Mt 9: 32-38
After they had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke; and the crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.”
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved. http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations
A Love that Labors
Jesus is hard at work healing the mute, the deaf, and the blind. Yet in today’s gospel we see once more that the true mutes are the Pharisees, both deaf and blind from the spiritual realm. Ironically, the Pharisees, leaders in the community, cannot see the power of God working through Jesus. Their own learning has blinded them from seeing an obvious manifestation of God’s power in their midst and they dismiss it as something evil.
Even today many of our leaders are blinded by personal ambition, popular opinion, and corrupt intentions. The true laborers, the women and men for others, come from those who are humble enough to see their need for healing and are willing to surrender to the love of Jesus.
Jesus wants nothing more than to enter into our lives to guide us in our vocation as laborers for the Kingdom. How might I be able to trust in his heart of love? How might trusting this love propel me to reach the many needy in our city, neighborhood or even right in my own home?
—Matthew Lieser, S.J. is a Jesuit scholastic studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.
Prayer
Love consists in sharing what one has and what one is with those one loves. Love ought to show itself in deeds more than in words.
—St. Ignatius Loyola