July 6, 2025 at Saint Peter the Apostle and the Naples Maronite Mission

Isaiah 66: 10-14 + Psalm 66 + Galatians 6: 14-18 + Luke 10- 1-12, 17-20

None of the great Scripture Scholars seem clear about what Luke had in mind with the number of disciples sent out on this mission. Early Hebrew manuscripts say 72 and early Greek copies say 70. In the Book of Genesis 70 is the number of Gentile tribes, and in the Book of Numbers, Moses chooses 70 elders to be his helpers.  In either case, what we can be sure of is that Luke is making a point that the Gospel is for everyone, and Jesus expects everyone to share in the mission. There is no doubt that we are today’s 70 or 72 no more professional or prepared than the first wave of disciples sent by Jesus.

Those who have gone before us drew people by the example of their lives, not be rational proofs and arguments. They didn’t carry around a Catechism spouting memorized verses or citing church documents. It was their love, their compassion, and their service that attracted people to their faith. We need nothing more than our experience of the joy that comes from living the message of Jesus Christ, with its peace and its hope.

What we have to share is what we have experienced in communion with God and with others. I believe that this is why those who were first sent went out two by two, in pairs. This is no solo mission. No single person can accomplish the work Jesus sees needs to be done. This is a communal effort that springs from relationships that know the healing power of forgiveness, sharing and supporting each other through the sorrows and joys that life in communion will bring.

There is a warning that the Word of God will not always be welcomed by those who resist its message of justice. Those who are sent cannot be people pleasers. They must be God pleasures. Yet, we go, as Jesus says, “like sheep among wolves.” We have wolves to threaten us as much as did those who first took up the mission. The powerful violent Romans and the comfortable elite resisted, ridiculed, imprisoned, and killed those who brought the Good News. Those Jesus called “wolves” are still among us sewing fear, spewing hatred, bigotry, division, violence and lies every day and every hour. So, when the message was refused, they were to move on peacefully, because what God offers can never be imposed. The instruction was to “move on” not quit, not be silenced, but simply to continue in another place at a different time.

Our message is simple. It is Peace, and I think the best meaning of that word is oneness with God’s will. Peace is not something given. I must be worked for and worked at. With that in mind, we must be free from discouragement, impatience, and anger in failure in our efforts for peace. We must remain sincere, humble, and wise in our peace seeking and peace making. 

This is the highest calling within civilization. We are the ones called to this noble task. Peace is the one undeniable sign of God’s presence and God’s Kingdom. We are not there yet perhaps because we have not counted ourselves among the 70 thinking someone else should do it.

July 6, 2025 with the Naples Maronite Mission at St Agnes Chapel in Naples, FL

Matthew 10: 1-7

Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, the son of Zabedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

This Gospel passage invites us to reflect on two details. The first detail is these twelve. Some of them are identified by their family/father’s name which may be Matthew’s way of distinguishing them from others with the same name. Then there is Matthew who is identified by his occupation. The Gospel makes an important point about the role of one’s past in one’s ministry. When we follow Jesus, what matters is what we become, not what we have been. Notice how that works with Judas. What matters is what he becomes. Then there is Simon, the Cananean. This is not Simon Peter. This Simon is identified by his political activity. Cananeans were radical revolutionaries.

Reflecting on these details lets us see that the Twelve represent some diversity with several things in common: they are all men, they are Palestinian Jews, they are all working- or lower-class men. There is not a single person from the elite class of people here, no great leaders, nor foreigners. The fact is, that probably not one of these twelve could pass a test or succeed through an interview for some top post in a big corporation. They are so ordinary and simple, that no one would think to call them together to undertake a great task. But, God does.

The other detail concerns their instructions, where to go and what to do.  What is clear from Matthew’s report is that basically, these twelve are being sent to do what Jesus has been doing, and we ought to always see what he does through the words of the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus tells them “to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he is telling them to stay home. I think he is suggesting that they need to clean up their own lives – their own communities or families before running all over the place fixing others. They are going to need some creditability, and it will come from their own lives, families, and villages. They are to do what Jesus does. He invites them into his very life. They are to bring the power of the Gospel to bear against every force, public, private, political or social that diminishes human life.

If the Kingdom of God is at hand, then we are living in it. If we look around and what we see does not match what Jesus said it would be like, then the mission of those twelve is incomplete. When I look around here, it seems to me that we are just the sort of people Jesus would summon if we had been there at the beginning. It is still the beginning. To have any credibility or the kind of authority Jesus had to attract, invite, and set people free, our deeds must match our words. It was so for him. Our lives must match the life of Jesus Christ. Our courage can be no less than his when it comes to speaking up, acting up, and standing up against any force that diminishes human life.

Our past is of no interest to Jesus Christ. What we have done has no bearing at all on what we must become. There is no test to pass, no interview to survive when summoned. All God has to work with is you and me, and we would not be here if people just like us had believed for one minute that they were not up to the task of discipleship. We are summoned, we are gifted with everything we need which is the power of grace, the power of faith, and maybe most of all, the power of hope.