At an International Youth Forum held in Manila prior to the 10th World Youth Day in 1995, a young American asked a girl from Burma what the religion of the majority of the Burmese was. The young woman told him that it was Buddhism. The American said quite casually, “Oh well, that doesn’t matter; all religions are the same.” The Burmese girl looked directly at the young man and said, “If you had lived in my country, you would not say that. I have seen what centuries of superstition, fear and indifference to social problems have done for my people. We need the truth and the uplift of Christianity. My country needs Christ.”
“My country needs Christ” contains the core of our mission. The world today, more than ever, needs Christ and his values. Our society lives like sheep without a shepherd. The world has become so materialistic, people have become so self-centred, proud and egoistic. This is what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel, He looked with compassion on the helpless and abandoned crowds, because they were “like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus doubtless looks at so many in today's world with the same pity, because so many are like shepherdless sheep, searching for direction, lost in the cosmos. They don’t hear the Good Shepherd’s voice, and so they tune in the voice of strangers and follow them into danger. The cry of that young girl sounds loud and clear in our ears and it strongly reminds us of the mission Jesus has entrusted to us his followers and disciples.
Today’s first reading and the gospel make it clear that God’s call is always for the sake of the mission. The mission entrusted to us by Jesus, at its deepest meaning reveals the Truth of the Father and bears the identity of the one who sends. The mission of the sent is to reach out to others with the same compassion of Jesus. Compassion is the wellspring of ministry by which we hear the cry of those in need, the lost and the troubled and bring them back to safety, that is, to Jesus.
Our parish has embarked into various discipleship programs. Discipleship “is not a question of our own doing; it is a matter of making room for God so that he can live in us”. To be a disciple means to be the embodiment of Lord’s compassion. In the gospel, Jesus adds a new dimension to the identity of those God has chosen to be priestly and holy. Disciples are to do for others – “without cost” – what God has done for them: proclaim the good news of salvation, cure diseases, overcome death, and banish evil spirits. They are to bring others into the circle of God’s loving embrace.
The means Jesus suggests to carry out his mission is not expertise, professionalism, human intelligence or planning but prayer. Jesus tells us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” According to our understanding the word “mission” means a task to be accomplished, oftentimes with the connotation of something difficult or challenging, and possibly a going forth.
For all of us here at St. Joseph Church, what is the harvest and who are suppose to be the laborers that the Lord asks us to pray for? We are over a thousand families in our faith community. But look around you, there is an obvious reason why the Lord is asking us to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to the harvest. Where are the rest of us? We cannot simply sit down comfortably in our pews and not think of those who cannot join us for worship because it is physically impossible for them to be here, or those who decided not to come because they feel they do not belong to us, families who have been estranged because of divorce, or those experiencing the pain of abortion.
What about those who are terminally ill, those who speak other languages or whose skin is not like ours, those who are here illegally who suspect that they might be betrayed. What about the gays, the lesbians, and their parents and famililes, the young families who are embarrassed when their babies cry during the Mass. There are those who dismiss worshiping with us because perhaps they have all the burdens and heavy loads that the world could offer and shying away from the community is for them the better option. Some maybe have decided to quit because they have prayed and prayed for years yet they still did not get what they prayed for. There are those who do not also understand the importance of worship who prioritize parties, sports, jobs or socialization than the Mass. What about our young parishioners? What about our children?
They are vineyard that the Lord tells us and it is huge and that there are few doing it. The harvest needs people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty, to work up a sweat.
The fields are ripe for the harvest, and all of us, as God's chosen ones, have a role in bringing in that harvest. No one gets a pass. Jesus says there's no way to be neutral: we either gather and labor in His vineyard, or we scatter His produce. Every Catholic is called to be a laborer in that vineyard. Each one of us is called to gather with Him.
Sometimes Catholics can and do try to pass the buck on working in the vineyard. They can look at the Church like an inn rather than a home. We all know what happens in an inn; we give some money and others do all the work—they make our bed, clean our room, prepare breakfast, and fix things when they break. Catholics can sometimes look at the parish that way. They can think they've done their part by coming to Mass and putting a contribution in the collection basket, leaving others—priests, parish staff, and volunteers “with time on their hands” —to do the work of the harvest. But this pattern never occurs in a functional home, where everyone needs to pitch in. And it's not the way God wants it in His home, the Church.
He is calling each one of us to be a worker in His vineyard and do our fair share, not out of justice, but as the path for us to work out our salvation and help in the salvation of others. The whole purpose why He founded the Church was to give us the joint task as a community to complete His mission. We need the whole body to work together.
Jesus looks at the crowds of those who are lost, many of whom may not be saved, and looks at each of us and says, “What are YOU going to do about it?”—not what is your wife going to do about it, or what is Father going to do about it, or what is the bishop or the Pope going to do about it, but what are YOU going to do about it? Will you help me in this mission for the salvation of the world?
From now on, take every effort to reach out to every member of our parish community, to be actively involved in our parish evangelization efforts by sharing the gifts of faith that have been given to us. Jesus calls us to respond to the free gift of His life for us with the free gift of our life for Him and others. Work together with us in calling active believers to even deeper faith, bringing the real message of Christ to inactive Catholics, inviting people to join the Catholic Church and making the Gospel real by applying it to the issues and conditions of our lives.
The harvest is great, we have prayed and God has responded by sending you to join the workforce.
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