We do not often hear readings from the Prophet Baruch in the liturgies. Today we hear a wonderful historical lament about just how the Word of God had been announced to them, but they preferred more self-indulgent voices. Now they ponder in their exile while in Babylon.

They are still the People of God. Their time of captivity is a time to reflect on their previously being in the captivity of not wanting to know what is good and better for them.

My younger brother, Mike, and I would play a game which involved jumping from one bed to the next while trying to toss a pillow into a narrow basket and being defended by one another. Sometimes we would miss the other bed and crash to the floor which was immediately above where our father was trying to read the evening’s paper. His voice would echo up the stairs, “If you guys know what’s good for you…..!”

We knew what was good for us at that moment, to score and make sure the other didn’t. So we hoped his reading would be good for him. What wasn’t “good for us” was the voice of his steps on the stairs preceding his arrival. That was not good for us.

In our Gosple Reading for today’s Eucharistic Liturgy, Luke pictures Jesus preparing seventy-two disciples to go to other villages to proclaim what is good for them. What we hear in these verses is really quite an encouragement to their mission. Jesus rcalls other towns to which the prophets came and spoke and as with the lament of the First Reading, those villages to which Jesus is sending them will have the opportunity to “listen” or “reject” what these seventy-two will speak. They are like the prophets of Isreal’s history, some listened-to, most rejected.

It is said that whom we listen to will determine what we hear. It is so very difficult to know what’s good for us. These present and holy days of the Synod in Rome, there are being words spoken which are very, very hard for all to hear, yes all! As is usual with us, what is good for us is what we know, believe and hold fast already. What is not good are the words which invite us to listen for the change, deeply, to uncertainty and fear.

We would like the comforting assurance of divine God-o-Grams to secure us, as individuals and as a Church. God will never give us anything or anyone who will render our trust in God unnecessary.

That to which the Synod is calling the participants, that is all of us, is to listen to the One Who is speaking what calls us to faith and hope and acceptance of what is ultimately good for us as people of faith. We will be listening for His steps.