OMELIE / Omelie EN

06 lug 2025

06/07/2025 - 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

06/07/2025 - 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Reading 1 IS 66:10-14 Psalm 65 Reading 2 GAL 6:14-18 Gospel LK 10:1-12, 17-20

The first reading is a song of joy, an invitation to rejoice in the promises that God makes to his people. The prophet Isaiah lifts up the fortunes of his people, who are experiencing exile and slavery, with all the suffering that these events entail. It is good news, a “gospel” in the true sense of the word. The most beautiful consolations are in sight, with the prospect of a future of peace, communion, serenity and even well-being.

This page introduces the Gospel passage, which makes us spectators of the fulfilment of those promises. It is Jesus, in fact, who brings every Word of God to fulfilment. This time he does not move, but sends his disciples, and even chooses seventy-two of them! This number draws our attention to the fact that in Jesus a Scripture is fulfilled. He is the true guide of God's people, the guide charged with accompanying them to their final destination: Moses is only foreshadowing this, when he enlisted the help of seventy-two elders to carry out the task of keeping the people united and teaching them obedience to God's commandments. Jesus enlists the help of seventy-two disciples to proclaim the Gospel, or rather, to prepare the hearts for a personal encounter with him. Now that John the Baptist is no longer speaking, others are entrusted with announcing the coming of the Lord. The fact that the envoys are not only the twelve, but many others, suggests that the Lord intencominggive this task to all the members of the Church. However, he must and wants to meet each person directly, because he is the only saviour of mankind.

The disciples are given instructions for the task they have received. The first recommendation is that they maintain an attitude of prayer. If they are able to proclaim the kingdom, it is a gift from God. If others join them for the same purpose, it is a gift from the Father. They must not take their eyes off the Father, nor be complacent about themselves and their role. They too are a gift from God to the people to whom they proclaim the presence of Jesus, the Son of God. Prayer and humility must be their garment.

They will then be everywhere “like lambs among wolves”. Jesus knows that they will encounter difficulties and hatred, contempt and persecution. He is not discouraged by this harsh and difficult reality: he sends them anyway. The fruit of their mission is more precious than their well-being and their own safety.

“Like lambs among wolves”: we cannot forget this expression of Jesus. It applies not only to missionaries, but to each one of us. We are all sent by Jesus to live and give his love and his Word. We will do so with meekness, without changing our identity. We are united with him, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. United with him, we will bear the weight of everyone's sins, not just our own. Our strength will be our union with him, with Jesus: we will not need material things. It is not the possession of earthly goods that attracts people's hearts to Jesus, but seeing that he alone fills our hearts and that nothing else gives us joy or concerns us.

The coming of Jesus is prepared both by the proclamation of his kingdom and by gestures of love towards the weak and abandoned, especially the sick. Jesus' disciples will not be afraid to approach them, as those who fear becoming unclean if they touch them. Love for humanity is above all concerns. Another recommendation of Jesus is not to waste time: if someone does not want to listen and is not interested in his coming, those who announce him will not make the message pleasant in order to make it acceptable. They will leave those people to their freedom and to God's patience.

And if anyone accepts the words of the disciples, they will not boast or be proud, nor will they stop to consider the outcome of their work. Its fruit belongs to God! They will always and only enjoy the Father's love for them: “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven!”.

St Paul gives us an example of this joy when he writes to the Galatians: he boasts with them of being a disciple of Jesus crucified, of suffering with him, of resembling him even in being rejected and judged by men. United with Jesus, he experiences a new, different life. With him, he has become a “new creation”, who does not need merits accumulated through his own efforts, because he can already count on the merits of Jesus' cross.

Accepting the Lord's invitation to rejoice in the Father's love, we too will say with the psalmist: “How tremendous are your deeds! Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you, sing praise to your name! Come and see the works of God, ... let us rejoice in him. Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare what he has done for me. ... Blessed be God"!