th of October

Gospel text

(Lk 10:1-9): 

The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples 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 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 Application

On this feast day of St. Luke, we are all called to be witnesses to the Gospel and to live it with joy.

The harvest belongs to the Lord and we are his workers.  The mission has two aspects, one is doing the mission, and that is, announcing the good news, by our life of witness, by deeds and by words, and the most important is praying, contemplation. It is this contemplation that gives us energy.

The mission that is entrusted to us, is to be missionaries of Peace, not the peace that the world would like to have, but the Peace that God gives. It is not the peace as it appears to be, rather the peace in its fullness, the joy of being in the divine fullness. The peace that we establish with God and in our own interiority, that is expressed the way we relate  with our brothers and sisters, by which the world will discover that the reign of God is very close to us, here and now.

«The Kingdom of God is at hand for you»

Fr. Lluc TORCAL Monk of Santa Maria de Poblet

(Santa Maria de Poblet, Tarragona, Spain)

Today, in St. Luke's feast —the Evangelist of Christ's gentleness and meekness— the Church proclaims this Gospel where the main traits Christ's apostles must have, are established.

In the first place, the apostles have been directly called by the Lord, and mandated by him, to go out on his behalf: it is Jesus himself who calls whom He wants to entrust with a concrete mission! “The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit” (Lk 10:1).

And, because the apostle has been delegated by the Lord, he is, on top of everything, entirely dependent upon him. “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way” (Lk 10:4). Jesus' prohibition to his disciples mostly implies they must completely rely on their Lord Jesus, abandoning themselves to him, up to the point of leaving in his hands whatever is most essential for their lives: the Lord, who takes care of the iris flowers in the prairie and feeds the little birds, wants his disciples to look, in the first place, for the Kingdom of Heaven and, instead, “do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore. All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them” (Lk 12:29-30).

The apostles are still who prepare the path for their Lord, by announcing his peace and healing the sick, thus, evidencing the coming of his Kingdom. The apostle's task is, therefore, of paramount importance in and for the life of the Church, because the future welcome of the Master amongst men will depend upon it.

The best testimony of the feast of an Evangelist —who has narrated the announcement of the Good News—, is to make us think of the apostolic and evangelizing dimension of our Christian life.