Readings: Is 66:10-14c; Gal 6:14-18; Lk 10:1-12,17-20
This Sunday the readings are about evangelization, the fourth sign of a
dynamic Catholic. The prophet Isaiah in the first reading uses the image of
sucking milk from mother’s abundant milk to help us see the link between us and
our mother Church that feeds and nourishes us. The reading urges us to drink
fully of the milk of our mother’s comfort and nurse with delight at her
abundant breasts. At times we can starve spiritually to death. Years ago there
was a picture of a mother and her baby in Ethiopia during one of the worst
droughts that brought a horrible famine and starvation there. The mother could
not eat enough food to produce milk for her baby. She sat there, her eyes
glazed over with suffering beyond imagination. She sat helplessly watching her
baby crying and dying of starvation. The Church faces a similar dilemma today
with so many of her children starving spiritually.
Jesus in the Gospel sends out his disciples on a mission to the margins
of society, to feed the multitudes who are hungry and thirsting for God’s Word;
those who yearn for God’s mercy and for healing. They so urgently need
nourishment, healing and God’s mercy. Yes, the harvest is ripe, but at times
wasting in the fields. We need more hands and more feet; we need more disciples
to go and feed more people with so much needed mercy and compassion. It is so
easy to get bogged down in institutions and forget the main focus of our
ministry. The purpose of our mission is to nourish God’s people - those on the
margins of society, those hungering and thirsting for the Word of God. In the midst
of human brokenness, they need wholeness; in the midst of broken married life,
they yearn for reconciliation and forgiveness; in the midst of spiritual
dehydration, they search for spiritual water to restore their strength. All
they are looking for is a word of inspiration that touches them right now.
In the Gospel, Luke uses several images to help us understand the kind
of Kingdom the disciples have to announce. The first image is the harvest being
abundant. From a human perspective we need a human solution, to organize a
workshop on vocations, to employ a vocations director, to mobilize the parishes
and round up all the young men and women! Jesus' solution is very simple: pray
to the Lord of the harvest to send workers. In contrast, our human tendency is
action: setting a task-force to study the matter and writing volumes of books!
Of course we need both prayer and action. Family and personal prayer will
nourish and help lead to more workers in the vineyard. So what message do we
take home this Sunday? 1) The readings focus on our mission of feeding the
multitudes who are hungry and thirsting for God’s Word. 2) The reading make us
aware of the need for more workers in the vineyard; more volunteers in our
parish ministries. Jesus teaches us that family and personal prayer will
nourish and help lead to more workers in the vineyard. 3) In the midst of human
brokenness, we are called to lead people to wholeness; in the midst of broken
married life, we are called to lead couples to reconciliation and forgiveness.
©2016 John S. Mbinda
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