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Gospel Reading for October 3, 2024 – Luke 10: 1-12
PROVIDE SUPPORT
Jesus appointed seventy-two other 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 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.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you,go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”
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Why did Jesus send them in pairs? Maybe, if anything happens to one, there is a back-up? Maybe, so they can share ideas because 2 heads are better than one? Maybe, to boost morale and to strengthen each other? Probably, Jesus was already preparing his disciples so they may later understand the meaning of Church. A Church is there not only for rituals, religious services, or reception of Sacraments, but it is there to PROVIDE SUPPORT among its members: Spiritual Support when a member’s faith falters or when a member goes astray (remember how he mingled with “sinners”?); Moral Support when a member is in grief or is having emotional problems (remember how he brought back to life the only son of a widow he met along the way?); Material Support when a member is in dire need of the basic necessities of life (remember the multiplication of loaves and fish?); and so on and so forth. Otherwise, Jesus would have just preached that it is enough to believe in God. Period.
We (all of us Christians put together) are the BODY OF CHRIST as St. Paul beautifully describes in 1 Corinthians 12: 14-26.
Let us ponder on this song written by John Foley, ONE BREAD, ONE BODY –
One bread, one body, one Lord of all,
one cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.
Gentile or Jew, servant or free,
woman or man no more.
One bread, one body, one Lord of all,
one cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.
Many the gifts, many the works,
one in the Lord of all.
One bread, one body, one Lord of all,
one cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.
Grain for the fields, scattered and grown,
gathered to one for all.
One bread, one body, one Lord of all,
one cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.
