The disciples are glad that they have become heralds and co-workers of God's Kingdom, victors over demons and healers of diseases. But Jesus stops them: "You are rejoicing over the wrong thing"... God gives those who believe in Him many good and amazing things (if they can see them), but the chief value of His Kingdom is not this.

The disciples, and with them the readers of the Gospel, are blessed, happy already because they have seen and heard what the prophets and sages of antiquity only dreamed of: they are witnesses, witnesses not only of miracles, healings, victories over evil, but they are near the very Center of God's Kingdom.

So this is not an abstraction, not paradise, not an afterlife, not gifts and miracles, but God Himself, revealed to people in His Son Jesus.

As we read Luke the Evangelist's account of the sending of the seventy apostles to preach, it is important for us to determine as precisely as possible the charge with which Christ sends them. The Evangelist conveys in detail the Lord's words that the seventy should not prepare for long and difficult journeys, but, relying on God, should be content with what He would send them along the way. The main thing, the Lord says, is this: where they receive you, stay there; where they do not receive you, go on from there. The essence of what the Lord sends them with is to bring the message of peace and that the Kingdom of God has drawn near to you.

So the task of the seventy apostles, and after them of the whole Church, is to announce to people that Christ is already near, close beside them. After the apostles, the Lord Himself will come into those villages and towns and will speak the word to those who want to hear and heal those who suffer. In the apostolic ministry of the Church, the main thing is to proclaim to the world the coming of Christ, and the key element in this witness, according to Christ's word, is the ministry of peace. Not to scourge people's vices and "rebuild society," but to bring peace to those who are willing to receive it.

The Lord says: "If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him." It is important that He does not say "My peace," although the prophets had long said that He Himself is peace for people, as the apostle Paul will repeat: "He is our peace." In order to fulfill the commission given to them, the seventy apostles, and the whole Church after them, must themselves be filled with this peace of God, so that it truly becomes ours.

Every person mentioned in the Bible becomes an example for us in something special and very personal. Luke, who wrote much but is rarely mentioned in the text of Scripture, is often lost against the background of those whom he described so brightly and vividly. Whenever we try to make out his features and hear his voice, it is best to remember the apostle Paul's words from today's reading: "Luke alone is with me." Here Luke is the one who remains nearby when the celebration is over, when the days follow one after another, filled with hard and thankless work. He will remember and preserve what matters most; he is faithful and patient. And he will never turn away from the One in whom he believes, and that, you will agree, is very important on a difficult road.