14th Sunday in Ordinary time
‘The Lord appointed seventy-two others.’ That’s roughly three times the number of people gathered in this church this morning. Who were those ‘seventy-two others’? What were their names? We don’t know. We do know though that they were other than the twelve Apostles, the closest confidants of Jesus, who would later be given responsibility for the church. Those ‘seventy-two others’ were ‘ordinary’ followers of Jesus.
What were they appointed to? ‘The Lord [...] sent them out ahead of him, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit.’ Their appointment wasn’t made to tickle their ambitions or to flatter their egos. They were chosen to be trailblazers for Jesus, to be his heralds. It was an easy job, wasn’t it? Going to places and talking to random people about Jesus - easy-peasy, right? If you think so, recall those moments when you have been talking to strangers about Jesus… Have you?
I’m quite sure that our predominant experience is that...