11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
The Insider on April 2020 had this heading with photos, “Billions of dollars worth of fresh produce are rotting or going to waste due to the coronavirus.” Reading this headline, the first thing that came to my mind was these words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading from the gospel of Saint Matthew when His heart was moved with pity at the sight of the crowd because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd, that He said “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” It was really a sad situation then because during the lockdown, many people were struggling to find food to eat, but we still had food rotting and going to waste. This is the case today, as millions of people in our world are dying of spiritual hunger because of lack of spiritual food, with no one to share the gospel of Christ with them, yet we have many Churches and Christians in our communities and around us.
In the gospel story we heard today, because of the state of urgency in Jesus’s time, Jesus sends out His disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. Being moved and touched by the situation at hand, Jesus while sending out the twelve disciples, must have told them that they were His voice, hands, feet, and tongue in the world, that they needed to bring their brothers and sisters who are lost back to God.
This is actually our situation today, as many of our brothers and sisters have left the Catholic faith, rejected and even abandoned God. How are we laboring for God in His vineyard today to bring our brothers and sisters who have left the church back to God as Jesus urged us in today’s gospel reading, when He told His disciples not to go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town, rather to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Jesus with His words and actions, not only emphasized that it was our duty to bring back our brothers and sisters to the Catholic faith, but He also showed us how to bring them back to God.
This is how we can bring our lax, lazy and fallen catholic brothers and sisters back to God. Firstly, by being alert and aware of their physical and spiritual needs. Remember how Jesus felt at the sight of the crowd, and how He became aware of their need for God. Secondly, by taking the initiative to reach out and support those in need of spiritual and physical needs. This was exactly why Jesus summoned His twelve disciples immediately, gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness, then sent them out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Lastly, we can bring our lax, lazy and fallen catholic brothers and sisters back to God by being compassionate to them, like Jesus was, when He saw the crowds and was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.
So let us go out now to re-evangelize and bring back our brothers and sisters who have left the Catholic faith, by being alert to their physical and spiritual needs, by reaching out to help and support them; and by showing compassion to them in their struggles with their faith.
