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In today’s Gospel, Jesus is sending out 72 disciples in pairs to go to every town he intended to visit. This Gospel passage provides several points for us to reflect upon. First, it challenges us to reflect upon the baggage we carry with us throughout life – material possessions as well as emotional guilt and grudges that weigh us down and prevent us from sharing the peace of Christ with others or even experiencing it ourselves. The point is not that possessions are bad in and of themselves. We simply need to be careful not to let our possessions possess us. How can we let go of those things or feelings that hold us back from loving God as completely as we should?
Second, today’s Gospel invites us to look at how we are doing at trusting God and others. We profess with our lips that God will provide, and yet in our society today, we face the enormous power of a consumer culture that tries to convince us that more is better and that even with as much as we already have, we still need more. At the same time, we live in a society that promotes fierce independence, where you rely on no one but yourself to get ahead in the world. In contrast, Jesus instructed his disciples to go on the journey empty-handed and have a profound trust that as they went about the Lord’s work, God would always provide for their needs through the kindness and generosity of others.
Finally, today’s Gospel is not just about what happened a long time ago in a land far away. It is clear that Jesus continues to instruct us as surely as he instructed the followers of his time. How am I doing at responding to God’s call to spread the Good News to others? In what ways do I help build God’s kingdom here on earth? Are the laborers really so few, or have I simply resisted committing my time, talent, and treasure to serving God and others?
