Isaiah 66:10-14 /Ps. 65(66):1-7, 16, 20 /Galatians 6:14-18/ Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
There are four homily notes here, kindly scroll down 👇 study, pray and meditate.
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Rev. Fr. Evaristus Okeke
“Peace be to this house” (Lk.10:5)
The Lord Restores His People
The book of Isaiah is divided into three parts. The first part (Isa.chapt.1-39) contains the historical background of the people of Israel; how they disobeyed God and marginalized the poor. The second part (Isa.chapt.40-55) is about the exile. For their disobedience, they were taken into exile in 587BC. They experienced a crisis of faith and wondered why God is not rescuing them from the power of their wicked enemies. At this point, God spoke words of consolation and hope to his people; the time of liberation is at hand. In 539BC Cyrus conquered Babylon and granted the Jews permission to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple.
The third part of Isaiah (Isa.chapt.56-66) speaks of restoration after exile. The Jews experienced difficulties and problems in reestablishing the Jewish presence in Jerusalem and Judah. This did not happen automatically such that the prophet continues to speak of God’s future manifestation. The first reading of today is from third Isaiah and it speaks of the blessings God has in-store for his people. The prophecy invites those who have witnessed and mourned the exilic period of the Jews to jubilate with her on account of the abundance that shall flow in the land.
It will be mistaken to understand this abundance only in material terms. The gospel gives us a more comprehensive understanding. Earlier in Luke 9:1-6, Jesus sent out the Twelve on a mission to the people of Israel. Now, he sends out seventy others, a number which represents all the nations of the world. When the seventy returned, they testified of the abundance they recorded. Not only were hearts turned to the Lord, even demons were subject to the name of Jesus. The sending of the seventy others means that the restoration of the Lord is not excluded to a certain people but to all. When Jesus was sending out the seventy, he charged them to remain and bless and house that will receive them. Therefore, the only qualification for experiencing divine restoration is acceptance of Jesus Christ.
To accept Jesus means to live for him alone because he is Lord and God. Thus the seventy were not carry any purse, bag, or sandals. These represents various attachments that cling so tightly to us and prevents us from giving ourselves wholeheartedly to Jesus. A conversion that is not holistic is no conversion at all. When we submit our lives completely to God, he turns us into a new creation. See, signs and wonders will always accompany those who live and act in the name of the Lord. Ps.121:2 says that our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The first reading of today gives God the image of a Mother – a caring mother who never abandons the children to the consequences of their action; who is never so angry as to closing the ears to the lamentations of the children; who does not relent in graciousness when she restores her children. God does not leave out any opportunity in bringing his people back to himself. The seventy others signify all possibilities for evangelization. Today, we cannot deny the many ways God reaches out to us. We hear him at Church, in the bible, social media, our consciences and so on. Do we believe that he is working out our restoration? Are we so carried away with material acquisition so that we want to play the role of God in restoring ourselves?
God does not only want to restore us, he also wants to use us to restore the world. It is a privilege to be used by God. When God uses us, it is him who is at work not ourselves and so we must return the glory to him. It is for this reason that Jesus asked the seventy others to rejoice not because demons subjected to them but because their names are written in heaven. Beloved, to belong to heaven is our greatest restoration. To belong to heaven is to bear the marks of Jesus as noted by St. Paul in the second reading. At such point, human approval and accolades mean nothing the new name which God gives to us. As you struggle to make your daily bread, ensure that nothing distracts you from the ultimate restoration – heaven. *God Bless You!*
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Fr. Daniel Evbotokhai
THE WIDER MISSION OF THE CHURCH
In Matt.10:5 and Mark 6:7 Jesus sent out the twelve; but in Luke 10:1 he sent out 70 others. Obviously 70 is greater than 12. Therefore, today’s gospel presents us with a wider mission than the mission of the twelve. While the twelve were sent out to the people of Israel; the seventy others were sent to the nations of the earth. The twelve were CALLED but the 70 were APPOINTED. Beloved, you may not have been ordained a priest; but we have all been appointed by God. John 15:16 says; “…I have appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” Every Christian must bear fruit. We were not baptized to reduce, we were baptized to produce. Thus, Jesus says in Matt.28:19 “…Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,..”
