Sunday
Gospel
Reflections
July 6, 2025, Cycle C
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
Trusting the Mission
by Fr. Joseph M. Rampino
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This week’s Gospel most
often turns our
minds to consider vocations, with Christ saying, “The harvest is
abundant, but
the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send
out laborers for
his harvest.”
This command of the
Lord’s is certainly
important for us to hear; we always stand in need of young
people who look out
into the harvest of the world and let the master of the harvest
move them to
offer their lives in gathering it. Nevertheless, there is
another lesson
present in this Gospel passage that is of the utmost importance
to all of us in
our pursuit of heaven.
Throughout this passage,
Christ orders
his disciples to accept what is given to them. As they go on
their mission,
they are to carry nothing of their own, “no money bag, no sack,
no sandals.”
They are to stay in whatever house which first receives them.
They are to eat
and drink whatever they are given. If the town receives them,
they are to work
healings. If not, they are to move on. These instructions tell
the disciples in
essence that divine providence is to set the boundaries and
outlines of their
ministry; they are not to determine the course of their work
themselves. Jesus
is telling his disciples that they are to accept the place he
gives them
exactly as he gives it to them.
This command of the Lord
applies to us
as well. Each of us has been set into a certain place within the
plan of
Almighty God. He has placed us into a certain time in history,
in a certain
culture, a certain place, with certain parents and family
heritages, with a
certain body, a certain soul, and certain gifts. We have not
chosen any of
these but have received them. Often, even while making our free
choices to
reach for the good, for the Lord, from within the lives we have
received, we
face situations, opportunities, and challenges that we could
never have
predicted, and most often would or could never have chosen, for
good or ill.
We can be tempted so
easily to reject
the place that God has given us. We can daydream about how
things might have
been if we had received
another place in
history, a different
personality, different opportunities, or if we had the foresight
to have made
different choices. We long sometimes to be people other than
ourselves, or
idealized versions of ourselves. We can dream of different homes
and
possessions, different careers, or even different relationships
as the way
forward toward real happiness. In some cases, we might even act
in rejection of
the place God has given us.
But the Lord’s command
remains. “Stay
in the same house and eat and drink what is set before you.”
Christ who loves
us has given us a particular mission- field, with particular
people he calls us
to love in concrete situations and contexts particular to us. He
asks us to be
faithful to this part of the harvest he has chosen for us. He
calls us to grow
and exercise our freedom not by rejecting who we are and where
we have been sent,
but precisely in engaging in that mission field creatively,
giving freely the love
that only we can give. The disciples in today’s Gospel did just
this, trusting
in the Lord’s command, and came home rejoicing that miracles of
mercy and
healing had taken place through their obedience. If we too trust
Jesus and
accept what his providence has given us, we also can hear his
beautiful
assurance: “Your names are written in heaven.”