From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the First Week of Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:35-10:4
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
Connie Anderson is the executive director of Murray House, the assisted living residence next door to All Saints. She is a model of compassion and commitment. She has steered artfully Murray House through financial challenges as well as through the regular stress and strain of managing the day to day iterations of its mission and ministry. The Covid-19 pandemic is obviously a formidable challenge for any elder-care facility. I had a conversation with Connie this morning. She seemed harried, overwhelmed. I tried to reassure her… “Just do what you can do,” I said. But she said, “I’m a fixer, I want to fix things… but there are just too many things to fix!”
Matthew’s audience lived at a time when the brutality of Roman occupation was being challenged in the Ancient Near East. Disciples of the Jesus Movement were under suspicion for being insurrectionists, as one of their principal habits was calling out the abuses of the empire. They must have felt harried, overwhelmed. In the persona of Jesus Matthew has an encouraging word for his community: he notes the obvious: there is plenty of work to do; the world is in crisis. The people to whom these disciples are sent are languishing at the hands of the powerful. Our English translation doesn’t do justice to the Greek. The word “helpless” may also be translated, “beaten down.” The root word for “harassed” also means “flayed open.” Compassion from its Latin root means to “suffer with,” but in the Greek it means to empathetically suffer in the “gut.” The suffering in Matthew’s world is overwhelming. And yet, in a moment of hopefulness, “the harvest is plentiful,” he says…. In other words, the need is so very great, but the need, the harvest, the process, are of God. Matthew proclaims that it is the solidarity of the faithful that will bring in the harvest. He is speaking of Love’s labor, which in God’s imagination, has exponential ramifications. The Good News is that there is no need, no evil, so great against which Love cannot stand.
We can’t “fix” things, but we can love. And because love is all about action, we can do what we can do… and we are not alone. Love never leaves us to labor alone. Our allies have names, names that you know. Take heart, good people, in this time of miracles and wonders, Love is enough. Love is always enough.
A Celtic Blessing
In the strong name of Jesus we bless all that is living, and recognize in all that lives the reflection of the Word who said: Let there be life, and it lives.