The 70 appointed others represent all the nations of the world. For us it is refers to our different vocations. As spouses, parents, teachers, friends, spiritual guides, political or civic leaders, we should go and bear fruits. At creation, God placed man in a garden, where you are presently is your garden, be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it (Gen.1:28). How can we do this? The instructions given to the 70 in the gospel are still of relevance today.
Be an advocate of Peace: In the first reading, Isaiah.66:12 the bible says “Behold I will extend prosperity to her like a river” the word prosperity as used here means peace, in fact some versions used the word peace. Of what use is prosperity if we have no peace. Nothing is complete without peace. And so, the gospel acclamation prays for peace – “May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts!” (Col.3:15). If there is no peace in your heart, soonest you may lack peace in your family. When there is no peace, things are torn into pieces.
In the second reading, Paul goes further to invoke peace; he says in Gal6:16 May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God. Similarly, Jesus says if we enter into any house our first message should be; “Peace be with this house.” In John 14:27 Jesus says; Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Peace is the best legacy we can offer to our generation.
We need peace and security as a community and as an individual. We need peace in our Church, it’s not enough to say “peace be with you” during mass, we must also work for peace. Let us resolve to sow the seed of peace in our land. If we mean peace, we can realize it. If our traditional and political leaders mean security then these killings will cease. 1 Peter 3:11 says; we must seek peace and pursue it.
Again we must avoid distractions. Jesus stressed the two important aspects of mission. He said to them “Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop to greet anyone along the way” (Luke10:4). This is not to disregard social norms but it impresses on them a sense of urgency and radical dedication to duty. If we must succeed in mission today, we avoid these distractions.
Secondly, He said to them “I am sending you like lambs among wolves” Like the 70 others, Jesus prepares us for the hostilities and persecutions ahead of us. Beloved, do not be discouraged because of the various attacks today. Rather, rejoice that your names are being written in heaven. In the second reading, Paul happily identified with the cross of Christ. He was fulfilled bearing the marks of Jesus. Therefore, let us rise and embrace true Christian maturity – living out our lives in faith, freedom and responsibility. Christians who live under fear of persecutions and hostilities are still children in bondage. Beloved, wake up!
Lastly, we must avoid pride. The gospel says that ‘they came back rejoicing that demons were subject to them in his name.’ But Jesus replied and said to them “do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). This means that the results or manifestations we experience are not for self-aggrandizement but divine glorification and salvation. Some ministers delight in advertising themselves for fame and name. They want their names to be written as miracle workers and demons destroyers. Jesus says rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Beloved, we need to prioritize eternal fame and name over the ephemerals.
Today signs and wonders have become advert clips in the media, deliverance sections are displayed on televisions at the detriment of the victim’s societal character. Jesus condemned these actions. The joy is not in the numbers of demon destroyed, the joy is in the salvation of souls. Mission without salvation is perdition. It is not enough to prophecy, perform miracles and destroy demons; are your names written in heaven? The wider mission of the Church is salvation.
(My name, your name, our names are there x3 In the Sacred Heart of Jesus our names are there.)
LET US PRAY
O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Fr. Paul Oredipe
OUR IDENTITY AS MISSIONARIES – HERALDS OF THE GOSPEL
The readings for today continues the theme of Christian vocation and mission mentioned last Sunday. Today we are told about the goal and conditions of the Christian mission.
Jesus sends seventy disciples to announce the coming of God’s Kingdom. They returned laughing and shouting and full of joy. They saw God’s power working through them. Jesus himself is beside himself with joy. “I have watched Satan fall from the sky like lightning,” he says, the new order, the new world, was beginning. From the Gospel, we learn that the goal of the mission of the disciples is not just success, but the fact that “your names are written in heaven”. This indicates the primacy of salvation.
