Daily Retreat 07/08/08

Hos 8: 4-7. 11-13/ Ps 114(115): 3-4. 5-6. 7ab-8. 9-10/ Mt 9: 32-38 From today's readings:  "How long will they be unable to attain innocence in Israel?...  Our God is in heaven; whatever He wills, He does....  The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few...." Asking the Lord of the Harvest Jesus, despite being true God, was also true man, so He had human limitations during His earthly life - He couldn't be two places at once, for instance.  The burgeoning needs of the crowds who followed Him proved the divine foresight in preparing His apostles to be effective laborers for the Lord's harvest.  In His omnipotence, God could have devised some other system for shepherding souls, but He chose to elevate human dignity by entrusting and empowering His apostles to share substantially in Christ's pastoral care of people. Jesus, however, was not only moved with pity for the people of His own day, for there continues to be crowds of troubled and abandoned people, like sheep without a shepherd.  And so the good Lord continues to call men of this time and place to serve as His priests, whom He sends out as laborers to His ripe and abundant harvest. Yet still, these laborers are few!  St. Francis de Sales once remarked that a single soul was a big enough diocese for a bishop - this is certainly true, for every imperiled soul is worthy of a shepherd's lifelong efforts to lead to the Lord's salvation.  And on a personal note, although I just finished a 10 year term as pastor of a small parish, I never felt that there wasn't enough for me to do there - on the contrary, at the end of everyday, it seemed I had made but little pastoral headway, so I pray continually that the Lord will send more laborers to His harvest. And it's a sacred duty for all of God's people to pray and thereby take to heart the Lord's words, "The harvest is plenty, but laborers are few.  Ask, therefore, of the Lord of the harvest, that He send out laborers for His harvest."