Over the last few weeks we have celebrated a number of Feast Days, including the Feast of the Trinity and the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.  This week we return to the Sundays of Ordinary Time where we pick up the reading of the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 9:36-10:8).  Matthew tells us that Jesus felt sorry for the crowd ‘because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd’.  It’s a sobering image.  Harassed and dejected.  Yet we have all known those feelings from time to time.  The blows of life can certainly leave us feeling harassed and dejected.  Imagine what the families and friends of those who were killed or injured in the Hunter Valley bus crash must be going through.  Their pain and suffering is unimaginable.

And there are moments in our lives when we, our families and our communities, can also feel the brunt of the harshness of life whether it be physical, psychological or spiritual.  It is interesting to note that following Jesus’ observation that the crowds were harassed and dejected, he immediately goes on to tell his disciples that the ‘harvest is rich but the labourers are few’.  It seems that the ‘harvest’ to which Jesus is referring is the crowd standing before him.  The harvest is ready.  It is standing before him.  He does not ask his disciples to go out and plant seeds.  He does not ask them to start with something fresh.  He tells them – the crowd standing before us in all their needs and vulnerability is God’s harvest.  There is no other harvest.  Just this one.  And the summons to his disciples is to step out into that harvest and begin to work.  What is the work they will undertake?  Cure people of their illnesses, comfort those who are in pain and suffering.  Stand in solidarity with those who mourn.  Be gentle and bring peace to those who are troubled in body mind and spirit.  It may be worth us remembering that the text of chapter nine comes after Jesus had gone up the hill and taught the crowds, beginning with the Beatitudes.  Blessed are they who are gentle, meek, mourn, pure of heart, peacemakers, and hunger and thirst for what is right.  It is to this work that Jesus calls more labourers.

Matthew then goes on to give us the list of the names of the Apostles who Jesus called to work alongside him.  Praise be to that first group who responded.  Today the call in the gospel is to each one of us.  We can add our names to that list.  All of us who take the name Christian are called, in whatever way we can, to respond to the call to move out into the harvest of humanity that stands before us.  And each of us will bring our own gifts and talents which will contribute to working in that field.  Together we will work with Jesus Christ, our head, as we his body continue the work of bringing healing and wholeness to our world.

By Fr Brendan Reed