workers for the Harvest: Abundance That Endures

Sunday, July 7, is the 14th Sunday in average Time. Mass readings: Isaiah 66:10-14; Psalm sixty six:1-7, sixteen, 20; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20.

 

Jesus was a master teacher. As such, he commonly employed metaphors and images from way of life to teach the mysteries of the kingdom of God. From calling the apostles to be fishers of men to inviting them to sow the first rate seed of the Gospel within the fields of human hearts, Jesus time and again emphasized that proclaiming the dominion changed into as standard to lifestyles as the meals that we eat.

When Jesus stated wanting laborers for the harvest, he pointed out the need of evangelists, the centrality of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom to all who would hear it and be converted via it.

scared of the ethical demands a lifetime of genuine discipleship entails, some consider of the preaching of the kingdom of God as an oppressive message. today’s readings element to the truth that the fact of the dominion bears not heavy burdens, however, reasonably, the fruits of peace and pleasure.

When the prophet Isaiah referred to a future time of prosperity, his message inspired hope. The Israelites had long persevered exile removed from Jerusalem and the entire fabric and religious poverty that exile produced. We are not foreigners to this feel of exile, and in God’s word we obtain assurance that “in Jerusalem you shall discover your consolation” (Isaiah 66:12). For the Israelites, this pointed to a time when they would return to the metropolis of Jerusalem and the pleasure of worship in the Temple. For us, Isaiah’s prophecy opens onto an even broader vista of the new Jerusalem through which Christ the Lamb is the Temple and during which abundance should be unsurpassed.

St. Paul, who heard the call to labor for the master in a dramatic means on the highway to Damascus, knew each what the dominion of God requires of us and what it promises to us. He knew now not simplest in his mind, however additionally through his experience, that to enter the dominion is to be conformed to Christ crucified and risen. This path involves embracing “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in which the area has been crucified to me and that i to the world” (Galatians 6:14). The move and all it expenses isn't the goal in itself, but, somewhat, allowing God to make of each and every of us a brand new introduction modified by using grace.

 It is that this hopeful assurance that helps the one who accepts the name to labor for the harvest to be a messenger of peace. It is true that residing for God’s kingdom comes at a value. it is additionally real that entrusting oneself and all one has to the Lord is the wisest funding.

If the Psalmist calls the entire earth to rejoice, it is as a result of even amid the exile of this lifestyles, we recognize that God saves. The Lord who delivered the Israelites from bondage and who restored and comforted them after the exile is a similar Lord who triumphed over sin and death on the pass. the sort of God may also be relied on to make of us the brand new advent we long to be. Renewed in his love, we will sing with the Psalmist, “Blessed be God who refused me no longer my prayer or his kindness!” (Psalm sixty six:20). Being a laborer in this harvest brings abundance that surpasses even 153 large fish or 12 baskets of leftovers â€" abundance of lifestyles unto eternity!

Dominican Sister Mary Madeline Todd is a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tennessee. 

She is assistant professor of theology at Aquinas faculty in Nashville and additionally serves via retreats, public speakme and writing.