Monday, October 18, 2010

Monday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist

Luke 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.’”
First of all, I want to say that my reflections are personal reflections:  I do not speak for the Catholic Church, only myself.  My hope is that this reflection will be of some help to anyone who chooses to read it.
There are again two things that stand out to me:  1) the numbers that are used in this passage;  2) God’s providence.
The numbers 72 that is used in the text is a rich number, meaning that the pairs of numbers that can be multiplied to equal 72 (besides 1 and 72) when added up, have a sum that is greater than 72.  When the 72 disciples are sent in pairs, there are 36 pairs, and 36 is also a rich number (See for yourself!).
I am not saying that this is the reason that Luke used the number 72, but I do believe that these mathematical facts about 72 and 36 were known at the time of Jesus.  So, perhaps these known facts about these numbers were used to indicate something more spiritual.  For me, this “richness” of the numbers 72 and 36 relates directly to the second idea, God’s providence.
The 72 disciples take nothing extra with them when they go out amongst the “wolves.”  Why  not?  They had no need to:  God would provide for all that they need.  The fact that Jesus tells them to “eat whatever is put before you,” means that there would be something put before them to eat.  The disciples’ needs would be taken care of.  How?  Through God’s providential care.
In today’s world of material excess, it is hard to imagine that we would just let go of all our material goods, and simply trust in God to take care of us.  Perhaps that is not what Jesus is asking of us in this Gospel; he may be asking us to live in the awareness that all we have is a gift from God.   Maybe that is what is lacking in our world today:  an awareness that all that we have, especially our existence, is due to God’s providential love and care.
If we lived out of that awareness, I believe that, like the 72 disciples, we would not be afraid to go out into the world to reap a rich, abundant harvest for the Lord.  God Bless.

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