Our world is in a constant battle between good and evil. But in the ultimate scheme of creation, Satan will never win because he is not authentic. He pretends to be a prince, but Jesus is the true King of Glory. The Kingdom is proclaimed. Evil is destroyed. The devil falls from the sky. And we are overwhelmed with joy. In today’s Gospel, the seventy-two who had been sent out to proclaim the kingdom return exuberant. You can feel their excitement in the reading. They had such wonderful experiences that they couldn’t wait to tell the Lord all about them. Everybody was talking at once. Jesus himself joined right in, “I saw Satan falling like lightning from the sky.” Who were these seventy-two? We don’t even know one of their names. And there is a reason for that. They are us. We are the “Seventy-two”. We are the ones who have nursed on the Word of God and become strong. We are the ones who have become so strong that others experience the Word of God within us.
It is the same regarding immorality in the nation and in the world. We need to be calm. We need to let our peace return to us. At the same time, we need to take a stand for the truth. And we need to pray for all those supporting immoral positions. We cannot allow the reactions of others to our proclaiming the Kingdom to determine whether we will continue to evangelize. Instead, we need to remember the reaction of the Lord to the Seventy-Two when they returned home with such palpable enthusiasm. He joined in with joy. And he joins in with our joy when we do our best to serve him.
