Gospel according to Luke 9:1-6
Jesus entrusts the Twelve with an immense mission and asks them to set out with empty hands. Those hands will have to learn to welcome, to care for others, but also to receive. What tenderness there is in this mission: whoever brings the love of God will need someone’s open door. The Gospel begins to blossom there too, when we meet one another without feeling superior, happy to need each other. For the Kingdom of God is justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit: it is a life in which His Love makes its dwelling and transforms, day after day, the way we love. It is justice when we notice those who are left behind and restore to them a place, a voice, and dignity. It is peace when we choose not to wound, even when we have words capable of doing so. It is joy when another person’s good becomes a celebration within our own heart too. How much space we can open to God in the small choices of each day! And then Jesus teaches us to shake the dust from our feet: even the rejection we encounter along the way must be entrusted to Him. That dust, in fact, can cling to the heart, become bitterness, and make us arrive at the next door already unable to trust. But His Love makes us free: free to knock again, to offer again, to believe again in goodness. Most beloved Jesus, I wish that whoever meets me may find in my heart a small place where they can breathe Your Love. Make me attentive to the pain that makes no noise, courageous in doing good, and humble, ready also to allow myself to be helped. Come and reign in my words, in my decisions, and in my hands. Grant that, through my poor life, someone may finally feel welcomed, precious, seen, and infinitely loved by You.
-Rosanna Dora De Lucia
