My Dear People, 

            Today in the 10^th Chapter of Luke, Jesus sends His seventy-two Disciples ahead to towns He intends to visit. As the end of His mission approached, Jesus Christ increased the number of ministers of His word in order for the Word to be spread with greater urgency throughout all of Palestine. He elected seventy-two Disciples to whom He gave special faculties. Since the Apostles were the first Bishops of the world, with St. Peter as their head, the selected disciples were more like priests. Jesus, Himself, formed the hierarchy. He was at the top! St Peter was the head of the Apostles; His vicar; and the Church, followed by the seventy-two disciples who collaborated and worked with Him and the Apostles. He therefore sent them to every city where He was going to be to prepare the souls for His coming and instructed them on how to perform this mission with appropriate teachings. 

First, He inspired in them a real concern for the souls they would meet, saying: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.” They especially had to have great concern for the work about to be done, and they were not to not worry about their own comfort. 

Why didn’t Jesus elect more disciples? Because recognizing a vocation and having the attitude to undertake a supernatural mission are the fruits of graces that not everyone accepts! In order to receive and align oneself with such grace, it is necessary to pray intensely. It is the Lord who sends laborers into His vineyard, and Jesus elected the Apostles and the Disciples after a long period of prayer with the Father.   

Prayer is in our hands as well and can give us omnipotence. God requires it of us so we may cooperate with Him in the great works of His love. God could have created the children of Abraham out of stones, but instead, God wants us to cooperate both on the election of those who will become ministers and on the salvation of their souls. This great law of love and fertility reveals how much God loves us and with what intensity He respects our freedom.  

The chosen Disciples had to preach the Divine Word to save souls, but they also had to seek and choose their successors. In this latter effort they would have to pray to God to multiply the vocations of future laborers. The Church in fact would become itself an apostolate and in the Church there had to be, more than in the nations, the so-called spiritual demographic problem. It would not be enough to perform a holy work in the Church and then abandon it. It was necessary to let it germinate and continue to ripen. And then to seek (through prayer) from God who would continue to oversee it to its maturity.. 

What would be the use of sowing a field in order to bear fruits without the seeds? The souls won to this faith are the fruit of the vineyard of God! The priests are like seeds because they, with the help of God, enable new plants to germinate continually. 

The harvest grows not by the power of the farmer but by the fertility that God gives to the land; but if a farmer does not cultivate and harvest it, it rots. Thus, to go in the Name of God to sow the Word also includes the need to preserve and multiply the fruits and so, Jesus addressing not only the disciples, but the Church in all ages says: “I pray the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers for His harvest.”

In sending out His disciples, Jesus considered the great difficulties of their ministry, saying:  “Behold, I send you as lambs among wolves”. They were not going to harvest peacefully; rather, they were going to be met with souls full of misery and agitated by passions. They had to overcome this resistance with humility and goodness. This is a fundamental and constant character of the apostolate in the Church. Any deviation from this approach produces only ruin in souls. 

Everyday experiences confirm this, and it is wonderful that the Church has always been faithful in the selection of her great and holy ministers of the apostolate and the hierarchy. 

Misguided souls are sometimes fierce and terrible, and it is indeed appropriate to liken them to wolves. They can be unruly, aggressively greedy, arrogant, violent, and often have at their disposal the worldly means to resist, even with weapons, and will push themselves to the most violent extremes. This violent resistance took place in the Jewish nation and in the pagan nations when Christianity began to spread. In modern nations more or less apostolate from God, it is often far more barbaric, savage, and aggressive than in pagan nations. 

The Church does not go to them with vehemence or with force, even at the cost of appearing overwhelmed or defeated, or even at the cost of alienating those who would love to see in Her the power of Her strength. She is in diametric opposition to the modern generations, who are accustomed (from an early age) to violence: She remains faithful to the fundamental  precept of her divine Founder, advancing steadily as a lamb among wolves. 

One of the glories of the Church is the calm and solemn voice of the Pope, in tragic international times, and the serene objectivity of Vatican diplomacy. The world the church faces is certainly a wolf, capable and bloodthirsty. But it is true, in the end, it is always overcome by the gentle and quiet dignity of the Church. 

Jesus Christ wants His disciples to go as carriers of peace and with a plan of charity. Sacred ministry is fundamentally a question of peace, and its fruits are fruits of peace. Those who refuse it, refuse peace. It is not this way in sacred ministry, however.  The man who engages in it does so principally for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls. His work of peace becomes fruitful for those who accept it and profit from it!  And this peace remains in them.

The minister of the Divine Word, consequently, must always and constantly have the thought and the desire to glorify God in his apostolate. He should not lose hope if he is not successful with certain souls but instead should content himself with praying intensely for them so that the mercy of God may conquer and save them. 

Souls put thousands of obstacles and difficulties in the way of their salvation, and to enlighten them or to renew them is very hard work and truly an epic struggle. Sometimes their intellect is clouded and unswerving in a false aspiration, and their heart is entangled in a web of deceit and does not wish to be unraveled from it. Kindness in their regard seems intolerable, because of their hostility. They despise all that is done for them, and would rather run away from the paths of salvation. 

In these difficult battles, which are able to consume the soul and the body of a minister of God or a person dedicated to the apostolate, the word of Jesus is of supreme comfort! What is done is not lost! On the contrary, grace is granted and returned to those who do good! It returns, (in the strictest sense), as an experience, as an impetus for an increased vigilance on oneself, as a greater desire to pray, to be humble, to have self-control, and also to try again to return to the task better prepared to evangelize other souls.

[Source from Rev. Dolindo Ruotolo commentary on the Gospel of Luke]

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente