Jesus' heart is filled with great pity we are told as he moved around the city teaching, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing. 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."
This is the same prayer that we saw at the conclusion of the Celebration of the Word without a priest begging God for an increase of vocations to the priesthood. We are a people in need of teachers of the Way. We suffer in our world amidst the confusion and fear that acts of terror and potential war bring. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He hears us. "He summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness." They were directed to tend to the flock, attend to the lost sheep meaning those who feel lost and abandoned or strayed from the Way. What is not said, but understood is the rest will stay banded together and help each other on the right path under the guidance of those who serve as teachers of the Way. If Jesus is our good shepherd, then the heads of our church, our bishops and pastors are respectively those good teachers who guide us in his place under the care of the Holy Spirit.
Our priests are dear to us, but every one of us has our role to play within the Church. Ask yourself, "Do I put forth the effort I should in helping other stay within the fold of God's loving care or do I say or do mean things to those I don't like? Do I stray from the path of righteousness and need someone to talk to me and help me figure out my relationship with God? Do I respects our priests as anointed pastors who guide us on the Way and lead us with their God-given supernatural power through Christ in the Sacraments to overcome unclean spirits, to forgive sins, to draw God down to us through the Sacrament of the Eucharist? Our priests are the laborers descendent from the Twelve. We are their flock, and without them we are lost, but reciprocally, without their flock, so are they. Each of us has a role to play within the Church. We are reminded, "For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ..." (1 Cor 12:14-26 ) We are the Church. Our priests, all the clergy, are the church. Christ is the Church. Together we are the Church. Together we give glory to God and proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom with our very lives. Let us pray that our efforts in communion with each other may bring healing.
