There exists in our
heart
an interior land where we are alone,
to which no one finds the way but God.
This innermost, unfrequented chamber of our heart is really there -
the only question is whether we ourselves avoid it foolishly...
because no one and no familiar things of this earth
can accompany us if we enter it.
- Karl Rahner, SJ
(Do you know the way to this "interior land?" Invite the Spirit to lead you there during prayer.) |
2 TM 4:10-17B; PS 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18
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.'"
Reflection on the Scriptures |
Luke is, par excellence, the evangelist of mission. All four Gospels, of course, portray the mission of the Church, each in their own way, but Luke is the only one who gives us narrative images of the early Church on mission, especially that of Saul/Paul, whose networking is reflected in the first reading 2 Timothy. Luke gives us a whole second volume, the Acts of Apostles, portraying the early unfolding of that post-Easter expansion of the Christian movement. What Luke
portrays in Acts he anticipates in his gospel. For example, he tells not just one but two stories of Jesus sending envoys on mission. In chapter 9, Jesus sends the Twelve out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick, doing what their master did. But then he surprises his readers by telling of a second group, seventy-two people simply called “others,” whom Luke says Jesus “sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.” If the number 12 was significant
(representing the 12-tribe restored people of Israel), is there a biblical meaning for 72? Yes. In Genesis 1-11, 72 is the number of all the nations descended from Noah, that is--everybody in the world! So Luke’s mention of 72 “others” represents those who carry out the post-Easter extension of Jesus’ mission to everyone. If we identify ourselves as followers of Jesus, there is a message for us in this passage. Let’s listen.
- by Dennis Hamm, S.J.
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 52
“We have now matter of mourning: for our
sin is cause of Christ’s pains; and we have, lastingly, matter of joy: for endless love made Him to suffer” And thus in the Servant was shewed the scathe and blindness of Adam’s falling; and in the Servant was shewed the wisdom and goodness of God’s Son. And in the Lord was shewed
the ruth and pity of Adam’s woe, and in the Lord was shewed the high nobility and the endless worship that Mankind is come to by the virtue of the Passion and death of His dearworthy Son. And therefore mightily He joyeth in his falling for the high raising and fulness of bliss that Mankind is come to, overpassing that we should have had if he had not fallen.—And thus to see this overpassing nobleness was mine understanding led into God in the same time that I saw the Servant
fall.
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