The future we all long for, the Reign of God, is found in the present moment. It seems to me that is what Jesus senses in today's gospel passage from Matthew (9:32-38). After a long series of stunning cures -- a hemorraghic woman, the raising of a synagogue official's daughter, the cure of two blind men, and the exorcism of a possessed man -- Jesus breathlessly looks out over the crowd. Instead of shrinking away, his heart fills with compassion and sorrow for the multitude "because they were harassed and dejected." Surely he, too, was exhausted!
Yet what issues from his mouth is a prayer for more ministers of mercy: "The harvest is good, but the laborers are scarce. Beg the harvester to send laborers to gather the harvest.”
I think what gives Jesus the energy and the heart to labor and live so well in the present is an insight. It's hard to name exactly, but the insight starts when looking into the eyes of someone who needs. It grows when we reach out and heal by caring. It becomes a harvest when a community begins to act this way.
--John P. Fitzgibbons, S.J.
Quotation source
No comments:
Post a Comment