For the times we have failed to respond to your call, Lord, have mercy...
Having responded, for the times we have failed to obey your commands, Christ, have mercy...
In so doing, for the times we have failed to fulfill your will, Lord, have mercy...
He waits….For you and me….
When we look at God’s economy or plan of salvation in the bible, we can see that there is a distinct way in which God calls human beings, that there exists a certain pattern in which God, the caller, the one who is called, and the calling take place.
It has always been the case that when God called, it was the duty of human beings to respond to his call.
And when people responded to him affirmatively, God always commissioned them…
And when he commissioned them, it was expected that human beings would obey him…
And this obedience isn’t blind obedience. Because, when we obey God, he always gives us a promise…. A joy-filed hope to live by, an aim to achieve, and a purpose and a motivation for living and for doing what we are supposed to be doing…
Take, for example, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, and Paul, to name a few…
The good news is this: whenever God promised people something, the Bible guarantees that God has always kept his promise….
So, God calls, and human beings respond;
And when human beings respond, God commands;
And when God commands, human beings obey;
And when human beings obey, God promises;
And when God promises, human beings live in hope because God keeps his promise.
In this light, if we see the first reading today…
God had called Moses, and Moses had responded to him affirmatively,
And when Moses responded to God, he commanded him with a mission, of taking the Israelites out of the bondage of Phero in Egypt.
And when Moses accepted this mission with obedience, it was then that God promised him that he would lead the Israelites to the promised land flowing with milk and honey.
And it was when the Israelites were on their way to realizing what God has promised that we find today’s first reading which says “When they were on their way to realizing the promise that God had made for them, that God called Moses once again at Sinai and reminds him how he has kept his promise”
Not only he reminds them what he has thus far done in their lives and how he has been working with them to keep his promise, but he further assures them of his promise saying “If you hear my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession”
Taken this way, one might ask, if God demands of us and we have to obey him, then how difficult it is to be a Christian?
I would say, yes, it is difficult…because our God is not a God who just commands and demands so we should obey him.
In fact, he ought to do so because, as the second reading of Saint Paul to the Corinthians reminds us, it is he who loved us first…and showed his utmost love for us, even when we were still sinners, by sending his only son to die for us….
God ought to do it all the more because, as the Gospel reading of today reminds us, in the person of Christ, he is moved in his heart with pity because he found us to be like sheep without a shepherd.
Christ is so moved, so much so that he asks his disciples to pray: “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few. So ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest.”
It is this movement in his heart that enables Christ to take some concrete actions on behalf of mankind. There we see not only the choosing of the disciples but, in so doing, once again the repetition of the pattern of God’s calling in the history of mankind:
He calls his disciples by name, and they respond to him;
And there are twelve of them;
Then he commissions them;
Go, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons;
Of course with the promise that ‘Kingdom of God is at hand’.
It was just yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Christ, and being Saturday immediately following the feast of the sacred heart of Christ, we celebrate the feast of the immaculate heart of Mary….
So, looking through the heart of Christ, let us ask ourselves, how plenty is the harvest today?
Let’s look at the world we live in today, at our nation, at our neighborhood, at our family, at our own personhood, and at the whole of creation?
Do I/we live in a way that I/we do not become a reason for Christ’s Heart to sink? In a way that doesn’t bring sorrow to the heart of Mary? In a way that doesn’t hurt the hearts of my brothers and sisters around me? In a way that doesn’t hurt the creation of God?
How soaring must God’s heart be when he looks at me and all about me, today?
And how am I gonna respond to his calling in such a way that I am gonna bring peace to his heart today?
Through prayer? through a change of heart? Through becoming a disciple/laborer in his mission?
Christ waits…On the cross with his hands, feet, and heat pierced he waits… in the tabernacle in the decorated loneliness of his heart he waits… In the pain and sorrow of the hearts of my family members (parents, children, spouses) and the brothers and sisters around me he waits… In the agony of the heart of creation today, he waits….
Yes, he waits….God waits…. For you and me….
And in our response to him, he is gonna promise us something today…What is it that God is gonna promise you today that he cannot but keep?
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