Gospel (Lk 10,1-9) - At that time, the Lord designated seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him in every city and place where he was about to go. He told them: «The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few! Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest! Go: behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves; do not carry a purse, bag or sandals and do not stop to greet anyone along the way. »Whatever house you enter, first say: “Peace be to this house!”. If there is a child of peace, your peace will come upon him, otherwise it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking from what they have, because whoever works has a right to his reward. Don't go from one house to another. When you enter a city and they welcome you, eat what is offered to you, heal the sick who are there, and say to them: 'The kingdom of God is near you'".

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Today the Church remembers Luke, the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. A tradition has it that he was among the seventy-two. In fact, his figure and his Gospel are characterized by a great missionary impetus. Luke will be among Paul's companions and collaborators in his missionary journeys, and he will immediately begin to collect the testimonies of the disciples who had lived with Jesus, carefully drafting these memories in the Gospel that bears his name and in the Acts of the Apostles. In this passage then we find all of Jesus' confident gaze towards the world: a ripe harvest that the Lord wishes to be harvested, so that nothing of the life of men is lost. The vision of Jesus is not the naive gaze of one who does not know evil, but the clear and courageous vision of one who knows the strength of love and knows that in the heart of each one and in the very heart of the world an abundant fruit of life is hidden that can mature. The Lord's first mandate is to pray. And prayer is also a willingness to get involved in the work of God, we who have been gathered like a fruit from the hands of the Lord who chose and called us. Jesus says: go! Like Jesus, the disciples also walk with a precise purpose and a goal. They are not vagabonds but envoys who move freely, without burdens, cumbersome baggage of things and ideas, prejudices: "Do not go from house to house and do not say hello to anyone along the way." Disciples like Jesus go everywhere; they do not choose the place based on utility criteria. They go and become close to those they meet with simplicity and kindness, offering the announcement of the Gospel, bearing witness to it with their works, fighting against evil, offering the medicine of love to everyone. «Behold: I send you as lambs among wolves». The disciples of the Lord cannot accept the logic of the world, the logic of force, of violence, which belongs to the wolf more than to the lamb. Every disciple is called to be like a lamb to demonstrate the power of love that saves and frees from all evil. And we feel how in a world marked by so much violence, in which men are tempted by a logic of power and opposition, by the habit of responding to evil with evil, there is instead a need for this Gospel which transforms the hearts of wolves in lambs. Just when the light of the kingdom seems most distant, the prayer, hope and love of the disciples make it close and present.