In this morning’s Gospel, we hear Jesus tell his disciples to pray that the master of the harvest will send out laborers. Immediately after that, he invests them with authority over the evil spirits and sends them out to preach and to work miracles.
When we pray for more laborers in the vineyard, we might imagine that God will answer this prayer by calling more men into the priesthood or more women into religious life. While we certainly need more good priests and sisters, this Gospel helps us to see that God doesn’t want us to just pray for more priests or sisters or somebody else to go and spread the Good News. God wants to send all of us!
By asking the disciples to pray to the Father to send laborers to gather the harvest, Jesus was calling them to welcome everyone to join them in this important mission of spreading the gospel. God calls us to pray for this same need today, so that we in turn might grow in our awareness of his desire to send all of us – you and me – out on that same mission. For the kingdom of God to grow, it takes all of us.
In today’s first reading, we hear God tell his people that they would all be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. At our baptism, right after we have been welcomed into God’s kingdom as water is poured over our heads, each of us anointed and is called to be a priest, prophet and king. Yes, we were all anointed at our baptism and so share in the mission of Jesus, the Christ. And, we all know that the word “Christ” means “anointed.”
As members of the priesthood of the faithful, we all have the duty to pray and sacrifice for others. One of the best ways to do this is by active participation in the Mass. You, the congregation are not just passive bystanders. No, you share in the sacrifice offered by the ordained priest by joining your hearts and your lives to the Eucharistic sacrifice. That’s why some of you bring up the gifts of bread and wine to be offered at the altar. That’s why the priest pours a little water into the wine before offering it to God. The wine become the blood of Christ and the water represents us – we who were baptized with water. Both are offered to God in worship. Then, as we pray together in this liturgy, we all offer our needs, the needs of our relatives and friends, the Church, and the world. This is, indeed, a sacred priestly role that we all share right here at Mass.
We are also all called to be prophets, ones who speak for God in the world. We need to give public witness to the Gospel. This looks different for each of us. Not everyone is called to be here in the pulpit and preach a sermon, but we all need to preach a sermon with our lives. By our words and actions, others need to see that we are followers of Christ. That’s true whether were at home, in our neighborhood or at work or play – wherever we are.
We are also called to be kings, but a king like Jesus. As he demonstrated so often throughout his life and especially as he washed the feet of his disciples and as he hung on the cross, we need to be the servants of all. The kingship of Jesus isn’t about having power. A king according to Jesus is concerned for the welfare of his people. In a few moments, we will pray for the sick, the lonely, and the poor and realize that we are also the ones sent to help them.
In today’s second reading, we hear Saint Paul offer a good reminder that the mission of Jesus was to give his life for all of us, even though we were sinners. We also have a share in this mission of reconciliation. As priests, prophets, and kings, we labor in the Church and in the world so that everyone may be reconciled to God.
This is God’s word for us today, we who are the kingdom of priests, the holy nation that we hear about in today’s first reading. The compassion of God, the plentiful harvest and the need to pray for laborers, Jesus calling ordinary people to be disciples, the emphasis on the continuing mission of Christ. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. In a world that needs good news so desperately, let’s proclaim this message with joy!