Homily
for Thursday
Week 26 of Ordinary Time
St. Therese of Lisieux
Oct. 1, 2026
Luke 10: 1-12
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
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| Jesus sends out the 72 disciples (James Tissot) |
“Jesus appointed 72 other disciples whom he sent ahead of him…” (Luke 10: 1).
Jesus first sent the 12 out as missionaries (ch.
9); now he dispatches 6 times as many from the larger circle of his disciples. Their mission is to announce “the kingdom of
God is at hand” (10:11); it’s coming in the person of Jesus, for the 72 are
sent “to every town and place he intended to visit” (10:1). Evidently that includes a lot of territory—36
places.
Assembled in the 2d Vatican Council, the Church emphasized
her missionary nature and purpose. The
post-conciliar Popes have reaffirmed that.
All Jesus’ followers are missionary because they follow him and they
want to—they must—announce his presence:
“the kingdom of God is at hand.”
They must prepare humanity for his coming.
He comes when his word is preached. He comes in his sacraments. He comes when his followers practice the
works of mercy, as the 12 were explicitly commanded when Jesus sent them out: “He gave the 12 power and authority over all
demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God
and to heal the sick” (9:1-2). He will
come again with his angels on the Last Day to complete the redemption of his
people.
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| St. Therese at the crucifix within the Carmel cloister |
Little Therese in her cloister knew that. If she couldn’t go to China, Vietnam, or Algeria as so many of her French contemporaries were doing, she could exercise the mission of prayer and of correspondence. That she did, so fervently and so effectively that, as you know, Pius XI named her patroness of the missions.
It’s no coincidence that John Paul II canonized
120 Chinese martyrs on her feastday in 2000.
More than a dozen of them were French missionaries.
There was a time, brothers, when you were like the
72, on mission not in pairs but in apostolic communities, announcing the Lord
Jesus who came among us as Savior 20 centuries ago and who will come again in
his glory to share that glory with all of us.
Now you’re like little Therese, not quite cloistered but missioned to
imitate her example by praying for your active brothers and all the members of
the Edmund Rice Network, and your past pupils, their families, and the
Brothers’ present pupils and families.
May peace rest upon your houses and the homes of all whose lives you
touch (cf. 10:5-6).
