Tuesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time

"The Harvest Is Good... but the laborers are scarce.”

This quote ends today’s gospel (Mt: 9:32-38), which describes Jesus going through all the towns of Galilee teaching, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and curing people’s illnesses.

WHO are the laborers Jesus speaks of? Many would say that only priests, nuns, and people called to vowed religious life are these laborers. Right?

But as Jesus went from village to village, did He have in mind (looking ahead to the continuation of His Mission) only ordained priesthood and vowed religious life as we know them today??

Or was He thinking of His own labors as teacher, preacher, and healer? And therefore of handing on His labors to His followers?

It is also the case that all of us participate in Jesus’ own priesthood by virtue of our baptism. This is known (but not at all well known!) as the “priesthood of the baptized”.

In the ritual of sacramental baptism the priest takes the sacred chrism and says over the person being baptized,

“God the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into His holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of His body, sharing everlasting life.”

And with this, the priest anoints the baptized person on the forehead.

We are all called to participate in the priesthood of Christ: to teach, to proclaim the Good News (as St. Francis said so well, “Preach the Good News always; if needed, use words.”) and be instruments of Jesus’ ministry of healing through our words and actions of comfort, concern, and encouragement.

A considerably smaller number of the baptized are called to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders, and thereby to administer the sacramental life of the Church. 

There are literally tens of millions of baptized Christians in this country alone. Hundreds of millions globally.

If, in reality, the laborers are scarce, and the Mission is not being carried on as Jesus hoped and prayed (literally), is the problem primarily and exclusively “out there” with the lack of ordained priests/ministers and vowed religious? 

Or might the problem be a little “closer to home”?