Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 6, 2025 — Year C
Readings: Is 66:10-14c / Ps 66 / Gal 6:14-18 / Lk 10:1-12; 17-20
by Rev. Mr. Mark De La Hunt, Permanent Deacon

You may have heard it said that “The Church does not so much have a mission, as the Church ‘is’ mission.” Jesus said it this way, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21) The Father sent Jesus on mission to save us. Likewise, Jesus sends us on mission to save others. In Luke’s gospel today, He sent seventy-two disciples on mission, and He told them how to go about it. Our challenge, adults and youth, is to open our hearts and minds to the mission.

Luke wrote that “the Lord appointed seventy-two” disciples to go on mission. (Lk 10:1) Just as the twelve apostles represent the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel, the seventy-two disciples anticipate the mission to the Gentiles, for that was the number of nations descended from Noah, which spread across the earth (Gn 10). It also alludes to the seventy elders Moses appointed to be prophets in Numbers 11.

Pope Francis took this call to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and made it personal. He said we need to reach out to those “on the peripheries.”  Cardinal Joseph Tobin of the Diocese of Newark expanded upon Pope Francis’s challenge. He wrote, “Getting outside ourselves and going to the periphery can mean any effort to reach out to others with compassion and understanding. It does not mean that we abandon our beliefs, principles, or way of life. But it does mean that we open ourselves to those who are different from us and, in so doing, share with them the good news that all are loved by God and redeemed in Christ.”

Jesus showed us the way when He went to the people on the peripheries, and it perplexed the Pharisees. The evangelist Matthew wrote that upon seeing Jesus with the people on the periphery, they asked His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” [Jesus] heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:10–13)

Each of us, children and adults, are being called to ask the Holy Spirit to show us people who may be outside our usual circle of friends and acquaintances, and that we may not feel comfortable around, but that need to know God loves them and that He shows that love most powerfully in the worship/liturgy and sacraments of the Catholic Church, the only church He founded.

Next, Jesus sent the seventy-two out in pairs. We are stronger together. Marriage is a great example. The love of husband and wife draws from the fount of the inexhaustible love of Jesus and overflows in acts of charity, beginning at home and then the community. If you are single, pair up with a believing friend, especially a parishioner. A friend in Christ can boost your courage to share your faith. Whether with a spouse or with a friend, evangelizing in pairs is important, for Jesus warned us that we will be like “lambs among wolves.” (Lk 10:3).

Those who may behave like wolves are not the only part of mission work that makes us uncomfortable. Uncertainty does, too, and an essential element of mission that helps us overcome it is trusting in God’s providence, His care for us. (1 Pt 5:7) Jesus told the seventy-two, “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals…” (Lk 10:4).  When we say yes to the Lord, He provides us everything we need. I experienced this firsthand when I flew to New Orleans on mission to bring my brother, Kevin, back into the Church.

He was in home hospice, dying from cancer. Uncertainty and fear filled me. I had no training in caring for a dying person. And Kevin was separated from the Church because he could not reconcile his same-sex attraction with the Church’s moral teachings. And, by the way, this occurred before I was a deacon, so don’t think I had lots of theological and pastoral training and the sacrament of Holy Orders to help me. What I did have, though, I brought to bear. I asked people in our parish to pray that Kevin would come back to the faith before he died, and off I went, praying the rosary often.

After settling in, I walked to Kevin’s parish for 7 AM daily Mass and afterwards told the priest, Fr. Bob, my brother needed Holy Anointing, but that I was not sure he would allow it. Fr. Bob told me he would come if Kevin agreed to it. The big moment came. I sat by Kevin’s hospice bed in his living room and said I had something very important to ask him. I told him his priest wanted to come and give him the sacrament of anointing of the sick and asked him if he would allow it. I braced myself for an angry refusal. Kevin’s response was a simple and peaceful, “Ok.”  Later that day, I overheard him on the phone with a friend excitedly and happily telling them that Fr. Bob came and anointed him.

