TEXT: The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 9:36-10:8

36  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

So often we hear of the Sacred Heart of Jesus being moved to pity for people.  It is appropriate that we should hearing of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that burns with great Love for us, great compassion, because this is a time for special devotion to the Heart of Jesus beginning June 11, 1999.

Today, as in the days of Jesus’ ministry upon the earth, the people of the world are like a shephrdless mass, a people that have seemed to have lost their way through the clouded vision provided them by post modern philosophies that have marked the decades of the 80's and 90's.

Throughout the world, the harassment and helplessness abounds, as injustices prevail and selfishness becomes the norm in so many lives.  Some do without any help, while others have much, unwilling to share.  Some have much Gospel light, and are willing to reamin content with an abounding Gospel message, yet, these will not share that Gospel with others.

People are as sheep without a shepherd, as spiritual direction that is clear and true to the Bible and the Teachings of the Church becomes clouded.  Many times, when there is fog in the pulpit, there will be mud in the pews, because people have no clear direction to follow.

The Sacred Heart, nevertheless, calls many to the harvest, many to vocations, but, so few respond, unwilling it seems to take up that particular cross and follow Jesus.

Some of us, who are older who do have a vocation, (who would follow Jesus to death), are not even considered seriously.  Yet, the nation of Israel, as old as they were in the time of St. Paul, and as they are today, still have a vocation for God.  It is said by St. Paul something about Israel’s vocation that is just as true for someone who has a vocation from God today -- "For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable."  (Romans 11:29)

God has not apparently "uncalled" anyone.  God still calls, but, will we follow?  Or, will we be allowed to follow?

Still, God desires to have Mercy upon all!

So, he says to his disciples --   

37 "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
38 pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

It is the desire of God that laborers who are willing to labor, who are gifted by God to labor, who have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the call of God (voco, vocare).  These called ones are the ones that need to be sent, because the Heart of Jesus has compassion upon those who are without a shepherd, those who are harassed and helpless.  The NAB translates this to say -- the people were "lying prostrate from exhaustion, like sheep without a shepherd."  Therefore, God calls laborers!

So, the Lord, being the One who is acting (Hebrew -- pa’al), now, calls upon the Twelve to act accordingly and respond to the call, the vocation Jesus gave unto them specifically.  The specificity of this passage is brought home to you and me today through the names of the Twelve. --  

1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity.

We note that it is Immanuel that GIVES the AUTHORITY to do the work of the apostle.

He calls them by name --   

2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;  4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

God calls us by name too.  There are many who are called.

We note with some disturbance that Judas, who betrayed him, was also called.  Yet, Judas went another way other than following the Way, the Truth and the Life.  His way led to death by suicide.  The Way of Jesus leads to Eternal Life!

Let us not go another "way."

It matters not what we were before Jesus calls us.  It is God who makes us new creations in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17) God can take a dishonest tax collector like Matthew and make him the writer of this Gospel and a Saint!

The God who acts in history that we might have forever His-Story, now, calls to the Twelve and sends them in a special mission that proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!  This message, interestingly,  is specifically to Israel, "For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable."

God still reaches out to the people that bore the name -- "prince of God (Hebrew- "yisrael"), for it was Jacob (who had deceived his brother Esau) that wrestled with the Angel of Yahweh at the brook of Jabbok (Hebrew -- "struggle") until the breaking of the new day, when Jacob would be renamed, "Prince of God."  The call of God for Isarel is through struggle, through suffering.  We must ask ourselves how will we identify with Israel’s call?

Today, this Gospel calls us to speak to the hearts of the Jewish people with Love and Compassion, because they are our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of Abraham, the father of all the faithful, for in Abraham shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.  Jesus is the embodiment of the Promise to Abraham, the Seed -- our Israel who is our King and the Messiah (Christ).

5 These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,
6  but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Today, we have a greater message still of the memoria passionis, mortis et resurrectionis Jesu Christi!   We have the Eucharistic Presence!  We have the Sacraments, the Church, the Holy Father, the Magesterium, the Holy Scriptures!

Yes,  though we still have this message to proclaim to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, we go to the whole world!  How shall we then live in perfected Love in order to show Israel and all peoples --   the Way, the Truth, and, the Life that we have in Jesus?

How shall we be willing to suffer with them?

How shall we be willing to suffer with all who are sheep without the Shepherd?

Acts 1 and 2 were the dawning of a new day for the Church at Pentecost, a message that would ultimately go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to the whole world.  The Gospel would be proclaimed to the whole world.

Yet, how shall it be proclaimed if there are no preachers?

The Lord of the harvest calls those to surrender to the vocation, the call of God who says -- "Voco te"  Yet, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is such that God will never violate the freedom that is given to each one of us, created in the Image of God, to cooperate by grace in the grace of God.

So, the call remains strong for those who will respond.

7 And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

Indeed, the message is still true.  Yet, the kingdom of heaven is now close to 2000 years old and becoming "newer" everyday.  This Kingdom gets better the older it gets!  The eschatological fulfilment is nearer than ever.  Yet, there remains the call to every person called a Christian to heed the call (vocation) of God to proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Literally, the passage says, "the kingdom of the heavens."  And, St. Matthew lays out what this means in Matthew 13 in the seven mysteries of the kingdom of heaven spoken of there.

For then, as well as, today, the call remains --  

8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay.

I believe this is a call to all of us, even though it had specific reference to the apostles.  Still, the praxis, the  application, for all of us is that we might become those that speak the healing words of faith as we are touched and transformed through inner devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  And, yes, the dead will be raised from spiritual darkness and become followers of Jesus through the examples that we set as lives that are lived for Jesus fully!

Perhaps, even today, the sick in body will be healed, and, the dead will be raised, if we move so close to Jesus that miracles are given in the grace of God.  This was surely true for the Saints who followed Jesus.  Peter would say in Acts 3:6 -- "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."  Perhaps, we might see greater things than these from the Hand of God, if we followed the Heart of Jesus more fully?

Are not the demons cast down by God, and prevailed against by St. Michael with the angels that did not fall, a defeated foe with Satan who knows his time is short?  (Revelation 12)

Then, there is, again -- "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."  These are coupled with the words of Jesus -- "You received without paying, give without pay."  Let us re-embrace this Franciscan calling.  But, wait, it is more than Francis.  St. Francis knew this as Gospel poverty.

Let those who have ears for this hear it!

Perhaps, if we were less interested in money and the means of how we are to afford and figure out the most economical means of proclaiming the Gospel, the Gospel might be proclaimed with greater power and glory, so that, these latter rains that God would desire to pour out upon us and the world, that are waiting to fall as a storm upon a society that is lying exhausted, as sheep without a Shepherd, might fall.  The rains will fall that we might be renewed, re-created, as the Spirit of Yahweh, who still moves upon the face of the deep is still the God who will proclaim -- Let there be Light!



Deus et Sanctissima.