Raymond Homily Sunday, 07 July 2013

Fr. Raymond

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10:1-12.17-20.

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. ...

"The Lord appointed seventy two others and sent them out ahead of him to all the places he himself was to visit". It's important for us to note that he sent them out ahead of him, not as individuals, but in pairs. He sent them out two by two. When the early Fathers of the Church tried to understand this, when they tried to understand why Jesus sent the seventy two out in pairs, they took it to mean that no one is authorised to preach the Gospel in his own name. Whoever preaches as one among many; he preaches as one who is bound together in charity to the community of the faithful. Whoever preaches, preaches in the name of and by the authority of the universal Church; it’s not just a private message of his own, a message preached on his own authority.

So the fact that Jesus sent out his disciples two by two is simply another expression of that great fundamental statement of the creation story viz: that it is not good for man to be alone. The preaching mission of the Church is carried out in the spirit of the great theological reality of the Communion of Saints.

When one man speaks with utter sincerity and when he speaks enthusiastically from his heart, there is a very powerful witness given. Others will be moved by his sincerity and his enthusiasm. But when he is joined by another who is equally sincere and equally enthusiastic then the power of their witness is more than just doubled. Even God himself is forced, as it were, and as he himself confesses, to yield to the prayers of two or three gathered together. So there is great significance in this fact that Jesus chooses to send his disciples out two by two.

We can also presume that the fact that they were to prepare the way for his own personal visit to each of these places after them means that the Gospel can't really be preached effectively by human preaching alone, Jesus himself must come into the picture' in some way. There has to be an inner encounter with Christ himself. The Gospel has to be heard with the heart as well as by the ear. The initial human preaching to the ear has to be followed up by the inner voice of the Spirit speaking to the heart. It is heart that speaks to the heart as Scripture says, The heart of Jesus speaks directly to each of us in the depths of our heart.