Get on the Road

XIV Sunday c Luke 10, 1-9 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 them; 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.'"

Today’s Gospel is the sending of the 72 disciples. It isn’t about the 12 but another group of disciples. Many times we think that this gospel is directed to missionaries. Religious and priests especially those who are sent to foreign lands. That couldn’t be further from the truth. As I said, it isn’t directed to the 12 but to another large group of disciples whom he sends to collaborate with him in his plan of the Kingdom of God. It is directed to all of us, we are all sent as missionaries. "Get on the road" Although we forget it again and again, the Church is marked by the sending of Jesus. To be church isn’t about taking care of buildings nor just worrying about those who come through the doors on Sunday morning. The Catholic Church is not an institution founded to care for and develop its own religion. The church is a prophetic movement that goes out of itself, we come to Church to be nourished by word and sacrament but we are always sent. "The Church is not there for herself, but for humanity" (Benedict XVI). We can’t be a rigid, stagnant Church, closed in on itself, without prophets or proclaimers of the Gospel. We must always go out and as Pope Francis said again and again, we must be a Church that goes to the margins. Which means that we need to go to those people who have been excluded from the Church. Those who are left out or worse those who have been told that there is no place for them in the church. Throughout our 2000 years this has always been the poor, the widows and the orphans. But in the 21st century it is the divorced, the LGBTQ+ community. It is the people to whom the Church has lost meaning. As church we must discover the way to “go out” to them. We can’t stand inside the Church and wonder why people just pass by the door, no, we must go out of the doors, of course we must invite pepole in but we must also be church outside of the walls. "When you enter a village... heal the sick and say: the kingdom of God is at hand for you." As we go out, what is it that we proclaim? “The Kingdom of God is at hand! This is the great news! What does it mean to say that the kingdom of God is at hand? It means the Kingdom is here, in our midst. We don’t have to wait any more God is close to us, encouraging us to make life more human more real. But it is not enough to just say this! We must review our actions and ask, what can we do to help people feel that God is present alive and new? What can lead people today to the Gospel, how can they perceive God as something new and good? Heal the sick! This is how we proclaim that God is at hand. Now I wish that I had the power to heal the sick, but what I think that this means to me is to be close to the sick, the needy, the poor, again those on the margins. Maybe I can’t heal the sick, but I can visit them. I can’t raise the dead but I can comfort those who’ve lost a loved one. I can feed all of the hungry, but I can share a piece of bread with someone who asks. All of these activities proclaim that God’s kingdom is at hand, that it is present. To proclaim that God’s kingdom is at hand is not about preach sermons from the altar. We must learn to listen more, to welcome, to be more present, to heal the lives of those who suffer... only in this way will we find humble and good words that bring us closer to that Jesus whose unfathomable tenderness puts us in contact with God, the Good Father of all. "When you enter a house, say first, 'Peace to this house.'" I like the line, eat and drink what is offered to you, because the food in Mexico is so good! I’ll take tacos, enchiladas, tamales, carnitas, barbacoa any day. But really what I think Jesus is saying is we proclaim the gospel with total respect, with a friendly and brotherly attitude. This is spreading peace. It is a mistake to try to impose it from superiority, threat or resentment. It is anti-evangelical to treat people without love just because they do not accept our message or because they are different from us. If we impose the word of God on people they will reject the message. People have to feel that they are understood. Peace means we don’t begin by preaching judgement but by preaching the Good News as Good News.