LABORERS FOR A HARVEST OF JUSTICE AND PEACE.

ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR A.
June 15, 2008.
(First reading: Exodus 19:2-6) (Psalm 100:1-3, 5)
(Second reading: Romans 5:6-11) (Gospel reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8)


LABORERS FOR A HARVEST
OF JUSTICE AND PEACE.

As "Jesus went around to all the towns and villages" (Matthew 9:35) he found that the crowds "were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36).

As we go around our world today, we find that people are also "troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd".

People are troubled because they cannot find fulfillment, peace and justice, because our world suppresses their aspirations and subjects them to a life of oppression and injustice.

People are abandoned because there are no leaders willing to oppose the destructive trends of the world, there are no leaders courageous enough to make the effort (and sacrifice) to liberate the people. Furthermore, the leaders of our world are leading the people away from peace, from justice, from the truth, from life.

"At the sight of the crowds, Jesus' heart was moved with pity for them" (Matthew 9:36), even to the present day, so he continues to seek laborers who will work with him to bring about redemption and liberation for all.

The harvest is as abundant as abundant is man's need for redemption and liberation: There is much injustice that must be turned into justice, there is much destruction that must be turned into life, much selfishness that must be turned into unselfishness, much oppression that must be turned into liberation, much falsehood that must give way to the truth.

There is a need for the nations of the world to live in mutual respect and peace; there is a need for our families to live in harmony and unity, there is a need for the individual to achieve personal fulfillment.

However, the laborers are few because the world corrupts their minds and wills even before they come to realize that there is a need for laborers or harvest to work on.

Those who refuse to be laborers fall into three categories:
- Those who promote and support injustice and live so comfortably that are interested only in maintaining the status quo;

- Those who are indifferent to the injustices afflicting their fellow human beings; and

- Those who live under so intense an oppressive life that they have no means nor energies to fight back.

However, every person has the potential of becoming a laborer, that is why the Lord Jesus says: "Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest" (Matthew 9:38).

Jesus equips his laborers properly.
Those who commit themselves to working with Jesus in the harvest of the world receive from Him "authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and [power] to cure every disease and every illness... raise the dead, cleanse lepers" (Matthew 10:1, 8).

This is the power the laborers receive: The power to end wars, lies, dispossession, injustice and oppression.