Today's first reading tells us about God comforting Jerusalem and includes these beautiful words: "I will cause peace to flow to her like a river.". In fact, the earthly city of Jerusalem has never really enjoyed this consolation and has suffered throughout history. Ultimately, God has in mind the consolations reserved for the heavenly Jerusalem, which are outlined in the last two chapters of the Bible, in Revelation. And yet the Church is now acting in practice as the seed or beginning of this "Jerusalem from above." (cf. Galatians 4:26-31; Hebrews 12:22). Wherever the Christian faith is truly lived, something of this consolation, of this river of peace, already arrives.
In the Gospel, Jesus outlines the basic contours of the work of evangelization which, in turn, must always be the transmission of peace. Through it, the "chest dildo" of the heavenly Jerusalem extends to all her children. "When you enter a house, say first: Peace to this house"Jesus says to his disciples as he sends them out. Evangelization, in any of its forms, including the personal witness of Christians to their friends, is a work of healing and proclamation of the kingdom of Christ, which is a totally new way of life and frees us from the tyranny of earthly dominion. However, Jesus is far from naïve. He begins by warning his disciples of the obstacles they will face. "The harvest is plentiful and the laborers few... I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves."and gives them instructions on what to do if they are rejected (the symbolic gesture of wiping the dust from their feet: cf. Acts 13:51).
And Our Lord also makes it clear that, if we want to evangelize, we must live the virtue of poverty. For this reason, he establishes a series of instructions that the disciples must follow ("carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor sandals; and salute no man by the way."). These instructions should be applied to our actual state of life and should not necessarily be taken literally. But the more the desire for earthly things clutters in our hearts, the less inclined we will be to direct others - or ourselves - towards Heaven (evangelization and sobriety of life go hand in hand). And Heaven must be the goal. When the disciples return rejoicing that the demons have been subdued in the name of Christ, Jesus tells them that this is not the most important thing: "be cheerful"he tells them, "for your names are written in heaven.". Evangelization consists in this: writing names in heaven, "reserving" for people their heavenly dwelling place (cf. John 14:2).
