This Gospel passage in Luke can seem totally impractical, and even a little crazy, from a human point of view. That Jesus would send his followers out with the most important message the world has ever heard. Yet the Gospel tells them to go with nothing but the clothes on their back? No money, no food, no plan for where to stay?

I don’t know about you, but when I go away even for a weekend, I pack a bag full of things. I want to know where I’ll be staying. How I’ll get there, what the plan is. But here in the Gospel, Jesus sends out his disciples with total precarity. It can be difficult to understand.

And yet, this Gospel isn’t just a story about a group of special, holy people far removed from us. It can be tempting to think: “Well, this is for priests or nuns—people in religious life. That’s not me.” But when this message was first proclaimed, there were no religious orders. There was just the Church—small communities of ordinary people, just like us, entrusted with carrying the Good News to the world.

Or maybe we think: “I’m not qualified. I haven’t been trained. I’m just an ordinary person. I wouldn’t know how to share the message—and I’m afraid of what others might think.”
But God has a history of calling the unlikely.

Look at the prophets, take  Amos for example. He was a shepherd from the south, in Judah. God sent him to the north of Israel to speak out against injustice and call the people to conversion. The people of the north were wealthy, sophisticated, educated—and here comes a simple farmer telling them they’re living wrongly, and that if they don’t change, God will act. God chooses who he wants to carry his message—regardless of background or credentials.

Through our Baptism, each of us has been called. This Gospel is for all of us. We have been sent with the most important news the world will ever hear:
That one man, Jesus Christ, has conquered death—and that love is not only possible, but stronger than sin and death. That we can live differently. That we can forgive, serve, and love in the face of everything that says otherwise.

And Jesus tells us not to depend on what the world considers essential—but to lean only on Him, who gives us his Spirit.

We are called to proclaim this message not always by words, but by how we live. The way we forgive. In how we serve. how we love—in our families, our marriages, with our friendships. Some are called to serve in the priesthood or religious life, but all of us are called to be witnesses.

Let us pray today for the grace to say yes to this call, and to trust that Christ will give us what we need.
Deacon Gerry.