I am sending you like lambs among wolves

18 OCTOBER (Lk 10,1-9)

Jesus sends his disciples into the world as lambs among wolves. Ancient Scripture knows the wolves. It speaks of the evening wolves, hungry and ravenous wolves. They are the figure and symbol of evil, wicked, cruel and ruthless men.

The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet received in vision. How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord. This is why the law is benumbed, and judgment is never rendered: Because the wicked circumvent the just; this is why judgment comes forth perverted. Look over the nations and see, and be utterly amazed! For a work is being done in your days that you would not have believed, were it told. For see, I am raising up Chaldea, that bitter and unruly people, That marches the breadth of the land to take dwellings not his own. Terrible and dreadful is he, from himself derive his law and his majesty. Swifter than leopards are his horses, and keener than wolves at evening. His horses prance, his horsemen come from afar: They fly like the eagle hastening to devour; each comes for the rapine, Their combined onset is that of a storm wind that heaps up captives like sand. He scoffs at kings, and princes are his laughingstock; He laughs at any fortress, heaps up a ramp, and conquers it. Then he veers like the wind and is gone – this culprit who makes his own strength his god!» (Hab 1.1-11).

The evening wolves are particularly aggressive. They spare no animal. They must satiate their hunger. When a man is hungry for evil, sin and vice cannot tolerate who preaches them the light, goodness, justice and truth. The wolves rise up against these and kill them, tearing them to pieces. The missionary is already a martyr at the very moment of his vocation. But Jesus asks him to be extremely cautious.

Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted, to the tyrannical city! She hears no voice, accepts no correction; In the Lord she has not trusted, to her God she has not drawn near. Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are wolves of the night that have had no bones to gnaw by morning. Her prophets are insolent, treacherous men; Her priests profane what is holy, and do violence to the law. The Lord within her is just, who does no wrong; Morning after morning he renders judgment unfailingly, at dawn (Zeph 3,1-5).

However, the world is in need of salvation, redemption, light, truth and grace. It needs to be freed from darkness which is the kingdom and land of wolves. In this realm, the disciple of Jesus must penetrate, he must penetrate to try to snatch out of evil as many souls as he can. The price is his blood. He gives his flesh to the evening wolves in exchange for some souls to be taken to God, to the light, to the truth and to the gospel.

After this the Lord appointed seventy (-two) others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’

Not only must the disciples of Jesus be ever wolves. They must not even appear somewhat similar to them. This is why Jesus wants them to be free of everything. For their freedom to be not only of the heart, mind and spirit; that is, to be only invisible freedom, Jesus wants it to be also visible. They will have to carry neither purse, nor bag, nor shoes, nor any other thing. They must bring only their body with the robe they wear and only a stick of support for the journey. Their freedom must be visible in their every gesture, relationship, action and behavior. No one must think that they too are evening wolves disguised as lambs.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us be visibly free.