Homily for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time. July 6, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 10:1-12, 17-20. Theme: We’ve Got Good News!
Today's Liturgy is all about evangelization, a word that means, "spreading the Gospel". It comes from the Latin word for Gospel which is evangelion and quite simply means "good news." The crafters of Christian vocabulary in the early Church thought this was an excellent word to describe the message from and about Jesus. After all, the Gospel is the very best of Good News! But if we are going to be its messengers then obviously we need to know what this Good News is. St. John has helped us out here because in his Gospel he has given us a one sentence summary of the Good News that is utterly easy to memorize. It goes like this: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16).
So, that’s a short summary of what we mean by Good News. But there’s more to our mission of evangelization than just knowing about it. We are supposed to share it with others, especially those who have never heard it. And this is why our Liturgy today presents us with the Gospel story of Jesus sending out teams of missionary disciples. Notice that the reading says Jesus chose 72 others, meaning that those missionaries were distinct from the Twelve Apostles. This shows us that Jesus works through all of His followers and not just the leaders of the Church. Everyone who is baptized has a share in this mission of evangelization. And everyone who receives the Sacrament of Confirmation is further equipped by the Holy Spirit to carry it out.
St. Luke wants us to learn from this passage that we are like those "72 others" whom Jesus sent out to evangelize. Just as they went out to prepare people for Christ's arrival, so we are to go ahead of Jesus who wants to arrive in the hearts of those with whom we live, work and socialize. But in doing so we have to be messengers whose manner and words do not destroy the message! This means that to share the Good News most effectively, we need to follow some directives that Jesus gave to His missionary disciples in our Gospel reading today.
First, Jesus said, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” By these words He invites us to actively and positively take up our mission and become laborers for the Gospel. There are many people suffering, struggling and seeking answers in life. They are ready to receive the Good News of Christ if only someone (that is, you and me!) would share it with them. So we need to commit to being missionary disciples, laborers in the harvest, who share with others what Jesus and the Faith has done for us in our lives and what He can do in theirs. This is called being a “witness” or sharing your “testimony”.
Second, as Christians we live in what is best described as a post-Christian society. This means that the faith and values of Christianity that formed the foundation of Western Civilization are no longer a significant moral force. Sometimes we will agree with our culture and many other times we will not, which can make us feel vulnerable, or as Jesus put it, to “be like lambs among wolves.” But as missionary disciples we must be prepared and ready to face opposition in order to remain faithful to Jesus. Christ calls us to be counter-cultural which means to live and think according to God’s Word.
Third, as evangelizers, we are to trust completely in the Lord and not in ourselves. That is one reason why Jesus instructed the missionary disciples to “carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.” These 72 others were to rely on God to provide for their needs and we are meant to do the same. We trust in a Power greater than ourselves (the Holy Spirit) to equip us with what we need to spread the Good News. We know that if we keep the Kingdom of God as first in our lives then all that we truly need will be provided in one way or another. And this includes giving us the words that we need to say and the intuition on how to say them to each person in their need.
Fourth, the line about "shaking off the dust" reminds us that while we are called to share Christ with everyone, we cannot force anyone to convert. Jesus never ever coerced anyone to follow Him or believe in Him. He simply invited and made it possible. Bringing Christ to others and sharing the Good News with them is a great privilege and honor, but we have to remember that it is a person’s free choice whether or not to receive the Good News. There are many natural and non-confrontational ways to share Christ in our daily conversations and interactions, but if someone rejects the message, then we simply move on and never force the issue. When it becomes apparent that we cannot “speak Christ” to someone, then we just focus on “being Christ” to them by our behavior. Quite often, this in itself is the most powerful form of evangelization that there is because it is done by the example of one’s life, by someone who not just “talks the talk” but “walks the walk”.
