Healing and Good News

Gospel:  Matthew 9: 32-38

Jesus goes about from town to town in Galilee telling people about the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and he provides cures for people with all sorts of ailments.  He does this day in and day out, and he is tired.  Jesus needs more people to engage in the work of proclaiming Good News, in healing others of their illnesses, in liberating people from the demons that oppress them, and in providing nourishment to others at table.  He begs God that more people will enter the fields to do this work.

Sadly, most of us are about the bad news of the world.  We prefer to perseverate on this bad news and to traffic in it.  As a result, rather than healing others, or liberating others, or nourishing others, we instead do great harm to other people.  We keep them enslaved to the demons of the world.  We impoverish and starve people of the nourishment they need to flourish.  And all this being done by those who claim the mantle of Jesus' name.

The prayer of Jesus for workers to engage in the harvest is not a prayer for random people to engage in this work.  It is a prayer for us all to engage in this work - to put away the bad news and violence of the world and to proclaim Good News, to heal others, to liberate them from the demons of the world, to nourish them in body and soul.  It is not for us to recite this prayer of Jesus.  It is for us to respond to it ourselves and engage in the work of the kingdom of God. 

The Present Need

Gospel:  Matthew 9: 18-26

A synagogue official - a man of importance, influence and power in his society - asks Jesus to bring his daughter back to life.  Jesus agrees to do so.  However, along the way a woman suffering from a gynecological issue that makes her ever unclean, approaches Jesus with the hope of being healed.  Jesus stops to take the time to heal the woman and converse with her for a time.  He then continues along the way to the official's house.  

If Jesus gave priority to the synagogue official because of his status and influence, he would have neglected the needs of this poor woman.  Yet, Jesus is ever attendant to the present moment and who is before him in the here and now.  What is more, Jesus' intervention represents his preferential option for the poor.  He did not make the woman wait until he was finished at the official's house.  Jesus instead stopped to meet her needs first - an unnamed woman who was unclean and unapproachable.  

The actions of Jesus in this Gospel portion lead us to reflect on our own lives.  Do we consider the needs of the influential to be more important than those of the poor? Are we attentive to the present moment and the needs that present themselves there? Our ministry and way of life as followers of Jesus must mirror those he embodied.  The needs of poor and vulnerable must be our first priority, and the present moment must be given attention at all times. 

Weary and Burdened

Gospel: Matthew 11: 25-30

Come, all who labor and who are burdened.  This is an invitation to the vast majority of the world population.  Those who do not labor and who are not burdened are the wealthy who create the labor and burdens of so many.  Jesus and his family were themselves laborers.  They were aware of the work and the burdens heaped upon the mass of humanity by occupiers and oppressors of every kind.  He saw the desperation it often created.  He wanted to ease this burden.

The mission of Jesus and, by extension, his disciples is to ease the burden and oppression of the working masses.  How often is it the case that the Church fulfills this mission?  Have we instead ourselves been those who create weariness and burdens for others?  Could this be the reason we see a decline in religion over the past century or so?  These questions give us pause and a great deal of material for an examen on our ministry and relationship to the great mass of humanity.  

At the same time, we can reflect on the many ways we can provide such rest and ease from the burdens of life.  Beginning with sacramental ministry and how we might expand such opportunities and access, to the ministries of hospitality and social assistance there is much we can and must do for humanity that faces much distress and exploitation.  It is the task of every Christian, the task of every parish, to continue this ministry of Jesus in the world today.