Be Involved

Reflection on Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

When Jesus began his public ministry, he knew that he could not do it alone. He would need a helping hand from some hand-picked persons. He picked twelve men, and named them Apostles. "… they were to be (first) his companions, and (then) to be sent out to proclaim the message" (Mark 3: 14). That is the meaning of the word Apostle, someone who is sent out.

As the mission grew bigger, Jesus must have realised that thirteen persons (himself and the Twelve) could not do it all. He therefore proceeded to appoint "seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit'~ as we read in today's Gospel passage. Even then, Jesus still remarked that "the harvest is rich but the labourers are few ... "

Just before he ascended into heaven, Jesus threw the mission wide open to all his disciples. The mission was now to "Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:19). Twelve men could not make disciples of all nations. Twelve men plus seventy-two could not either. All of the disciples now had to do it. All of them had to become apostles, evanglisers, missionaries, call it what you like. That is exactly what they began to do, according to what we read in the Acts of the Apostles. In the early days of the Church, it was not only the Twelve or any other restricted group of disciples that evangelised, that is, proclaimed the Good News. All of the disciples did: men and women, ordained and non-ordained. That was one of the reasons for the phenomenal spread of the Christian faith to the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire in only a few decades of the Church's existence.

The harvest has never been richer (Le. greater) than it is today. The labourers too, by comparison with the harvest, have never been fewer. I mean the people that are usually thought to be the labourers in the vineyard of the Lord: bishops, priests, deacons, religious, maybe catechists. It is therefore necessary to remind everyone that the ranks of labourers in the Lord's Vineyard have been expanded to embrace all disciples of Christ, every baptised Christian. Jesus did that more than 2000 years ago just before his ascension. Therefore, every disciple of Christ, that is every baptised Christian, must see himself or herself as a labourer in the Lord's vineyard. Everyone must be involved in the task of proclaiming the Good News and doing God's work. It is both a duty and a right. That is, you must do it, and no one can prevent you from doing it, as long as you are doing it right.

If everyone would just do his or her part, and not sit on the fence, the harvest would still be rich (great), but the labourers would no longer be so few. The Church, like the world, is made up of three categories of persons: those who make things happen, those who watch things happening, and those who wonder what happened. Where can you be 'Counted right now? Where would you like to be counted when you close your eyes to time and open them to eternity? So, get involved!