Daily Gospel Reflection - Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Daily Gospel Reflection - Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Daily Gospel Reflection - Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church 

September 30, 2021 

Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Gospel: Lk 10:1-12 

Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. 

Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.” 

Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

Bishop Robert Barron 

Friends, our Gospel, taken from the magnificent tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, is a portrait of the Church. It shows us what Jesus wants his followers to be doing and how to do it. Listen to how the passage begins: "The Lord appointed a further seventy-two and sent them in pairs before him to every town and place he intended to visit." 

We are a missionary Church. We are sent by the Lord to spread his word and do his work. The Christian Gospel is just not something that we are meant to cling to for our own benefit. Rather, it is like seed that we are meant to give away. 

He sends them two by two. We do this work together, with others, in community. Ministers need people to support them, pray for them, talk to them, challenge them. St. Francis of Assisi had an experience of God and then, within months, gathered people around him; St. Dominic, from the beginning, had brothers in his work; St. Teresa of Kolkata attracted a number of her former students to join her in her mission. We don’t go it alone.