Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Carmelite of Lisieux and doctor of the Church, patroness of the missions though she never left her convent, is remembered on this Thursday of the twenty-sixth week. We easily believe that a harvest waits on our strength and our means, and we hesitate to go out with empty hands. The readings lead us from a man stripped of everything to disciples sent without provisions: the harvest is already ripe.
Then, after these things, the Lord also designated another seventy-two. And he sent them in pairs before his face, into every city and place where he was to arrive. And he said to them: "Certainly the harvest is great, but the workers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest. Go forth. Behold, I send you out like lambs among wolves. Do not choose to carry a purse, nor provisions, nor shoes; and you shall greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you will have entered, first say, 'Peace to this house.' And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking the things that are with them. For the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not choose to pass from house to house. And into whatever city you have entered and they have received you, eat what they set before you. And cure the sick who are in that place, and proclaim to them, 'The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.' But into whatever city you have entered and they have not received you, going out into its streets, say: 'Even the dust which clings to us from your city, we wipe off against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has drawn near.' I say to you, that on that day, Sodom will be forgiven more than that city." (Lk 10:1-12)
The first reading comes from the book of Job, and gives voice to a man who has lost everything. Job, the just man of the land of Uz, turns to those who sat beside him. He pleads: "Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me" (Jb 19:21). He does not ask them for an explanation, but for mercy, since their reasons have only deepened his solitude. His cry goes to his friends, and yet it is already turned to God.
Then, from the bottom of that ruin, rises a sentence the Church still repeats beside the graves of her children. Job declares: "I know that my Redeemer lives" (Jb 19:25). He wants these words cut into rock, so that no one forgets them. And he adds that in his own flesh he will see God. Nothing in his situation has changed, and his certitude does not come from what he holds, but from the One who holds him. This is the first seed of today's harvest.
The psalm of the day lends the cry of Job the form of a prayer. The psalmist, pressed by adversaries, keeps seeking the face of the Lord. He then rests his whole hope on a single certainty: "I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living" (Ps 27:13). Seeing God is not postponed to an unknown future, but becomes the horizon that orders the present day.
In the Gospel, Saint Luke, the evangelist of the journey toward Jerusalem, tells of seventy-two others. The Lord designates them and sends them in pairs ahead of him, into every city where he means to come. Before a single instruction about the road, he describes the field: "the harvest is great, but the workers are few" (Lk 10:2). The disciples are not told to produce the harvest. But it already stands before them, ripe and waiting, and their first work is to ask the Lord of the harvest for labourers. The mission begins in prayer before it begins on the road.
The conditions that follow are startling, for the seventy-two go out "like lambs among wolves", without purse, without provisions and without shoes. The Lord does not strip them in order to make them weak, but in order to make them depend on those who receive them. Their first word on crossing a threshold is a gift rather than a demand: "Peace to this house" (Lk 10:5). If a son of peace lives there, that peace rests on him. But where it is refused, the peace returns intact to the one who offered it.
Where they are received, they eat what is set before them, cure the sick and announce that God is close. Where they are refused, they wipe off the dust of the streets. And the message they leave behind remains the same: "the kingdom of God has drawn near" (Lk 10:11). The refusal of a town does not cancel the nearness of God, and only decides whether that nearness is recognised. So the harvest belongs to the Lord from the first sowing to the last sheaf. The workers carry only his peace.
From Bethlehem the road runs outward to every person under heaven, and today's text is one of the places where it first turns. The number seventy-two recalls the ancient count of the nations of the earth. In sending that many, the Lord already sends his word beyond Israel. The One who came into the world with nothing now sends his own with nothing, so that they too depend on the doors that open. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the Carmelite of Lisieux, carried the distant missions in her prayer. She walked that same road without leaving her cloister.
That is why the Word of God calls us to go out before our hands are full, and to trust the harvest where we live. In our families, in our work and in our parishes, we are not asked first to bring answers. But we are asked to carry peace across a threshold, and to let it rest wherever welcomed.
Where our word is refused, God is not refused with it, for his kingdom has drawn near. Let us therefore ask the Lord of the harvest for labourers, as the Carmelite of Lisieux asked from her cell. And let us become, with empty hands and a living Redeemer, the first answer to our own prayer.
Scripture text: Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV), public domain.
Prayer of the Day
Lord Jesus, you came to Bethlehem with nothing and you sent your disciples out with nothing, so teach us to trust the harvest that you have already ripened. When our hands are empty, keep them open; when a door closes before us, keep your peace alive within us. Like Thérèse, the Carmelite of Lisieux, may we carry the whole mission in our prayer. Amen.
For Meditation
- Where are we still waiting for full hands before we dare to go out toward others?
- Which house near us is waiting to hear the words "Peace to this house" from our lips?
- How do we receive a refusal, and do we still believe that the kingdom has drawn near?
