“Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”
This is what Jesus says to His newly appointed disciples prior to sending them out across the landscape to all the places he intends to visit, to spread His teachings and prepare them for His coming and let them know that God is here. Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat it. He let his disciples know that it’s going to be tough. They will be mocked. They will be attacked. They will be hated. And to top it all off, they are to carry no money, no material possessions, and no additional clothing. They only have the clothes on their back. Jesus then tells the disciples that the “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few”, that there are so many people out there that God loves, people from all walks of life, from all nations, people rich and poor that need to be saved, but there are only 72 of you to do the job right now, to do Gods will. Quite a send-off, right? It makes you wonder what may have been going through the mind of these disciples, many of them probably wondering what they were getting themselves into! They were truly being sent out into the wilderness like helpless sheep, with dangers all around. And they weren’t being sent as a herd, but rather in pairs so that they could cover more ground, and reach more people. But this left them more vulnerable as well. All they had was each other – and God.
You see, by Jesus doing this, he was teaching his disciples to depend on one another and God’s grace for their very livelihood. They had no control over where they would stay, or what they would eat. He was ensuring that they depend solely on God’s grace and that He would provide everything they needed. All they needed to do was trust and believe. Was this road easy? Not at all. Not even close. But Jesus also taught that where two or three are gathered, He is there. Therefore, as long as they watched out for one another and had absolute Faith in Christ, He would be there to shepherd them.
It’s quite amazing when you think of it. If this were to happen today, we would look at these guys with the same skepticism and fear as I am sure they were met with 2000 years ago, if not more. But yet many of us are on this same journey in our own lives in today’s world. While most of us face no personal attack or physical danger, many of us may face mocking or ridicule as we try to be good Catholics in our societies. We are all still lambs among wolves, trying to spread Christ’s teachings and live good, moral, Catholic lives. This is why we need all the laborers we can get. We need to help each other, and be there for each other working together to do God’s will and spread the gospel. We need fellowship and companions to make this happen, to change the world as Jesus and His disciples did. We each need to be loyal companions to the end in this fight, much like St. Luke, who’s Feast Day we celebrate today.
Luke was a convert of Paul, a gentile who gave up a great job as a doctor to follow and spread Christ’s teachings across the world in his time. In his letter to Timothy, Paul mentioned that many of his companions had left him. Demas got caught up in the worldly affairs, or maybe even gave up the faith altogether and deserted him. Crescens and Titus each went their separate ways. Paul was distraught and extremely saddened by this. He felt abandoned, as I’m sure many of us do from time to time by those close to us who let us down. But then there was Luke.
“Luke is the only one with me”, Paul wrote. We too, are going to run into this in our own affairs as we go through life. We’re going to be deserted by some of those that are close to us, whether it is friends, co-workers, or even family. No one is perfect. Each of us have our own demons, our own afflictions that we need to battle through and some people may only be able to give a little bit, or nothing at all from time to time. Some people close to us may emotionally or even physically hurt us. For those that hurt us, as Paul says, “the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” And then yet, he goes on to say, “May it not be held against them!” We will be hurt in this life. We will be deserted by those close to us. We do not know what is going on in the minds of people and what troubles they deal with, even when we think we do. God will deal with each of us in his own way, and it is He alone who will judge – not us. Sometimes we can give a lot. Sometimes we can only give a little. It’s our duty to simply meet people where they are and accept what they can give, even if it is not what we expect. We never know all the circumstances, only God does.
But then, we will have some people in our lives that are our companions to the end, through thick and thin. People that would give us the shirt off their back, and people of whom we would do the same. First and foremost this may be a spouse, our children, parents, friends, coworkers, and fellow disciples in Christ. We all have people in our lives that would go the extra mile, or would even die for us, and people for whom we would do the same. Companions, that together, we help make one another better people and better Christians. We all need those companions in our life that help to make us better, and the greatest companion is Christ. We are indeed lambs among wolves in this world. But with Christ as our shepherd and our guide, and through the loyalty and companionship of St. Luke, we do as it says in today’s Psalm, “our friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.” Together we can show the world that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Together we can make a difference, and be faithful companions to the end.
