Tuesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Genesis 32:23-33  +  Matthew 9:32-38
July 9, 2019

   “…the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few….”   

We usually associate the cry that Jesus utters in today’s Gospel passage with the need for vocations in the Church.  But Jesus also speaks through these words about the harvest of one’s own heart, and the fruits of one’s soul.  In each person is a soul created by God, and each soul is capable of being completely filled, as much as it is able:  to be “perfected” by God’s grace.

Unfortunately, this “harvest of the soul” is neglected by so many of us by our actions and our inaction.  We are not willing to believe what the Church teaches about every single human person being called by God to be a saint.  The Church at the Second Vatican Council spoke strongly about the “universal call to holiness”.

God gives each one of us many gifts, but only when we talk with God—and are strengthened by God—do we learn how to use them correctly, in accord with His plan.  Through our prayer, and God’s grace, our minds and wills can be shaped in His image, so that each of us can be more perfectly the saint God wants us to be.