This story illustrates an incredibly important truth! The Holy Spirit goes before us on mission. We do not convert anyone. Our part is necessary, but the Holy Spirit works in their hearts before we arrive. We show them compassion and love that speaks to their mind. The Holy Spirit, who is love, speaks to their soul. This is why Kevin, who had no wife and no children and was dying, found happiness with Jesus, who came to him powerfully in the sacraments of Holy Orders (Fr. Bob) and Holy Anointing.

Further along in the gospel, Jesus also emphasizes peace, commanding the seventy-two to say, “Peace to this house!” (Lk 10:5) Note that Luke put an exclamation point after Jesus’ command. The point is to be at peace and to remain at peace while speaking with and listening to the person you felt the Holy Spirit nudge you to go to. Of course, you may not meet that person in a house. It could happen on a plane trip or in a restaurant or at work or school or at a game or concert. In all cases, a smile and sincere heart and reflective listening will bring Christ’s peace to the person.

What if that person rejects your words or cuts you off and or rolls their eyes and walks away? Jesus covers that too. He said that if you are speaking to a peaceful person, your peace will rest on them, but if not, it will return to you. (Lk 10:6) That is a win-win, Jesus-style! If your message is rejected, thank Jesus for the peace that returned to you. Also, to build up your courage, remember the first Pope’s words, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Pt 4:14)

This next advice from Jesus was practiced by the Holy Name of Mary Catholic Work Camp teens and adults, when they went on mission to the people on the peripheries in the Bristol and Abingdon area.  Jesus said, “Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you…Do not move about from one house to another.” (Lk 10:7) For the most part, the teens worked on one person’s home the entire week, helping them with basic needs like wheel chair ramps and all kinds of home repairs. They prayed with them and “ate whatever was set before [them].” (Lk 10:8). In doing so, they built up that person’s God-given dignity and made friends with them. Do not underestimate this. Many of these people are not only poor, but also lonely or cut off from their family. The teens, seminarians, and bishop visiting them means the world to them.

The teens also grew closer to those they were on mission with. When we say yes to going on mission, God’s grace always accomplishes more than we expect. And the work camp teens and adults returned like the seventy-two; they were rejoicing. You can see their testimonies on the Holy Name of Mary Facebook page.

Jesus also said, “Cure the sick…and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’” (Lk 10:9) Do not gloss over this. Healings have always been a part of our faith and mission. And when we are speaking with someone that we think the Holy Spirit wants us to bring to Jesus, we need to listen expectantly and with a loving and compassionate heart. And if they share some difficulty, suffering, or fear, we meet Jesus in that pain with them, not to be overcome by it, but that Jesus may overcome it through us.

Father Henri Nouwen, in his book, The Wounded Healer, wrote the following about the power of these moments of intimate prayer. “Let us not diminish the power of waiting [to listen to a person who is suffering] by saying that a lifesaving relationship cannot develop in an hour. One eye movement or one handshake can replace years of friendship when [a person] is in agony. Love not only lasts forever, it needs only a second to come about.”

Father Nouwen also used a powerful metaphor to encourage us to enter into another person’s suffering so that we can pray with them there and bring them to Jesus. He wrote, “Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames?” He wrote that we have to be willing to lose some of our “precious peace of mind…for who can take away suffering without entering into it?”

Jesus gave us that example on the Cross. Indeed, it is the power of the Cross, that entered into us at our baptism, that enables us to go on mission to enter into the suffering of those on the peripheries in order to bring them to Christ. Jesus’ suffering on the Cross gives our suffering and the suffering of the one we are praying with a purpose, salvation, and a power resurrection.

We are the seventy-two to whom Jesus promised, “I have given you the power to tread…upon the full force of the enemy, and nothing will harm you.” (Lk 10:19) Our enemy is not the people on the peripheries. Humanity only has only one enemy, Satan, and he has no power over us who are baptized and who through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, do what Jesus commanded us to do: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13:34) Jesus is sending us, and we were born for this. Amen.