Gospel: Matthew 9: 35- 10: 1, 6-8
"Beg the harvest master to send out laborers to gather the harvest."
We have been conditioned over time to reduce this plea of Jesus to a prayer for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, but this is false, and it is little wonder then that we have a vocation crisis.
Let us note the context of the story: Jesus sees and exhausted sea of humanity in desperate need of healing in body and spirit. So many to care for! And so he makes this plea to God. Jesus then commissions his closest associates to go out and heal people in body and spirit. None of the tasks involve special priestly powers of ordination, none are exclusive to the vows of the religious. It is a task for us all!
In Advent we await the coming of Jesus who heals us all of infirmities of body and soul. As we await his coming in our lives, we can spend this time of Advent praying for vocations - for our vocations, each one individually. We pray to discern how God is calling us in our own lives to care for those in body and spirit. How might Jesus come to me - to incarnate himself within me - to live out this task of care and service in our world?
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