The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.
This prayer to the master of the harvest has multiple aspects. On the one hand we pray because we know that the Church is always shorthanded for the work of building the Kingdom and that we always need help. Prayers for vocations to the priesthood and to religious and consecrated life are part of this aspect. So too is a desire to see our fellow Christians awaken to the call to mission, which is not not restricted to any specific vocation, but is, as Saint John Paul the Great reminded us, universal, just like the call to holiness (see Redemptoris Missio 90). But this prayer is not only about others. It is also about ourselves. We too need to more fully awaken to the call we hear from Jesus to go out and proclaim the Kingdom. Even if it is already our intention to respond to the call we need to pray in order to ensure that our intention remains grounded in God's intention and that our plan continues to be to carry out his plan, and does not spin off into something of our own design, toward a goal which in the end turns out not to be his Kingdom.
Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
We are sent into a hostile world that is not interested in our message. We look, to all appearances, like easy targets for those who priority is to accumulation of power, who use those whom they find useful, and trample on the rest. If they reflect on the Christian message they may only perceive it as it threat to their systems of oppression and control. Since it won't serve as an ally to their cause they would rather it been silenced than see it spread. Or at other times it will be just one more thing that they don't have time to consider in their path of crushing obstacles to obtain their goals at any cost. But in no cases do they do any favors to the Christian message. Any allegiance they profess is accidental, of convenience, and destined to be temporary. But the point of Jesus is that we go as lambs. We are not meant to succeed because we are stronger wolves or some other similarly violent creature. We do not go with the expectation that we will be able to engage these opponents in the arena of strength with the tools of violence. The plan is specifically not to engage them on their terms even though the expectation is that they will use those tools against us. And this command of Jesus is borne out in the history of Christianity where the peaceful testimony of the blood of martyrs eventually won out against the attempts of the powerful to see them silenced.
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.'
Jesus prohibited these seventy-two from bringing much of anything with them on their journey. The point was that they wouldn't be able to rely on themselves. They would have to trust in God to provide, not just in the abstract, but concretely, in the situations in which they would find themselves. This was in spite of the fact that he did not promise continual success, but rather guaranteed that rejection would be a regular reality. But he promised that they would also sometimes find a peaceful person who would welcome their message and promise of peace. The disciples had nothing of their own to facilitate this mission. But what they did have was the peace they themselves first received from Jesus, his power to heal, and the message of his Kingdom. Rather than trying to succeed with cleverness or elaborate and expensive stunts or advertisements it was intended that the peace that was at the heart of the Gospel was what would make their proclamation persuasive.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you,
for the laborer deserves his payment.
The disciples were instructed not to allow their preferences to become such a priority that they took precedence over the mission. They weren't to be constantly angling for more comfortable circumstances. But even so, it was OK and expected that they would receive support from those to whom they went. They ought not show favoritism by seeking out the best circumstances. But allowing others to provide resources that would help their mission was another matter. Doing so did not imply a particular obligation to those who provided more than those who did not. It was not an unpaid debt since they deserved it as payment for their labor. This implied a delicate balance between a willingness to receive and a refusal to allow a desire for more to dominate.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
When we entrust ourselves to Jesus for the sake of mission we too are bound to experience the wonders of divine providence, all of the myriad ways he provides for his disciples, all of the apparent coincidences that he arranges for the sake of the spread of the Gospel. But all of these things must remain secondary. We should be thankful for them. But we must not let them distract us from the true goal, which is that names, ours and as many others as possible, be written in heaven.
For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision,
but only a new creation.
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