In life, it is more common to encounter people who feel troubled, tired and abandoned. I have encountered many exhausted people. I have, myself, also felt troubled and exhausted many times because of life’s difficulties. That physical tiredness, however, could be a symptom of an inner weariness. Perhaps it’s a deeper weariness, as a consequence of facing the battle of life every day.
Weariness
This Sunday’s Gospel reading becomes profoundly timely, because Matthew presents us with the gaze of Jesus who notices the weariness of the crowd. “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned” (Matt. 9:36). God is not impassive in the face of the world’s pain: Jesus feels compassion in the face of our weariness. The Lord, in fact, knows the human heart. Compassion is the feeling of closeness, which often recurs in the Gospel. Compassion is felt by those who are capable of looking away from themselves. It is felt by those who are willing to enter into another’s story. Compassion can never be felt from a distance. We just celebrated the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; a loving and compassionate heart. In several passages of the Gospel, we see Jesus feel pity for the different problems of humanity. He is full of compassion. That compassion is already a sign that the Kingdom of God is near.
Calling by Name
Jesus’ gaze becomes so close that he sees each person with their pain, to the point of calling us by name. He goes into the troubled crowd and recognizes each person’s face. The names of the apostles carry with them complicated stories, different worlds, conflicting cultures. And the true miracle is that the Lord calls them together: imperfect people, unlikely disciples, friends in need. It is to them, just as they are, in this struggle to walk together, that God entrusts the ministry of announcing his presence and his Kingdom.
Our story is not so different from the apostles’. Throughout history, Jesus continues to call people to his mission; he continues to call us, imperfect, inadequate, wounded, and tired. Only because we have experienced his compassion can we also be sent. Jesus entrusts a task, a mission, to each of us. And this mission is the meaning of our lives as Christians. He trusts each of us. That power to drive out evil and heal illnesses was given to each of us when we were baptized.
Called to Continue
We are called to continue the works which Jesus has already started. What perhaps surprises us is the discovery that we are capable of it, even though we often do not realize it. There is a grace within us that we often fail to make available. Jesus sends us out because he knows that we can do it.
We are called first of all to preach that God is near, that is, to share, not necessarily with words, the experience of the love we have received: the moments when we have experienced God’s compassion, when we have felt understood, consoled, seen, and recognized for who we are. We are called to heal the illnesses of our time, caring for those wounds that mark the humanity of each of us. Some people are wounded because they have not felt loved, listened to, understood. Our presence can be a balm on the wounds of those before us. Indeed, “the harvest is abundant, but the laborer’s are few”. We pray that as many of us as possible be disposed to get involved in the vineyard of God.
[Readings: Exodus 19:2-6a; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36—10:8]
