In today’s Gospel Jesus sees a crowd of ordinary people who are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” Recognizing that he cannot reach out to all these people himself, Jesus sends out his twelve, “hand picked” disciples to carry on his ministry. He commissions them to proclaim “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” and to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.”
The disciples were ordinary people just like the people in the crowd. He called them not for what they were but for what he knew they could become. Jesus calls all of us as well. At our baptism we are anointed to become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation,” just like the children of Israel. Jesus knows that none of us is perfect. That is the point of our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 5: 6-11, “while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” And he expects us to make sure that his message of love, his message about the Kingdom of Heaven is present in the world. We are God’s “laborers for his harvest.”
Oh God, Father of all Mercies,
Provider of a bountiful harvest,
Send your graces upon those You have called
To gather the fruits of Your labor;
Preserve and strengthen them
in their lifelong service of you.
Open the hearts of us, Your children,
That we may discern Your Holy Will;
Inspire in us a love and desire
to surrender ourselves to serving others
In the name of Your son, Jesus Christ.
Amen
