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Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

 

Today's Gospel: Matthew 9:32-38

“His heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Troubled and abandoned: two adjectives that are particularly apt in today’s world too. Jesus looks and sees an abundant harvest. Something must be wrong with my vision, because when I look, all I see is an empty field.

The question it comes down to is this: Do I--do you--believe the Holy Spirit can reap a harvest out of a troubled and abandoned field? Jesus intimates that there is only one impediment, and it's not a lack of willingness or power on the part of God. It’s the lack of human cooperation. A lack of farmhands willing to do the bidding of the master of the vineyard or who are even willing to ask him for more help. Ouch.

What is the work to be done? As we learn in verse 35, it’s teaching, proclaiming the Gospel, and curing every disease and illness. It’s teaching by words, teaching by our lives, and teaching by healing spiritual and physical wounds. The God Who made the words of the apostles so powerful that thousands of people were baptized in a single day can make our own words penetrate the stony ground of people's hardened exteriors. The God Who worked miracles at the hands of the disciples can and will work miracles of emotional, spiritual, and physical healing at our hands. All we need are farmhands who are willing to try and willing to ask Him for His help.

 

Ponder:

 

Do we look at family and friends who are troubled and abandoned and see an abundant harvest? Do we regularly ask God to send out more laborers? Are we willing to be sent ourselves?

 

Pray:


Lord God, give me eyes of faith to see an abundant harvest where now I see only empty fields. Please, God, send laborers to reap the harvest, and grant me the grace to be a faithful laborer myself.

 

Click to tweet:
The God Who made the words of the apostles so powerful that thousands of people were baptized in a single day can make our own words penetrate the stony ground of people's hardened exteriors. #dailygospel

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Copyright 2022 Amanda Woodiel

About the Author

Amanda Woodiel

Amanda Woodiel

Amanda Woodiel is a Catholic convert, a mother to five children ages 14 to 6, a slipshod housekeeper, an enamored wife, and a “good enough” homeschooler who believes that the circumstances of life—both good and bad—are pregnant with grace. Her oldest son was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2022, which is providing plenty of opportunities to test that hypothesis.