We may need to remind ourselves from time to time that we are reading about Peter, James, John, and the nine others in today's Gospel. They were the men whose labours led to the Church as we know it now large and powerful, at least to some degree. They were inexperienced men at the kind of work they were being asked to do. So, they were given the ability by God to do things they would never have dreamed of attempting.

In order to avoid being tempted to attribute to themselves the success of the work, they were attempting, Jesus told them not to go to the work highly self-equipped. If they did, they might be tempted to attribute to themselves any success they might experience.

They ventured out then, trusting that God would see to it that they would have what they needed to carry out the first recorded apostolic exercise in the history of the Church without the physical presence of Jesus.

Let us pray that the Church of the 2020s will be able to keep the balance between reliance on a high degree of self-equipment of all kinds and trust in God's loving care and support.