Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 7, 2020 - Tuesday in the 14th Week in Ordinary Time
[Hos 8:4-7, 11-13 and Matt 9:32-38]Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest." [Matthew]
The abundance of the harvest and the need for laborers to do the harvesting touches on a number of challenges that confront us in the church in our own time! It should be noted at the outset, however, that Jesus places the origin of the call to the harvest in the hands of the "master of the harvest." The impetus to participate has its origin in God's grace and not simply in the personal desire to be of service, as important as that is. One does not hand a scythe to somebody who does not have the ability to swing it properly. Otherwise there will be blood in the field!!! Some discernment about gifts and talents is required. We are all called to be "missionary disciples" but we are not all called to perform the same tasks. Recognizing and enabling the gifts of the Spirit is one of the challenges of leadership. Jesus discerned and called the Twelve from among all those sheep!
Much of the debate about God's call to "ministry" centers on liturgical ministry, which is unfortunate. Priests and deacons who preside at worship have been also given powers of leadership in other areas of church life, and the relationship between liturgical and non-liturgical ministry becomes a point of tension. We are called to service and not to power, as Jesus very bluntly told his first disciples (Matt. 20:25). The vast majority of a priest's time is not spent in leading worship events but in other tasks which could easily be performed by gifted laypersons. The problem is not in God failing to call enough workers but in the church's inability to recognize and accept the workers that are sent!!! The debates over ordination of women to the Permanent Diaconate (or even priesthood), or over celibacy as a requirement for priesthood in the Latin rite of the church (married priests have existed for centuries in the Eastern rites of the church) have their roots in the all too human process of discernment of how God's grace works. The issue is not new. Moses had to deal with it (Numbers 11:24-26). Jesus had to deal with it (Luke 9:50). So do we! AMEN