Luke 10:1 - 12, 17 - 20
As you might remember, Luke and the other gospel writers describe the sending out of the twelve apostles. Luke is the only one who has Jesus sending out seventy-two disciples on another occasion. You have to remember Luke’s overall purpose; he’s showing how the Christian movement began with an angel appearing to Mary, Mary revealing Jesus to Joseph and later Elizabeth; Jesus preaching in the temple, and eventually taking on his ministry with the twelve. If you leap ahead to the Acts of the apostles, you see the Church growing under the ministrations of Peter and John, then Philip, and finally, Paul. So Luke wanted us to see how, right from the beginning, the Church is a mission church. Do we know any of those seventy-two disciples? I doubt it. But I can think of two individuals who might very well have been part of that group. They are mentioned by Paul more than once. There was a prominent evangelist in those early days named Apollos. Prisca, also known as Priscilla, and Aquila, the married couple we are talking about, sat down with Apollos and corrected some of his teachings. They went on to travel with Paul and were tentmakers and missionaries themselves. Some bible scholars thought that the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is written in scholarly Greek, may have been authored by Prisca, or perhaps by Prisca and her husband together, because even though it contains definite Pauline ideas, it’s written by someone else. Legend has it that Aquila later became a bishop, and both he and his wife suffered martyrdom.
During Jesus’ time, we know that he had large crowds following him at different times. We also know that despite the societal norms of those days, Jesus had many female disciples. And we know that it was unusual for a Jewish man to remain unmarried by his late teens. So it isn’t unreasonable that many of the disciples sent out two by two were married couples -- and that’s worth thinking about. Because couples who are really responding to the graces of the Sacrament of Matrimony make great missionaries. When my wife and I were engaged, we were introduced to a married couple, who, after raising their children, decided to found a mission in a very poor Mexican community. They had basically sold everything and moved to that community, where they were using their skills to help the people. We met them when they had returned to the states to raise more money. They were, according to them, happier than they had ever been. To Joan and I it opened up possibilities -- that a married couple could have a vocation to be missionaries, or whatever else God has in store for them -- a vocation over and above raising a family. Being a deacon, I’ve learned that the diaconate is often a vocation for a couple, not just the man.
In our gospel today Jesus sends out his disciples two by two. There are probably many reasons for this. If you send out three or four, someone will be on the outs. It’s natural. If you send out one, a lot depends on that person’s personality. Some are too shy to make good missionaries. Some decide to make it all about themselves. Jesus had a few individuals like that. Remember the man who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name but wasn’t a member of the apostolic band? And remember when the apostles who had been waiting at the foot of the mountain when Jesus had been transfigured? They couldn’t cast out the demon in the boy by themselves. But two individuals hold each other accountable. And in a good marriage, that’s really what it’s all about.
In the book of Genesis, it records the origin of mankind. Unlike the rest of the creation story, where God simply makes things happen, the story of human creation begins with “Let us make man in our own image and likeness.” The word for man in Hebrew means “humanity”. The passage goes on to say that God created man in his image; male and female he created them. In other words, while we all bear the image of God, married couples have the potential through the sacrament of shining fourth the image even more powerfully. After all, God is fundamentally three persons in a relationship, and that’s the potential we see in the sacrament of matrimony.
Most married couples bring a third person or even more into their relationship because they have followed God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. But like the missionary couple to whom I referred; the marital relationship is open to bringing others into the relationship. And that of course is what Prisca and Aquila did -- they brought Paul into their union, and Apollos, and who knows who else.
Of course, most marriages can only strive in that direction. But the power is there, and in our time, people who take the sacrament seriously and try to reflect the image of God to those around them, especially their children, are the ones who are responsible for Satan falling like lightning from the sky. So pray for good marriages and live a good marriage if you are married; remember that together you are in a special way the image of God.
