July 2, 2010
Sunday Scripture
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
Mark, Matthew and Luke all have a story about Jesus sending out the twelve apostles for their first mission experience. Luke adds a mission of seventy (or seventy-two) disciples. “After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him into every town and place where he himself was about to go.” For Old Testament background, ever-present in our gospels, we look to Numbers 11:24-30. Moses appoints “seventy men of the elders of the people. The Lord took some of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied.” We should recall that “prophesying” did not mean foretelling the future. That would be a fortune-teller. For the most part, in Scripture a prophet is one who speaks the word of the Lord.
By the time the gospels were written (last third of the first Christian century), every Christian community must have had a set of missionary instructions. We see them in the sending out of the Twelve in three gospels, also in the Didache, a Christian manual of instructions written toward the end of the first century or beginning of the second. Luke uses the version of the community for which he was writing his gospel, possibly somewhere in Greece. There are no major differences in the thrust of the mission instructions, but the minor contradictions we notice between the five versions are due to differing circumstances in which the various churches found themselves.
The headline for the mission, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to sent out laborers into his harvest.” The laborers, Christian missionaries, met opposition in Luke’s time as they do today, “Behold, I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” Their equipment is minimal, “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.” They had no luggage to lose nor did they have anything to lose to theft or robbery. “Salute no one along the way.” But is this how one makes friends? The point is the avoidance of any distractions that can hinder one’s mission. Old Testament background: in 2 Kings 4:29 the prophet Elisha sends his servant on a mission of healing, “If you meet anyone, do not greet him. If anyone greets you, do not reply.”
There must be no social climbing by moving from house to house as better accommodations became known. Gravitating toward the rich was a temptation for disciples from the beginning, is now and ever shall be. “Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they have. Do not go from house to house.” They were not allowed to take provisions. They had a right to food and drink from those to whom they ministered in the name of Him whom they represented, “The laborer is worthy of his pay.” If a town does not receive them, “Go into its streets and shake from your feet the dust that clings to them . . . I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on that day (judgment day) for Sodom than for that town.” This command seems uncharacteristic of Jesus who commanded turning the other cheek. Yet we find this harsh injunction in all missionary instructions. We have no explanation to soften its harshness. It is a form of cursing. It was also the practice of St. Paul.
When the seventy (seventy-two) disciples completed their mission, they joyfully returned to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.” Jesus replies, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” In later centuries this statement attributed to Jesus was combined with Isaiah 14:12, a satire against the King of Babylon, “How you are fallen, O Day Star . . .” St. Jerome (early 5th century) translated “Day Star’ (the planet Venus seen at sunrise) into Latin as Lucifer, meaning “light bearer.” Some literalist English-speaking genius combined Luke 10:18 and Isaiah 14:12; and concluded that Lucifer, in itself a beautiful name, is the name of the devil. This witless conclusion remains to this day, although there is not the slightest connection between Luke 10:18 and Isaiah 14:12.
This poem was chosen to correspond to the joy expressed by Jesus’ disciples when they returned from their successful mission. Notable is the maternal language used of God, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” God is the origin not only of fatherhood but also of motherhood. They are not the same, but they are equal in dignity. The ancient heathen gods usually had a divine consort to whom the heathens could turn. The true God is unique in bachelorhood. It is quite legitimate to ascribe both paternal and maternal attributes to God, who is source of paternity and maternity.
Paul combats his opponents who claimed that the male Gentile converts must be circumcised to be part of the people of God. The critics were proud of this “mark in the flesh.” Paul notes that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. The only marks he is proud of are “the marks of Jesus which I bear on my body.” Had Paul received the stigmata, so many centuries before Francis of Assist? More likely they are the scars of boatings and stonings which he bore on his body as the “marks of Jesus.”