Good News is on the Way

07-03-2022Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

This week, in the midst of summer, the scriptures greet us with joy, peace, mercy, and more peace! Sounds a little like Advent, doesn’t it? We often associate the prophet Isaiah with that preparatory season, and our first reading rings with such words as exult, comfort, and rejoice. The Israelites had reason to rejoice, for they had returned, come home, to a rebuilt Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.

In the Gospel, the seventy-two disciples who were sent out have their own “homecoming,” returning to Jesus from spreading the Good News of the Kingdom and preparing people for the “advent” of Jesus into their cities and towns on his long road to Jerusalem. Like the exiles in Isaiah, the disciples return rejoicing.

The Good News, the Kingdom of God, is coming, even in summer. As today’s psalm reminds us, “Shout joyfully to God, all the earth!”