July 7
Our Lady of Arras
Netherlands (1380)
Gospel: Matthew 9:32-38
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| Image created by Google AI Image Creator. |
Today’s Gospel
ends with Jesus looking at the crowds and feeling compassion for them because
they were “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” Right after
healing a man who couldn’t speak, He turns to His disciples and says the
harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few, as if the real shortage was
never miracles, but people willing to show up for the work.
There’s no
shortage of need around us either. People we know are troubled and quietly
abandoned, not necessarily homeless or friendless, just unaccompanied in
whatever they’re carrying. The harvest Jesus describes isn’t somewhere far
away; it’s the coworker who seems off lately, the relative nobody’s checked on,
the neighbor who’s gone unusually quiet.
Ask to be
counted among the laborers today instead of just the crowd being harvested. You
don’t need a collar or a commission to be one of the few Jesus is asking for,
you need willingness. A phone call, a visit, a few minutes of actually
listening to someone who’s been troubled and unattended. That’s the field He’s
pointing to, and He’s still short on workers.
Today the
Marian calendar acknowledges Our Lady of Arras in the Netherlands, 1380, one more
shepherd-figure raised up for people who needed somewhere to turn. Mary has
never stood at a distance from the troubled and abandoned; she’s the mother who
goes looking. Something to ponder today: Who in your harvest has been quietly waiting
for someone to show up and share Jesus with them?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given.
Freely shared.
