A great calling, a glorious labor ~ reflex on Mt 9:32-38 (Copy)
Jesus is doing what Jesus does: curing the sick and preaching the Good News to eager crowds. He is touching people, healing people, freeing people. While the Pharisees reject him and accuse him of being in league with the devil, the throngs of people long for his healing presence; they are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” And Jesus’ loving heart is “moved with pity for them.” His love longs to shepherd them into the fullness of life, into truth and beauty and goodness, forever.
This aching love of Jesus to heal and free every single person drives him to all the towns and villages, to teach in their synagogues and proclaim the Good News, and cure “every disease and illness.” There is always more to do, more people to reach, and his time is short.
He reminds his disciples that the people have a deep need, more vast than they can fill, so they must pray for laborers to continue this work. The Church is to be the way this work continues, the continuous presence of Christ the Good Shepherd to his troubled sheep, to all the nations until the end of time. Through the Church, the work of salvation continues through the Sacraments, which are Christ’s way of remaining with us, of touching us and healing us and freeing us and drawing us into the Family of God, from the very beginning of our life in Christ until the last moments of our lives on this earth. And these Sacraments are ordinarily administered to us through the ministerial priesthood, those chosen and called to be laborers for the harvest in the particular way of Holy Orders.
“The harvest is abundant,” and we must pray for laborers for the harvest – for vocations to the priesthood to continue the work of salvation Jesus entrusted to His Church. But we must not forget that we are all called to work in the Vineyard of the Lord by virtue of our Baptism, when we are cleansed of Original Sin, reborn of water and the Spirit, and then anointed into the Body of the risen Christ, anointed into his mission as priest, prophet, and king. Our baptismal grace calls each of us to the very work of Christ, each laboring for the Kingdom according to our vocation and state in life.