At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study of the Vatican Apostolic Palace will recite the Angelus with the pilgrims and faithful gathered in the square Saint Peter.
The Pope’s words at the Angelus prayer:
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
In the Gospel of this Sunday’s liturgy, we read that “the Lord appointed seventy-two [disciples], and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come” (Lk 10:1). The disciples are sent two by two, not individually. To go on a mission two by two, from a practical point of view, would seem to bring more disadvantages than advantages. There is the risk that the two do not get along, that they would go at a different pace, that one would get tired or sick along the way, forcing the other to stop. When one is alone, on the other hand, it seems the journey would become swifter and smoother. However, Jesus does not think like this: he does not send people out alone before him, but disciples who go two by two. Let us ask ourselves: what is the reason for this choice of the Lord? It was the task of the disciples to go ahead into the villages to prepare the people to receive Jesus; and the instructions he gives them are not so much about what they should say, but how they should be: on thewitness to give more than the words to say. Indeed, he defines them as workers: they are therefore required to work, to evangelize through their behaviour. And the first practical action with which the disciples carry out their mission is precisely that of going two by two. They are not “free riders”, preachers who do not know how to yield the word to another. It is primarily the very life of the disciples that announces the Gospel: their knowing how to be together, their mutual respect, their not wanting to prove that they are more capable than the other, their concordant reference to the one Master.
Perfect pastoral plans can be drawn up, and well-designed projects implemented, organized down to the last detail; one can summon crowds and have many means; but if there is no willingness to fraternity, the mission cannot advance. Once, a missionary told of how he left for Africa with a confrere. However, after some time he separated from him, stopping in a village where he successfully implemented a series of building projects for the good of the community. Everything was working. But one day he had a jolt: he realized that his life was that of a good entrepreneur, always in the midst of building sites and paperwork! So, he left the management to others and joined his confrere. He thus understood why the Lord had sent the disciples “two by two”: the evangelizing mission is not based on personal activism, that is, on “doing”, but on the witness of brotherly love, even amid the difficulties that living together entails.
So, we might wonder: how do we take the good news of the Gospel to others? Do we do so with a fraternal spirit and style, or in the manner of the world, with self-promotion, competitiveness and efficiency. Let us ask ourselves whether we have the capacity to collaborate, whether we know how to take decisions together, sincerely respecting those who are alongside us and taking into account their point of view. Indeed, it is above all in this way that the life of the disciple allows that of the Master to shine through, truly announcing it to others.
May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, teach us how to prepare the way for the Lord with the witness of fraternity.
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