In the first reading, the post‑exile Isaiah foresees the goal of all his dreams: the city of Jerusalem gathering all of her children, like a mother. The only goal of Christian existence is that of getting the life of Christ in all of its historical reality, especially in the mystery of the Cross. This is what Saint Paul teaches us with his words and his life narrated in the second reading.
Christian means missionary. From Baptism onwards every Christian is called by Christ to perform a mission. The image of the Christian who goes to Church, believes in the dogmas of the faith and abides by the commandments is incomplete and not enough. Being a Christian means having a mission and accomplishing it with great zeal and ardor in the tasks of daily life and in the very wide range of ministries that exist today. Furthermore, a sense of mission is the strongest stimulus to believe and live faith, to fulfill the commandments of God and of the Church.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read: “The whole Church is apostolic, in that she is ‘sent out’ into the whole world. All members of the Church share in this mission, though in various ways. ‘The Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well’ ” (CCC 863). If we love the Church like true children, we should have no doubt that the best way to express our love to her is through our missionary spirit. And “missionary” means being conscious that we have been sent, though this being sent may mean that we have been sent to our next‑door neighbor, our client at work, the immigrant that we meet at the bus stop or at the traffic light, the young couple preparing for marriage.
Today being a missionary does not only mean going to a remote country to preach the Faith and Christ’s way of life. It is also a task that we can carry out in our neighborhood, in our city, and even between the walls of our own home. As it is said: ‘Some give to the mission by going; others go to the mission by giving.’ Whatever is our life situation, we can always share in the missions that Christ gave to us.
The mission overcomes fear. Paraphrasing Pope Saint John Paul II, we could say, “Do not be afraid to be missionaries.” Sometimes we are afraid, we have undue regard for what others will think and what they will say. It is human to be afraid, but the mission must overcome our fears. The soccer player is not afraid to talk about soccer, nor are doctors or teachers afraid to speak of their professions. Should we Christians be afraid to talk about Christ: his person, his life, his truth, his love, his mystery? Faith and mission begin in the heart, but they must finish as words and deeds. We must all overcome any trace of fear. Our mission must be our crown and glory.
The Mission Manual: From among these disciples, our Lord chooses seventy‑two for a special assignment. Of them, as of the Apostles (cf. Luke 9:1‑5), He demands total detachment and complete abandonment to divine providence.
Divine Providence – God who gave the mission will grant the provision.
Urgency – the task is immediate and pressing:
“Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road.’ Such should be the confidence the preacher places in God that even if he is not provided with the necessities of life, he is convinced that they will come his way. This will ensure that worry about providing temporal things for himself does not distract him from providing others with eternal things” (St Gregory the Great, “In Evangelia Homiliae”, 17). Apostolate calls for generous self‑surrender which leads to detachment; Apostolate, therefore, demands detachment from material things and it also requires us to be always available, for there is an urgency about apostolic work.
“And salute no one on the road”:
This is no question of omitting good manners to greet others; it is a matter of removing a possible obstacle in the way of service; when God commands, human considerations should be set aside, at least for the time being. To greet a person is a good thing, but it is better to carry out a divine instruction which could easily be frustrated by a delay.
The End Goal of the mission: ‘Written in the Book of Life’
The disciples of Jesus are happy with the mission that they have carried out. They went up to Jesus to tell him about their accomplishments. Jesus listened to them, but at the same time He made them realize something important: missionary deeds have no value in and of themselves; what really does have value and should make us rejoice deeply is our eternal destiny with the God of life.
Our Lord corrects His disciples, making them see that the right reason for rejoicing lies in hope of reaching Heaven, not in the power to do miracles which He gave them for their mission. As He said on another occasion, “On that day many will say to me, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast our demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers'” (Matthew 7:22‑23). In other words, in the eyes of God, doing His holy will at all times is more important than seeking miracles.
