of the harvest to send workers to his harvest. Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse
or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them, saying, ‘Peace to this house!’
If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and
drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house. When they welcome you to any town, eat what they
offer you. Heal the sick who are there, and say to them: ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.’

Reflection

The Gospel of Luke presents a unique
account of Jesus appointing seventy disciples. In other
text such as Luke, it is seventy two. This is aside
from the common tradition of the sending of the Twelve
(Apostles). Seventy is a symbolic number in the
bible. It represents the sum or fullness of entities. In
the book of Genesis 10, the table of nations lists seventy
nations of the world. Abraham emerges from
these nations as the head of a new people of God’s
choosing in Genesis 12. Abraham, in turn, through
Jacob, becomes a family of seventy that goes down
to Egypt in Genesis 46:27. Thus the number seventy
has great significance in the Jewish mentality. It does
not only denote its literal meaning. It anticipates the
countless men and women who will later on advance
the good news of Jesus Christ to the known world.