The harvest is abundant but the labourers are few

2 Tm 1,1-8 opp. Tt 1,1-5; Ps 95; Lk 10,1-9
26 JANUARY
If one wishes to live every word of Jesus in holiness and in fullness of truth, it must be understood holily and in fullness of truth. A wrong understanding, brings life into error. Today the life of the Christian is brought into error by all the wrong interpretations of the Word of the Lord. Extreme responsibility. We know that, with the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord denounces this fact. The scribes of time with their lying pen had reduced all his Word to a lie. Jesus also denounces the same fact. The scribes and Pharisees of his time had erased the Word of God in the name of their tradition. Their tradition was true and false the Word of the Lord.

Tell them: Thus says the Lord: When someone falls, does he not rise again? if he goes astray, does he not turn back? Why do these people rebel with obstinate resistance? Why do they cling to deceptive idols, refuse to turn back? I listen closely: they speak what is not true; No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done!” Everyone keeps on running his course, like a steed dashing into battle. Even the stork in the air knows it seasons; Turtledove, swallow and thrush observe their time of return, But my people do not know the ordinance of the Lord. How can you say, “We are wise, we have the law of the Lord”? Why, that has been changed into falsehood by the lying pen of the scribes! The wise are confounded, dismayed and ensnared; Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, of what avail is their wisdom? Therefore, I will give their wives to strangers, their fields to spoilers. Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain, prophet and priest, all practice fraud (Jer 8,4-10). “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves  (Cf. Mt 23,13-39).

The harvest is a lot, because the land to sow is the whole world. Every man by the will of God must listen to the Gospel of salvation and redemption. The workers are few, because at present Jesus has only twelve Apostles and seventy-two disciples. What might he do with them? Little. Very little. Why we must pray to the owner of the harvest. Because the obligation to sow the Gospel is personal. Everyone is obliged to ensure that the Word reaches every heart. It is his obligation. How will he be able to do it? By asking the Father for other workers, so that together with him they may become missionaries of the Gospel. If the missionary does not ask for other workers, he is responsible for those who are lost. A baptized, a confirmed person, a deacon, a presbyter and a bishop, each one according to the mission entrusted to him, is obliged to ask the  Father for workers. He will ask them if He will feel invested by his sacrament responsible for the salvation of the world. If he thinks that his garden is everything, he will stop praying. He is responsible forever.

After this the Lord appointed seventy (-two) others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the labourers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the labourer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’

Another truth to put in fullness of light. He cannot ask other workers to the Lord who has abdicated his ministry, according to the proper grace and mission of the ministry, to surrender himself to other things. Never will the Lord hear his prayer. First he must return to his own sacramental truth and then he can ask the Lord for workers. From the falsity of one’s ministry one cannot pray to the Lord. Even if he is prayed, he will never listen. If he listened, would he justify our falseness. It is not from God. God is most pure truth and will never lend himself to being a servant of our lie.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that every disciple asks for workers from his truth.