14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)
We often pray for God’s protection as if it was a temporary condition in need of regular renewal.
We are frightened, fully aware of our fragility and the evil of the world. We get hurt, physically and emotionally. Our scars are deep. We don’t trust. We are jittery, and for good reason. Naturally, in fearful times such as these many of us double up on our prayers for protection.
The seventy-two disciples in today’s gospel went out like “lambs among wolves” to proclaim the Kingdom of God in hostile territories. Yet they returned from their mission to Jesus rejoicing in their success, saying “even the demons are subject to us because of your name.” [Luke 10:1-12, 17-20].
I wonder if we realize that we also have been given the power to do the same? Every day we are called to continue the Christian mission that the disciples handed down to us, to join ourselves to something bigger than ourselves, to work for the good of all of God’s creation, and to “tread upon the full force of the enemy.”
Just like the seventy-two disciples, and the communion of saints before us, we are protected. The power to oppose violence and proclaim the Kingdom of God is within us. Let’s not succumb to fear. We aren’t wolf bait.
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Visit www.agnusday.org, the Lectionary comic strip, where each week Rick and Ted discuss one of the assigned readings from the Common Lectionary. http://www.agnusday.org/comics/185/luke-101-11-16-20-2007
Cartoon courtesy of © James Wetzstein, 2007
The Good Disciple 