Advent Day 7: We’re all to be farmers

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TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8)

From Matthew 9:37-38:

[Jesus] said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”

From The Navarre Bible: St Matthew, page 101

“Paul VI reminds us: ‘the responsibility for spreading the Gospel that saves belongs to everyone — to all those who have received it! the missionary duty concerns the whole body of the Church; in different ways and to different degrees, it is true, but we must all of us be united in carrying out this duty. Now let the conscience of every believer ask himself: Have I carried out my missionary duty? Prayer for the Missions is the first way of fulfilling this duty’) Angelus Address, 23 October 1977).”

From Opening the Scriptures: Bringing the Gospel of Matthew to Life, page 180:

“This request [v. 38] will be the prayer of the church when Matthew writes his gospel, and it is the prayer of the church today. It is a prayer offered out of compassion for those who are troubled and helpless: laborers are needed to lift their burdens and bring them ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ (verse 35).”

From Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word (Volume I), page 520:

“Jesus’ movement of mercy in verse 36 and his densely imaged reflection, which in a flash of lightning transforms the landscape before him, are conveyed by the evangelist not as a direct quite of anything said by Jesus, but rather as an unveiling of the interior thoughts of the His Heart. For one precious instant, Matthew makes us privy to the emotive and mental processes of the Son of God. This means that the prayer Jesus teaches his disciples a moment later is a communication to them of his own Heart, mind, and prayer. In teaching them to pray in that way, there is an undertone of high pathos as God turns to man expectantly, seeing if he might convey to him the desires of his own Heart. On seeing and assuming human misery, the Son of God turns to his brother men — to those who he has chosen and who have given him some token of reciprocal affection — in order to share with them the common burden of the Persons of the Trinity. e does not at once inform them of some efficient plan of action to solve the problem before them. Rather, he admonishes them to see as he sees and to run to his and their Father with their pressing desire. In this way, the friends and followers of the Bridegroom are on the point of becoming fellow workers with the Bridegroom…’Disciple’ becomes indistinguishable from ‘worker’.”

My take

Just a month ago we marked National Vocation Awareness Week. It was billed as “an annual week-long celebration of the Catholic Church in the United States dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations.” This is a wonderful thing! No bishops, no priests. No priests, no Mass. No Mass, no Eucharist. So let us continue to fervently pray for our clergy and for those being called by God to be ordained.

But even with a vocations boom, the number of clergy would be minuscule in relation to the general population. This is where we, the laity, come in. By virtue of our Baptism, we are called to be harvesters — wherever the Lord has placed us. The vast majority of us are the laborers in fields like: the office, the school, the construction site, the homestead, the club, and the public square. If we truly interiorize the Good News of Jesus, becoming possessed by the Holy Spirit, even if we are resistant to expressing this outwardly, we would be like Jeremiah (20:9 — read vv. 7-18 for inspiration from his struggle and ours):

I say I will not mention him,
I will no longer speak in his name.
But then it is as if fire is burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding back,
I cannot!

And like the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:32):

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”

Jesus, the Word of God, known to us by the Scriptures the Church has given to us, should light a fire (cf. Acts 2:3) within us.

How can I repay the LORD
for all the great good done for me? (Psalms 116:12)

How about fulfilling His desire to be a farmer? Let us pray incessantly for others (and ourselves) with Ezekiel (36:26):

I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

ADVENT RESOURCES

ADVENT/CHRISTMAS READING

The Harvesters (1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

God bless!

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