In today’s Gospel, Mt 9:35 – 10:1, 5-8, Jesus shows his compassion for the many people who’ve come to him to hear his teaching and to be cured.  As I imagine myself in that scene, I sense Jesus is overwhelmed because He knows there are so many more people who need to be cured, who need to be preached to, but He simply can’t get to them all.  He needs help and he tells His disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  Then, rather than just wish for help, He commissions His twelve disciples, giving them authority to drive out unclean spirits and cure every disease and illness.

Whether you like it or not, Jesus is talking to us – to you and me.  He’s asking us to not only be productive laborers but to increase the labor force.  For most of us, that’s a scary thought, and a task that’s all too easy for us to turn from and walk away.  We feel either incompetent or it’s inconvenient for us and low on our to-do list.  But, it’s a condition of employment, so to speak.  In a way, the compensation we receive will depend on how well we accept and perform that job requirement.  

But Jesus is a fair and just employer.  He doesn’t expect everyone to aspire to be upper level management.  He just wants us to do the best job we can in the jobs we have – our particular vocations.  We don’t have to be priests, religious, or parish Directors of Evangelization.  He doesn’t expect us to quit our jobs as parents, siblings, friends and neighbors to be something we’re not.  He just asks us to help Him in the roles we’ve chosen and the environment in which we work.

Often we get so wrapped up in our jobs that we forget that the mission of the company is to provide a service or product that is needed by others.  It’s that way with our Christian faith, in which our mission is to serve others so that they will discover the saving grace of Jesus.  Jesus  trains us through Scripture and the Sacraments, through which He gives us the knowledge and tools to do our jobs well.

Where do we start?  Well, Jesus asked his disciples to begin by asking “the master to send out laborers.”  He’s telling us to pray, to pray to God for insight for whom we can reach out to join our labor force.  This may be a new hire to our faith, or someone already on the payroll who’s not quite pulling their weight.  If we pray, and if we pay attention, the Holy Spirit will put someone on our hearts.

But prayer is just the starting point.  We have to use the knowledge and skills we’ve been taught through our faith formation, from what we’ve learned at our weekly meetings (Mass), and how we’ve seen other top producers (the Saints), do their jobs.  By applying what we’ve learned, and with the support we will be given, we can add to our ranks and grow our business.

Many people, though, need some form of rehabilitation before they can become productive co-workers.  Jesus has conferred on us degrees in Occupational Therapy.  Like He gave His twelve disciples, He’s given us the authority and ability through the gift of charity and friendship to cure the sick– those who are spiritually ill, who are suffering from infectious diseases caught in the secular environment; and to raise the dead – those who were once alive but have succumbed to one of these fatal infectious diseases.

And, like the disciples, we can cleanse the lepers – by offering love and respecting the human dignity of those who aren’t exactly like us; who are rejected or who are outcasts from society because of decisions they’ve made or unfortunate circumstances that have occurred in their lives.  And, we can drive out demons –  by being good friends who, with compassion, help those who are controlled by vices such as pride, anger, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth, and greed, – all of the things the enemy uses to keep people from God; and help them through anxiety about worries and regrets over which they have no control.  

Our Lord needs more good and able people to expand His kingdom.  He’s depending on us to look within our own spheres of influence, to ask Him for guidance, and to employ all that he’s taught us to rehabilitate co-workers and new hires alike, so that the harvest will yield more fruit per acre.

“Lord Jesus, thank You for teaching me, for setting the example of how to grow Your kingdom.  I feel pretty incompetent at times, but I know You are here with me and I only have to call upon You when I need help.  Help me to never forget that I can’t do this alone, that You are always by my side.  Amen.”

(Rehabilitating the Labor Force, was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)

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