Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

Matthew 9:35 - 10:23

I think when we hear Jesus ask us to pray for laborers for the harvest, many of us believe we are praying for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.  But notice that the apostles who were sent out by Jesus were not yet by any measure, clergy.  They had not participated in the Last Supper, yet, and received the order to “Do this in memory of me.”  They had not had the risen Jesus breathe on them and give them the power to forgive sins.  They had not yet been ordered to baptize all nations , which would only come about at the time of Jesus’ ascension.  They weren’t priests or bishops.  They were laymen, and fairly uneducated as well.  You didn’t need to know how to read and write in those days.  There were scribes for that.  So Jesus sends out twelve uneducated laymen to proclaim the kingdom of heaven.  And they do, and look at us now, one fifth of the world’s population are at least nominally Christian.

One of the good things that seems to be happening in our time is the fact that lay poeo[ple are stepping up to the plate in terms of evangelization.  There are several prominent writers and apologists, andI’m sure you’ve heard of Scott Hahn, Edward Sri,Jimmy Akin, Karl Keating.  And lay evangelists aren’t limited to men; Theresa Tomeo, Sherry Weddell, and Lila Rose are just three names of women who are Catholic evangelists.  

But despite these signs of hope, we can’t escape the fact that parts of the world where Catholicism was once very strong now see a sad attrition of faithful Catholics -- Western Massachusetts, for example.  And I think today’s gospel should be a call to all of us to become laborers for the harvest.  

Jesus even tells us what to do.  We are to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  We do this by our deeds, we cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out demons.  He gave his disciples the power to do so, and Isuspect he gives us the power as well, if we want to use it.  There have been saints, even in fairly recent times, who have done deeds like these.  And when those deeds are witnessed, people come into the church, and people with lukewarm faith become more fervent.  

So where do we start?  We have to start from the beginning.  You can’t hope to cure the sick unless you go to the sick.  All of us know someone who is sick -- maybe chronically ill, maybe recovering from surgery.  But how do we bring the presence of Christ to them?  Christ lives in you and I and that’s what we have to remember.  We are all tabernacles and just as we come into the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, even though we know we can approach God from anywhere, I Can bring Christ to people by visiting them, by simply being present to them.  

Raising the dead is a bigger challenge.  Being dead means that you are no longer able to change without a seeming miracle.  People who are severe alcoholics or drug or gambling addicts, for example.  If we know people like this, sometimes all we can do is pray for them, but it doesn’t hurt to work on the bonds we have with them, to strengthen their reason to change.  

Cleansing lepers is also something we can do.  Lepers are people at the margins, people who are by reason of race or sexual orientation or challenged mentally or physically, or people who are bullied.  They are people who are rejected by society.  To cleanse these lepers means to invite them back into our circle, even if it means that we step outside of it to do so.  

Finally, driving out demons is something the Lord calls his disciples to do.  I don’t deny that there really are demons.  But most people affected by demons are not really possessed, but rather, they are oppressed.  I know a lady who is absolutely convinced that she can’t be forgiven her sins; She’s been to confession several times, has worked with a counselor on more than one occasion, and she can’t even name the sin she thinks she is guilty of.  She’s miserable.  It’s hard to tell if she is oppressed by a demonic force or if she has some mental illness.  But to have malignant obsessive thoughts ruining your life certainly seems demonic.  And Jesus gives his church  the power to drive out demons.  Maybe it is up to us disciples to try to get people like this at least evaluated.  

When I was growing up I knew a priest who taught at our local Catholic college.  Many evenings he would quietly disappear to sit in a bar and talk with the patrons.  We didn’t know this until his funeral, when the stories came out about the lives he changed by being present, by being non-judgemental, and simply by quietly being there to listen.  What he was doing, anyone could do, you don’t need Holy Orders.