Gospel reflection for 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Sister Veronica Lawson RSM (East Ballarat) offers a reflection on the Gospel for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20).
The Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny recently celebrated their bicentenary. Their leader spoke at that time of the sisters’ commitment to put the primary needs of the poor before their own secondary needs. I heard her words as an invitation to travel more lightly on the journey of life for the sake of all earth’s human and other than human communities. I hear today’s gospel reading partly through the lens of that invitation.
Luke’s story evokes the experience of ancient
In his second volume Luke will recount the extensive missionary activity of a spirit-filled married couple, Priscilla and
The missionary teams are sent into Samaritan territory to be bearers of peace: “like lambs among wolves”. Jesus instructs them to travel light and to accept whatever hospitality is offered. In other words, they can expect to be welcomed by some and they must honour that welcome.
His instruction in the likely event of rejection sounds more wolfish than lamblike, however. They are to walk out into the city streets and declare that they are wiping away the dust that has stuck to their feet ‘in protest’; and then to proclaim that God’s empire is present in the healing and teaching that they bring. There is, of course, a time to protest.
This is just the beginning of Jesus’ long journey to