TODAY’S READINGS

The Gospel reading is from Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8. The verses for our consideration today contain these words of Jesus:

The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest. (v. 37-38)

“After contemplating the crowds neglected by their shepherds, Jesus uses the image of the harvest to show us that the same crowd is ready to receive the effects of the Redemption: ‘I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see now the fields are already white for harvest’ (Jn 4:35)…In this connexion 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, 3 October 1977). (The Navarre Bible: St Matthew, 101)

“Jesus is surely the Worker par excellence whom the Father has sent out. In a real sense there is no other. Unless a man do what Jesus does, as he does it and by virtue of the power that is Jesus’, all human effort and planning are vain daydreams and a useless squandering of energy. Jesus the Worker in the Harvest must, therefore, first communicate to his followers his Heart (his compassion) and his mind (the vision whereby he is able to imagine what he sees in all its deep compelling truth). He invites us to see what he sees as he sees it, and now and then he checks to see if we are still following the logic of his mind and Her by addressing us obliquely: ‘Pray for workers!’ Which is another way of saying: ‘Pray that you yourselves may be transformed into workers!” (Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, Vol. I, 518-519)

The highlighted verses are often invoked in praying for religious vocations — and rightfully so. But both Pope St. Paul VI and Leiva-Merikakis raise awareness to the fact that we are all called to the task of evangelization. We are to prepare ourselves for this mission by prayer, study, reading of Scripture, and above all through a constant conversion of heart that leads to living a radically Christian life — one so radical that others will take notice and long to have what we have.

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE AND ST. JUAN DIEGO

A great day to ask for Mary’s intercession under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe and also to invoke poor little Juan Diego. Nearly five hundred years ago, through this nondescript peasant, the Blessed Virgin effected the conversion of millions to the true Faith while the same number of the faithful were being ripped away across the Atlantic through the Protestant Revolt.

Read all about the miracle in Mexico here.

God bless.

The Angelus by Jean-Francois Millet (1857-1859)