Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Recently the team I work in has relocated from one office area on the ground floor of our building to the top floor. And in the process, I have moved from sitting beside a frosted window, to a view across the treetops. As we head into what is usually the coldest part of winter (albeit it in a fairly temperate climate) I see brown leaves and bare trees amongst the eucalypts and native myrtles, but in our chapel there has been a sudden outburst of liturgical green, as we return to Ordinary Time. After the brilliant white, gold and red of the Easter season and the various solemnities that followed it, Ordinary green is a reminder that our faith is never dormant if we continue to embrace prayer and the sacraments. Ordinary Time is a time of growth.

In this Sunday's Gospel we come across Jesus' plan to grow the reach and effectiveness of his public ministry. "He appointed seventy-two others and sent them out in pairs to all the towns and places he himself was to visit."

Jesus gives them very specific instructions about what to say and what to do in the event that their message of peace and love is accepted and what to do if it is not. But in the end, we are told that these missionaries of God's love came back rejoicing, amazed at the welcome they received.

This should come as no surprise. The world in which the disciples lived was one of turmoil, division, oppression and hurt. There was a hunger for hope and the Good News. And as we read this passage today, we can recognise the same hunger in our society, and ourselves.

In the Gospel Jesus tells the disciples to spread the Good News that 'the kingdom of God is very near to you' and to share with them the signs of God's love. As we gather together this Sunday to hear God's Word and share the sacrament of God's love, the words of the dismissal 'Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord' will resonate a little more strongly with me, as we are sent out to be the green shoots of the only news that is good for everyone that hears it.

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