This joyful quest for the true goal of existence explains and gives meaning to the happiness, legitimate and reasonable in itself, stemming from apostolic deeds and the hardships inherent in the Christian mission. Indeed, Jesus’ disciples did not preach realities that are easy to grasp, that are immediately attractive. They preached that the Kingdom of God has come, they preached Messianic peace, they preached in the midst of a world that is often hostile to the values of the Kingdom. They preached placing their trust not so much in human means, as in the mysterious power of God. Undoubtedly, success is not an essential element in the baggage of a missionary.
The Church – Mother of consolation and peace:
When we examine the situation today, the need of the mission is still great. As the Gospel proclaims “The harvest is rich but the workers are few; therefore ask the harvest-master to send workers to his harvest.” It is in the same spirit that the prophet in the first reading of today urges his fellow citizens who have returned from exile in Babylon.
When post‑exile Isaiah wrote this very beautiful text, the Jewish Diaspora has extended throughout the Persian empire and the Mediterranean. Under the action of the divine Spirit, the prophet dreams of a people united in the mystical city of Jerusalem. With a watchful eye, he looks to the future and poetically foretells the joyful moment of the reunification. He does so by resorting to the image of a mother gathering around herself all of her children, holding the youngest one tenderly in her arms and nurses him. In being once again reunited with their mother, they are all filled with consolation and a great peace.
This Jerusalem, the mother of consolation and peace, symbolizes the God of consolation; it symbolizes Christ, who is our peace, it symbolizes the Church within which we are all brothers and sisters and from whose love springs the peace of Christ that lasts forever. The Church, that of today as that of all time, is in its essence, though not always in its people, the mother of consolation and peace for all peoples.
In the second reading, St. Paul refers to what he had to suffer as a missionary. I bear on my body the mark of Jesus: Saint Paul tells us that for a Christian, being circumcised or not is not important; what matters is being a new creature. Everything must serve this goal. Saint Paul is aware of having reached the goal, for he bears the mark of Jesus in his body.
In other words, he bears the sign of his belonging to Jesus in all of his being, as the slave bore a mark indicating that he belonged to his master, or as in certain religions the initiated bear a sign of their belonging to their god. All Christians must be like Paul. This is why he tells them: “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” This is the purpose of the mission of Jesus Christ: for people to attain the redemption carried out by Jesus Christ, showing others that they belong to God. After twenty centuries of Christianity, how many people bear in their being the mark of Jesus Christ?
“It is not enough to discover Christ ‑ you must bring Him to others!
The world today is one great mission land, even in countries of long‑standing Christian tradition.” (Pope John Paul II)
Jesus appears to have chosen seventy, over and above the twelve, as a sign that something new was taking place. A new group of people were being formed who would share in this power. “Look what I have done,” Jesus says from throne in Revelations 21:5, “I have made all things new.”
Everyone here, everyone who calls himself or herself a Christian, are part of the seventy. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we have the ability and the responsibility to proclaim the power and the presence of Christ.
And this is where we come in. Christ sends us all out into our worlds. He gives us the power to conquer the forces of evil, to stomp on snakes. He gives us the power to announce his presence with our lives. We are not just members of an organization. We are not just followers of Jesus. We are the heralds of his Kingdom bringing his presence to others. We are heralds of the Kingdom in our own homes when we continue to work hard on treating each other with profound respect.
May we all be faithful heralds of the Gospel in our whole life.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Rev. Fr. Stephen Udechukwu
DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING FOR YOUR JOURNEY
Right from time, God has used different people and prophets in carrying out the work of spreading his kingdom on earth. But one good thing is that when he sends anyone on this kind of work or journey, He does not only define what he wants such a missionary to do He also makes sure he provides the needs for such a task or mission. In Exodus 3:10-12 God called Moses and made provision for his mission so also in Isaiah 6:1-13 God sent Isaiah on a mission and made provision for him. In Jere.1:4-10 God called Jeremiah and when he saw that Jeremiah was afraid He made provision by promising to be with him and when God sent Elijah to Zarepheth in 1King 17 He defined what he was to go there to do and provided for him.
