Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
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 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.”The seventy-two returned rejoicing, and said,
“Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”
Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.
Behold, I have given you the power to ‘tread upon serpents’ and scorpions
and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”-Luke 10:1-12,17-20
“Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest.”
When was the last time you prayed for an increase in vocations to the priesthood? Or made a point of praying for your parish priests and seminarians—for their perseverance and holiness?
Although anything can be the object of our prayers, there are certain things that the Savior teaches us are special objects of prayer, for which he tells us to pray specifically. He wants us to pray explicitly for protection from temptation when he tells us, “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.” He teaches us how to love even our enemies when he tells us, “Pray for those who persecute you.” And the Church teaches us in the Hail Mary to pray for our final perseverance in grace, “Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”
Temptation, love of neighbor, perseverance: these are intentions of prayer that require special dependence on God beyond our own efforts. And so the Lord adds to these urgent and weighty intentions the increase in the numbers of priestly apostles who labor for the salvation of souls.
We can be sure that an increase in vocations is a sign of divine grace at work in the hearts of many young men, moving them to leave all and follow Christ. Tradition tells us that many of the original seventy-two who were sent (the Eastern Church calls them apostles just like the twelve, since apostle means “one who is sent”) became the first bishops of the new churches around the ancient Mediterranean, and for this reason many of them have names that have been passed down, and even feast days in the martyrologies of both the Eastern and the Latin churches.
Prayer, as St. Alphonsus says, is “the great means of salvation.” And there is no salvation without the other means of grace given us by the Savior in the sacraments given to us by his priests. St. Padre Pio tells us that the world could more easily exist without the sun than without the Holy Mass. And it is the priest-apostle who gives us this greatest of blessings from our altars.
There are many trials and scandals and reasons for alarm in the Church of today, but if we have good priests who persevere in spite of trouble and defections in their ranks, the Church will thrive as it always has.
St. John Vianney says that the priesthood is “the love of the heart of Jesus.” Who doesn’t need more of that? More love from the Sacred Heart of the Lord, poured out on the world! When we pray for vocations and encourage them, we show that we have a share in the intentions of the loving heart of the Savior, and the more like him we become in our desires and aspirations, the more spiritually powerful we will be.
The seventy-two discovered the power of Christ working in them. Let us earnestly pray the Lord of the Harvest to give more and more men a share in this power!