“The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.” How often have we heard this quote?! Is there a vocation poster anywhere that doesn’t use it? It’s almost a cliché. I think that, if we’re to get the true message of this teaching, we would do well to detach it from these vocation posters that evoke sad and disheartening reactions. What’s going to happen to the Church when there aren’t any priests left? There aren’t enough religious to run the few Catholic schools we have left! Let’s stop to look closely at the Gospel.
Jesus’ heart is filled with pity when he looks at all the disciples following him. He should be happy, no? What’s wrong?
Thirty years ago, I went to Corsica to visit friends and managed to almost drown my first day there. I was flown to the hospital in Ajaccio where I spent the night hooked up to an IV drip of antibiotics. My roommate was an elderly Corsican with a heart problem.
My friends told him I was a priest.
We spoke a lot after my friends left – he in French – I in the French equivalent of “See Spot run. Run. Run. Run.” He shared some problems he had with the Church. I had some problems, too. We talked about praying and what we got out of it. After my friends drove me back to their home, they told me that the Corsican told them he was returning to the Church.
Today’s Gospel ends with Jesus telling the twelve apostles. “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive our demons!” What does “the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few” mean? It means stop complaining! Get out there. Every moment of the day brings an opportunity to let Jesus preach and teach through each and every one of us, young, old, hospitalized, healthy – the guy in back of me in the queue. “The kingdom of God is at hand.”
