Is 66:10-14c; Ps 65 (66); Gal 6:14-18; Lk 10:1-12.17-20

«I will make peace flow towards it, like a river; like a torrent in full, the glory of the nations”(Is 66,12). The promise of God, announced by Isaiah, is now fulfilled in history through the disciples, sent by Jesus to announce “peace to this house” (Lk 10: 5). The river seems to become a small stream of water, with these men who, in their poverty and weakness, with humility and discretion, ask for hospitality, exposed to acceptance or rejection. In fact, they are sent as few workers to an abundant harvest. There is a built-in inadequacy between what is to be done and those to whom the task is entrusted. The mission can only be realized in the weakness of the cross, in that awareness of which Paul is a witness: “as for me there is no other boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. If lived in this way, the mission opens up to the fruitfulness of Easter: the harvest does not only symbolize the field of labor too vast for our unequal forces, but also the eschatological overabundance of the harvest, work of God. And the lambs among the wolves become a sign prophetic of the messianic peace announced by Isaiah, when the wolf will dwell with the lamb (11.7) and the two will graze together (65.25).

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey