The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the Way in which the Spirit calls us into community to act with Jesus in proclaiming restoration and full life.
Community in Action
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah uses the image of the harvest restored by God to announce Zion’s future deliverance.
* [30:20] Teacher: God, who in the past made the people blind and deaf through the prophetic message (6:9–10) and who in his anger hid his face from the house of Jacob (8:17), shall in the future help them to understand his teaching clearly (cf. Jer 31:34).1
Psalm 147 is praise for God’s Care for Jerusalem.
* [Psalm 147] The hymn is divided into three sections by the calls to praise in Ps 147:1, 7, 12. The first section praises the powerful creator who restores exiled Judah (Ps 147:1–6); the second section, the creator who provides food to animals and human beings; the third and climactic section exhorts the holy city to recognize it has been re-created and made the place of disclosure for God’s word, a word as life-giving as water.2
The Gospel of Matthew declares that the harvest Is great but the Labourers few as Jesus initiates the Mission of the Twelve Apostles.
* [9:37–38] This Q saying (see Lk 10:2) is only imperfectly related to this context. It presupposes that only God (the master of the harvest) can take the initiative in sending out preachers of the gospel, whereas in Matthew’s setting it leads into Mt 10 where Jesus does so.3
The Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries is not available at the time of this posting.
Don Schwager quotes “In remembrance of heavenly life,” by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.
"Why should the lunar reckoning be calculated from the noontide hours, seeing that the moon had not yet been placed in the heavens or gone forth over the earth? On the contrary, none of the feast days of the law began and ended at noon or in the afternoon, but all did so in the evening. Or else perchance it is because sinful Adam was reproached by the Lord 'in the cool of the afternoon' (Genesis 3:8) and thrust out from the joys of Paradise. In remembrance of that heavenly life which we changed for the tribulation of this world, the change of the moon, which imitates our toil by its everlasting waxing and waning, ought specifically to be observed at the hour in which we began our exile. In this way every day we may be reminded by the hour of the moon's changing of that verse, 'a fool changes as the moon' (Sirach 27:11) while the wise man 'shall live as long as the sun' (Psalm 72:5), and that we may sigh more ardently for that life, supremely blessed in eternal peace, when 'the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days.' Indeed, because (as it is written) 'from the moon is the sign of the feast day' (Sirach 43:7), and just as the first light of the moon was shed upon the world at eventide, so in the law it is compulsory that every feast day begin in the evening and end in the evening (see Exodus 12:18). (excerpt from THE RECKONING OF TIME 3.43)4
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew comments that Jesus knew that the Twelve might well fall short. So why did he do it? Clearly, he wanted to bless the crowds through them. But he also wanted to bless the apostles as they stepped out in faith and prayed for people’s healing and deliverance. He knew they would be stretched outside of what was comfortable for them, and he also knew they would see God’s amazing work as they obeyed his call.
You can take courage that Jesus is sending you out, just as he sent the apostles. He still looks at the people who are “troubled and abandoned” (Matthew 9:36), and longs to reach them. He could do something on a grand scale, something that could touch multitudes all at once. But he is sending you. He is asking you to go out with his authority to bring his mercy, healing, and forgiveness to them. And he will deepen your faith with each step you take. How could you be inspired and answer that call today? “Jesus, I want to be your representative in the world. Work through me to bring your compassion to everyone I meet today.”5
Friar Jude Winkler notes the ties of morality to Nature in the passage from Isaiah. The text from Matthew points to Jesus' desire to use a community to spread the Good News. Friar Jude reminds us that our opportunity to grow in love comes from our willingness to give to others what we have received.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, reflects on God the Nourisher as he quotes Meister Eckhart ‘s Sermon on Sirach 24:30 [1].
“The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing and one love.” In Christian metaphysics we gave each entity of the Trinity a placeholder name, but I want to offer some new names so that we can really hang on to the feeling of it. The Mother is ironically the one we call “Father.” She’s inaugurating the gaze toward the child, whom we call the “Son” (“Daughter” would work just as well, except that Jesus was male). The Child then returns the gaze that was given and received. It’s a bounce back of identity, and thus we have this eternal delighting, loving, admiring, allowing between two—God and Creation.6
Our community of faith brings together our experience of restoration in the Love of Christ to share with the rest of humanity.
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