When you work hard expect fruits of your labour

REAPING THE HARVEST

Mt. 9:36-10:8

What could be more frustrating than a task made unnecessarily difficult due to lack of help?  Or a mission threatened by the lack of volunteers?  Jesus in today’s Gospel tells us that the harvest of a farmer is rich, but it faces a serious threat.  The threat is not blight or bugs, for the growing season is finished and the crops are hanging with fruit.  The threat is not the weather, for the rain and the sun have already given their gifts.  The harvest is threatened by the most frustrating of all perils.  There are not enough workers to bring the fruit into the safety of the farmer’s barn.  What the farmer does not have is a lot of time.  If he doesn’t act soon the harvest will be a waste and all that hard work and preparation of sowing during the winter months and tending the crop during spring will have been wasted.  Just imagine if you were the farmer, whose hard work had brought the crop to this ripe stage, and whose family depends on this harvest for their livelihood and there are no workers to reap the harvest.  How would you feel if the harvest was lost because the workers could not be found?

Well, that is how Jesus felt when He saw all those people who needed harvesting and there were not enough helpers.  He looked at the crowds following Him and referred to them as a field ripe for harvest.  He surveyed the wondrous possibilities of redemption in the world and there are so few labourers. 

Notice Jesus is not asking us to provide the harvest.  No the harvest is there.  He asks only for workers to put the final finish on the work that is there.  God has already been at work long before He asks people to enter the scene.  What Jesus asks of us is that we pray.  We don’t have to worry.  He is not asking us to carry that burden.   

Jesus is constantly offering the gift of a vocation to the priesthood and religious life to many young people.  But is this gift accepted?  He offered it to a rich young man, but he would not accept it because his possessions meant more than following Jesus.  Is that so today?  That young people have far more attractive careers beckoning and so turn down Jesus’ invitation.  This is why Jesus is asking of His disciples to pray that God will give young people the generosity to accept the challenge of seeing the worth of following Him and work in His harvest.

We might think, “Why waste time praying, when there is so much work to do?”  Jesus would say, “You can’t afford to skip praying.  Remember prayer in the wilderness was my first priority when I began My public ministry.  I knew there was much I could do during those forty days I spent in the wilderness.  I could have been preaching, teaching and healing, but I gave priority to praying.

Are we worried that there will be a shortage of priests to look after the next generation?  Are we anxious that recent scandals will keep people from considering a vocation to the priesthood?  Stop worrying and being anxious just pray earnestly for vocations.

We must pray that we will not let a single day go by without praying for vocations, that people will be partners with God in the joyous conclusion of His redeeming work in the world.

Lord Jesus, today make us aware that the harvest is rich but the labourers are few.  May we pray daily, begging You to send us good and holy priests and religious to do Your work.

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