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."

Dear Friends,

Perhaps some of us, especially the young ones, are not old enough to remember when there were no automatic dishwashers in our homes. I remember growing up in a household that did not have a dishwasher. My sister and I were the dishwashers. I remember that some days after the meal, my sister and I would argue whose turn it was. “No, it’s your turn to wash the dishes!” There was always bickering about whose job it was to do what, and it was almost at every task to be accomplished.

In the case of the Church, something really similar is happening. We want the task of evangelization and discipleship to be done by our brothers and sisters, who we call priests, bishops, nuns, deacons, or religious brothers. But if we will recall, by virtue of our baptism and confirmation, each one of us was and is called to spread the Good News.

Luke’s gospel has two stories of Jesus sending out his followers to go and spread the Good News. In chapter 9, Jesus sends the twelve apostles. And in chapter 10, he sends seventy-two disciples. Scholars believe that Luke’s story of the sending out of seventy-two is his way of emphasizing the universal scope of the message of Christ. The sending of the seventy-two disciples symbolizes the sending of the message of Christ to the whole world.

Our Christian tradition identifies the twelve apostles with ordained ministry in the Church. At the Last Supper, Jesus commissioned his followers to “do this in memory of me,” he was addressing the twelve, which is the clergy. If this is so, the seventy-two who were sent out on a mission in today’s gospel must be understood as lay people. Today’s gospel, therefore, is the commissioning of lay ministry. In this way, we can read the two missions in the gospel of Luke as the mission of the clergy and the laity. And in integrating the two accounts, the mission is for us all, ordained and non-ordained followers of Christ.

 “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.” This is why every one of us must be involved in this mission. As it was in the days of Jesus, this is still true in our time. As I have mentioned before, we, members of the clergy and religious, cannot do it alone. There is a need for the laity to participate in order to fulfill our Lord’s mission. “Therefore ask the Lord to send out laborers into his harvest.” Our role is twofold: prayer and active involvement.

Every Christian is called to participate in the spreading of the message of Christ through the commitment of prayer and a commitment of action. It is not a question of doing the one or the other. As they say, pray as if everything depended on God, and work at it as if everything depended on your participation.

And as we go to the work of evangelization, Jesus reminds us that we should carry out the mission together. We are to bring, as a team, the message of peace, to proclaim the Kingdom of God amid resistance, to forget acting like superstars and celebrities on the road, and instead have with us a spirit of meekness and vulnerability, a spirit of politeness and adaptability. Finally, we are instructed to be joyful on the road, not because the authority was given to us, but because our greatest joy is that our “names are written in heaven.”

Friends, I guess the question for us now is: Are we ready to be sent out?

In Christ,

Fr. Gregg

One of Bishop Barron's inspirations is Cardinal Fulton Sheen.  In this video he discusses some of Fulton Sheen's keys to success in evangelization.