The harvest takes place in the field

The text from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today offers a vision of the rich harvest and luxurious life which awaits the faithful of Israel who return to Jerusalem after the exile in Babylon. This life of rich and deep relationship with God through the renewal of the Covenant will draw a harvest of many of the faith tradition which have lost their way and intimacy with the Divine. The psalmist proclaims that the lost and downtrodden of the people who are connected to Jerusalem, the broken hearted and the wounded will be lifted up. The people through whom God acts to reunite, reassure, reconcile, restore and redeem are identified in the passage from the Gospel of Matthew as the twelve disciples. The biographies of these followers of Jesus may lead us to wonder about the nature of those chosen to bring God's love. Fishers, tax collectors and political zealots seem a very unlikely set of labourers for the harvest. Perhaps we need to reflect on what the "harvest" will be. Will the efforts of God's workers in the vineyards fill the Churchs? The efforts of the Twelve did not fill the synagogues. The measure of the efforts of the workers in the vineyard will be love, inclusion, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, patience, perseverance, respect and reverence for the sanctity of others. We see this in Church. It is not limited to Church, by any means. We see it in the lives of the good people who we encounter at work, in our neigbourhood and in our families who are not members of our worship communities. We sometimes forget that they are bringing about the rich harvest and are curing sick and casting out demons. Their mission may bring their indwelling Spirit in contact with the Holy Spirit of Love in other times and places. Our witness of their goodness brings hope that, like Jesus, their intimate connection with God, in communion with the Divine Will, occurs outside the synagogue, mosque and church.