Today we return to regularly scheduled programming.

The past two Sundays were interrupted by special annual feasts – Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi. However, we finally return to the regular rhythm of what the Church terms “ordinary time”. And with our return, we resume working our way through Matthew’s Gospel which we will continue to hear at Sunday Mass throughout the remainder of the Church’s year.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus commissions His disciples to imitate Him (Matthew 9:38-10:8). Notice carefully that the foundation of the Christian mission begins in Jesus’ own missionary activity.

Looking out and seeing the crowd that is distressed, Jesus is filled with compassion [from two root words: com = with; passio = suffering]. The crowd appears to be like “sheep without a shepherd”, and Jesus asks His disciples to pray for workers in the harvest. God’s Word must continue to multiply! Thus, not only are they to pray for other workers in the harvest, but they are then commissioned to be workers in the harvest.

Jesus calls us to participate in His saving mission through our compassionate response to the needs of others who we encounter.