Jesus for quite sometimes had been training his Apostles. He taught them the necessary things they need to know through parables and other means. But beside the twelve, Jesus had many other followers who went about with him among whom he sent out seventy-two today to preach the gospel. Seventy or seventy two is very symbolic. Psalm 90:10 says that our span is seventy or eighty for those who are strong. Genesis 46:27 says that “all the people of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy”. Exodus 1:5 has it that Jacob fathered seventy children. The Lord told Jeremiah in Jere 25:11-12 that the people of Israel will be punished and serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. Isaiah in 23:15 sees seventy as the span of a king’s life. But the source of Jesus’ choosing of seventy-two disciples comes from the book of Numbers 11:16-30.
When Moses led the people of Israel over the desert of Sinai, he was faced with the constant complaining of the people. Moses became tired and frustrated that he said to the Lord in Exodus 11:11 “why have you treated your servants so badly, is it because I do not find favour in your eyes that you have burdened me with this people?”. So in order to reduce the burden of Moses, God told him to assemble seventy elders before the tent of meeting where God normally meet with Moses. There God promised to take some of the Spirits in Moses and bestow them on the elders so they could share the burdens of leadership. Meanwhile, two promised elders, El-dad and Me-dad were not among those present but God also bestowed his Spirit upon them and they too began to prophesy. Therefore, the number commissioned by God to help Moses was seventy-two. From this therefore, it can mean that just as Moses required help to accomplish his task, so too Jesus needs the help of others in other that the gospel may reach the ends of the earth.
Thus Jesus like Moses chose seventy-two disciples to help him in his ministry of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. But this mission of the seventy-two is not without a warning. In order to accomplish this mission comes a warning and instruction in Luke 10:4-11 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics…
But come to think of it. Why would someone send me on a journey and tell me not to go with anything. Why would Jesus send his apostles on this kind of tough task and journey and still charge them to go with nothing bearing in mind that to walk on the Palestine road then, one needs staff for support else one goes home with broken bones. And not only that, the road was also filled with evil men as we have the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25ff. Worse still this same Jesus told them in Mathew chapter 10, that they will be hated and persecuted and still he is telling them to go with nothing. What if they are not accepted?
Jesus made this warning to stress the shortness of time, the urgency of preaching the word of God to the ends of the world. And so gathering extra material becomes distraction and waste of time. Jesus did not want those he has sent to be distracted and so he warned them not to waste their time gathering. By this warning he simply mean that they should depend totally on his providence. He is the owner of the mission and so he will provide for the mission.
Many of us have lost sight of our mission on earth because we are still gathering. We are still engrossed in the material things of this world and so we are tied down from fulfilling our mission on earth. In Genesis 25:19-34 Esau lost his mission, he lost God’s plan for him, he could not complete his journey because he was busy looking for extra food for the journey. Saul in 1Samuel 15 terminated his mission; he was rejected by God and so could not complete his task because he was after extra things. He was gathering, believing though he was gathering for God.
Amos as a prophet of social justice was able to fulfill his mission because he traveled light, he was detached and poor and because of this there was no way he could be silenced and so he was able to accomplish the mission entrusted to him. Many of us have been silenced from preaching the truth, we have been silenced from saying the truth, from preaching the gospel all because we do not travel light as instructed by Jesus in Our gospel reading today. And so we have lost our Christian mission. We must therefore bear in mind that for us to fulfill our Christian mission of preaching the gospel we must be simple, detached and trust totally in the providence of God.
As we continue in our Christian journey, may God give us the grace to always trust in him, be simple and detached from material things of this world. Amen. HAPPY SUNDAY AND GOD BLESS YOU.
