ON THE ROAD

Reflections on the Fourteenth Sunday in OT: Isaiah 66:10-14c, Galatians 6:14-18, Luke 10:1-12,17-20

Discipleship is, everything else, the willingness to set out on a journey. It is “on the road” that the Gospel is lived and proclaimed. The road takes us to new encounters. We are sent in pairs like lambs among wolves to carry with us the blessing of peace and the message that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The harvest is truly abundant, and the labourers “on the road” are few. What does walking “on the road” entail? The liturgy clarifies three important characteristics of this discipleship journey.

1. A Patient Journey: 

What chance do the “lambs on the road” stand when confronted by the wolves? Consider whom Jesus chose as his ambassadors: a group comprised of fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, etc., often found lacking understanding and humility, getting into trouble with the leadership, missing the point of Jesus’ teachings, saying the wrong thing and doing the opposite of what was asked. Jesus walked with them patiently “on the road”.  God transforms our weakness into a miracle by walking with us. This is the central message of Isaiah’s proclamation in the first reading, which addresses the struggles and challenges facing the Israelites in the post-Babylonian exile period. People had suffered the exile, cut off from their people, land, and the Temple.

The small groups of exiles who returned to Judah after Persia’s defeat of Babylon in 539 now faced hardship, famine, political infighting, and economic oppression. Bitter conflicts arose between the returning exiles and those who had stayed behind and claimed the land. Sadly, the internal divisions that led to exile (in the first place) persisted post-exile, too. Those who returned anticipating the promised “great blessings” only found further suffering and challenges. In this context, Isaiah 66 proclaims the promise of Zion’s vindication and God’s defeat of those who rebel. However, sandwiched between these themes of God’s anger and revenge, we encounter another image: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you”. The patient “Mother God” restores the weary bones of Israel. God’s patience inspires us to hope (2 Peter 3:15) Yes, we are weak! Yet, the Lord’s patience transforms us into effective pilgrims of hope ‘on the road’ (theme of Jubilee 2025).

2. A Providential Journey:  

“Go on your way”, says Jesus. No purse, no bag, no sandals. Nothing to weigh their steps down. They are not to carry the burden of lofty ideologies or doctrines either. The greatest resource is not what we carry with us or what we have gathered. Trust in God’s providence! The Lord, through his spirit, prepares in advance all that we require for our journey and our encounters ‘on the road’. St Teresa of Avila says, “It is a most certain truth, that the richer we see ourselves to be, confessing at the same time our poverty, the greater will be our progress, and the more real our humility.” Jesus not only sends the twelve disciples closest to him but also appoints “seventy-two other disciples”. The number 72 carries a rich symbolic significance. Genesis 10 (the Septuagint version) lists 72 nations as representing all peoples of the earth after the flood.

By sending out 72 disciples, Jesus indicates that his mission concerns not just Israel (12 tribes/apostles) but the entire humanity. The harvest is truly abundant, and the labourers “on the road” are few. Where does the Church find enough labourers for this universal mission? Jesus tells his disciples, “Ask the master of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest”. God’s providence discovers new labourers for the harvest. We discover freedom ‘on the road’ when we truly trust God’s providence. Our mission is not only to teach, but also to discover. Mission is fulfilled by openness. A disciple’s mission is to go with total trust in God, who provides and prepares. When the disciple meets the suffering poor, the existential and geographical peripheries, the Lord is already there. He’s ahead of us. So the disciples not only evangelise but also let themselves be evangelised.

3. A Powerful Journey: 

Our journey “on the road” can at times lose its vision. While Jesus encourages us to accompany him “on the road to Calvary” we might well be walking the path of aspirations for privileges, titles of glory, the first place, or the right and left seats of the Kingdom. Following Jesus is a beautiful blend of the “failure of power” and the “power of failure”. The failure of power is the failure of what Pope Francis calls the path of meritocracy, one of the spiritual diseases of our world today. It is the failure of our endless quest for domination at the cost of others, the search for security, comfort, honour and autonomy that distances us from God, from each other and nature. The power of failure, on the contrary,  emerges from Jesus' quest not for power but for self-giving, not for the powerful but for the victims.

Jesus walks with the rejected in search of the lost sheep, integrating the “impure, unworthy, and the excluded” into the kingdom of God. Paul, in today’s second reading, testifies to the power of failure: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Standing at the foot of the cross, we realise that real power consists not in victimising but in becoming the victim. As disciples, we continue to preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block and foolishness to the world, but to us who are called, the real power and wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:23) Our discipleship is a treasure God has benevolently given to us, while we are still jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7). May our journey “on the road” be inspired by God’s patience, providence, and his logic of power.