The way in which the Lord Jesus asks us to announce the Gospel – in a testimonial and not a monumental form – is to do it with passion and detachment. It is about being agile and free, deeply involved without being obsessed and worried. The disciple is asked not to judge the reaction to the announcement of which he is humble and serene bearer: “If there is a son of peace, your peace will come upon him” (10, 6). The disciple is asked to remain discreet and not to assume too much in evaluating and judging the reaction of others to the proclamation of the Gospel. The cross of which Paul speaks to us in the second reading is the only chair that the Church can know and is that of a mother who breastfeeds every creature as a child, rather than the platform from which to judge everything and everyone. The words of Paul “as for me there is no other boast than in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world was crucified for me, as I for the world” (Gal 6:14), is married to that of the prophet Isaiah: “Thus you will be suckled and satisfied at the breast of her consolations; you will suck and delight in his glory “(Is 66, 11). These two images, dominated by the logic of service and gift, are opposed by the reference to “Sodom” (Lk 10, 12), the city evoked by the Lord Jesus to clearly characterize what is opposed to the logic of the Kingdom and the mystery of its growth in the heart of our humanity. Sodom may well indicate a civilization that closes in on itself.

Commentary by b. Michael David, osb Community of the Koinonia de la Visitation

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey