July 6, 2025, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time ‘C’
Is 66:10-14; Gal 6:14-18; Lk 10:1-20
Homily
In the Gospel, we have two versions of Jesus sending his disciples on mission: the first, common to the three synoptic Gospels, is addressed to the twelve Apostles; the other, longer version, which we have just read, and which is unique to Luke, is addressed to the seventy-two disciples.
Jesus wants all His missionaries – all His disciples – to be authentic pilgrims, that is, people who are totally committed to their mission, who go straight ahead, looking ahead, without being distracted by anything interesting they may encounter along the way: ‘Take no money, no bag, no sandals, and do not greet anyone on the road.’
The person who has attained this inner freedom, who has come to terms with his or her personal poverty, is a person filled with peace who can therefore transmit peace to others. ‘Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace be to this house.” If there is a friend of peace there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.’ Peace is shared between free people. Those who do not have this freedom, who are still slaves to their desires, are often a source of tension, if not conflict.
Paul was one of these pilgrims, one of these poor people. Unlike all the other Apostles, Paul does not seem to have ever been the head of a local church. He founded several, moving constantly from one to another, putting other people in charge of the communities he founded, and immediately moving on to another mission. He was rooted in his love for Christ and in Christ's love for him, as well as in his willingness to suffer for Christ, whom he loved to the point of being able to say: ‘May the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ remain my only pride.’
This message applies not only to preachers of the Gospel but to all disciples, including us monks. Let us remember that in last Sunday's Gospel, Jesus asked for radical detachment on the part of anyone who wanted to follow Him: ‘Let the dead bury their dead; as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.’ To be rooted – rooted in Christ – it is necessary to be free from other ties. This is the vocation not only of those who are called to preach the Good News, but also of ascetics who are called to live in solitude.
At the beginning of his Rule, St. Benedict speaks of the various categories of monks. He mentions the cenobites (those who practice communal life) for whom he writes his Rule, and the hermits, for whom he has great respect when they are authentic. He also speaks of ‘gyrovagues’, a word that refers to people who move constantly from one place to another, driven not by the Spirit of God but by their whims and instincts.
However, there is a radical difference between the gyrovagues Benedict refers to and pilgrims. While a gyrovague is rootless and therefore cannot grow, the authentic pilgrim is a person who is firmly rooted. Either pilgrims have a home from which they depart and to which they will return at the end of their pilgrimage, or, in the case of those who have adopted a life of perpetual pilgrimage (which was the first form of Christian monasticism in Syria), they have found sufficient inner roots to dispense with the support of geographical and cultural roots. While ‘stability’ in a place and in a community has become a characteristic dimension of Benedictine monasticism, the dimension of continuous spiritual journey also remains essential.
This message may seem a little austere. But in this commitment to the person of Christ and to the mission received from Him, there is also a deep joy – a joy that is proportional to the radicalism of self-giving. This is well expressed in the first reading, taken from the Book of Isaiah, where Jerusalem, a figure of Christ, is described in very tender terms as a loving mother who nourishes her children at her breast, carries them in her arms and caresses them on her lap.
The harvest is plentiful. As Jesus asked us, let us pray to the master of the harvest to send workers into his vineyard. Above all, let us cultivate within ourselves the poverty, detachment and freedom that are necessary for every person who has been called and sent on mission.
Armand VEILLEUX