Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we’re celebrating the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The opening prayer O God, strength of those who hope in you graciously hear our pleas and since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen. A reading from the book of Exodus, 19th chapter, second through the sixth verse in those days the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai and pitched camp while Israel was encamped here in front of the mountain. Moses went up the mountain to God and Lord called to him and said, thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, tell the Israelites you have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians, how I bore you up on eagle’s wings and brought you here to myself. Therefore if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all the people, though all the earth is mine, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, the word of the Lord we are his people, the sheep of his flock Sing joyfully to the Lord all you land Serve the Lord with gladness, Come before him with joyful song. We are his people, the sheep of his flock Know that the Lord is God, he made us we are his, his people, the flock he tends we are his people, the sheep of his flock. The Lord is good, his kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
We are his people, the sheep of his flock. A Reading from the New Testament from Romans 5th, chapter 6 to the 11th verse brothers and sisters, Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath? Indeed, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.
How much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life? Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. The word of the Lord. Hallelujah. Verse the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Alleluia. The Gospel is taken from St. Matthew, 9th chapter 36 verse to the 10th chapter, 8th verse. At the sight of the crowds, Jesus heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd. And he said to his disciples, the harvest is abundant, but laborers are few. So ask the Master of the harvest to send out laborers for his vineyard.
And he summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the 12 are these. First, Simon, called Peter and his brother Andrew. James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus, Simon from Cana and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these 12 after instructing them thus. Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as you go. Make this. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received without cost you are to give the gospel of the Lord. Take the next few moments as we listen to this music to ponder the images and the thoughts that come to you as you listen to these readings.
Somehow I’m struck today with the idea that I. I’ve been looking at these stories over and over and over again. 56 years of preaching and teaching from really a very small part of what the Bible is all about in terms of the readings that are chosen for the liturgy. But one thing it’s consistently called to my mind is the way in which this story evolves slowly. And that slow evolution that we see in the relationship between God and His people is a very, very good way of understanding our personal relationship with him in our own personal lifespan. For in the beginning, it’s clear that God needed to speak to his people.
He needed. And so he took them out of a place that they got themselves into because of their human nature. It’s pretty clear that we. Before we kind of figure the world out, we get into a lot of trouble because we don’t really see the whole picture. And so God is slowly revealing to human beings the relationship that he has with us and begins first and foremost by the simple invitation on his part that he wants a relationship with human beings, and he wants it to be personal, and he wants to reveal Himself to them. And so you see him doing the thing that is basically an archetype for the whole story of our relationship with God.
He takes us from a place of slavery, bondage, not being able to do what we want, not being able to become who we need to be, and said, I want to tell you that you are special to me. This group of you, I want to start with a small community, and you are special, and I’m going to take care of you. Just want you to come with me away from where you are, into something brand new. And so the story begins. And then as you see it unfold, you realize that in the process, God took them to a place where they were asked to perform for him, and they had to follow his rules and regulations. If they did that, he would stay with them.
If not, he would leave them. But then they were still helpless, as the next reading of Romans starts out, in their helplessness of being able to follow what they were supposed to do for fear of punishment was never enough. So they found themselves still struggling. And so there had to be something more given to them. And that was called redemption. Because the sin that’s in us is always isolating and separating us.
And so he said, I’ve got to do something to break down this separation that people feel with me because they fail and they can’t seem to keep my commandments. So I will do something. I will. I will enter into their life and radically change the whole system. They no longer have to earn anything from me. I have a covenant with them I will never, ever break.
And then when Jesus comes, the fullness is a message. And he’s looking at the crowds and he says, my heart is moved because they’re still troubled and abandoned. I mean, that’s so much a. An experience that most of us have even now, today, where the world is troubling and we don’t know that there’s anything there for us that’s going to take care of us and protect us. We feel like we’re abandoned by systems that were there to protect us and keep us safe. And so we’re, like, lost.
And then he says something so clearly. He said, I am going to send people out into your midst because I’ve discovered that I can’t save you at a distance. I have to come in the form of a human being. And that’s what he did when he became the savior of the world. But he did that as a way of saying, this is what I need you to be for me. I cannot and will not and do not intend to save these people directly, just through me, but through me in you.
And so I have to tell you that I’m giving you the same power that you saw in Jesus. And when you think about it, you say, well, I haven’t felt that power that much. I mean, come on. I still struggle with things, and I can’t make things perfect. But no, what he’s simply saying is, look, I’m sending you these disciples. This is the way I’m going to work from now on.
I’m going to send people to you who are different, who have an ability to do things. And when he describes the things that they’re asked to do, it’s amazing. When he asked those to pay attention to what he’s going to give to people, it’s too much, in a way. He says, I will. You will open the eyes of the blind. You’ll.
You’ll. You’ll help people be free of demons. You’ll. You’ll raise people from the dead. You’ll. You’ll.
You’ll heal every disease. Well, I mean, do you know anybody that’s doing that right now? Yeah, I think I do. Maybe not in that direct way, maybe not in that literal way, but raising people from the dead is not necessarily different than lifting someone out of a dark, deep depression. And opening people’s eyes is not anything more maybe, than being a model for them so they can see who they could be, that they might have what we have, because they see it in us as something attractive, less troubled, less abandoned. All kinds of ways he’s doing this work, and that’s the task.
To not only be open to the way in which God works through the people around us, but also as he works in the circumstances around us, in the direction we see the world going. And if you really have a broader sense of history than just right here and now, you’ll realize that every dark, horrible time creates something new and exciting and different. Change is violent, in a sense. It’s difficult and hard on us. When we see people around us giving in to that spirit of abandonment and troubled and anxious and dark. We are crying out, in a sense, for others around us to reach us and speak to us and bring us something that we need.
It’s believing in the plan, which is a covenant plan, not a contractual plan. He is saying, no matter what you do, no matter how far you go, I’m going to work as hard as I can. And that’s a lot to say when God says as hard as he can in the lives of other people to touch you and free you and work with you. I mean that’s both exciting when you think about the day to day things you’re experiencing, not only from the perspective of what you might be receiving, but from an even more exciting perspective of what you might be giving. And do you think you have that power in you? From you, in you alone?
In you? No. That’s where we get bogged down. We’re not used to allowing power to work through us without it being connected to us. Our egos are just too quick to grab hold of that and say, wow, I can do anything. We can’t do anything, but we can do everything we need to do if God is in us.
And that’s always the heart of this message of God speaking to his people. From the very beginning of the call of Abraham until this very moment, he’s been working on this relationship with us where we’re co working workers in the vineyard and we’re making things happen. And if you look at the broader picture, we are better off now than we’ve ever been. Even though there’s a lot of division and a lot of problems. Problems are not the problem. Problems are the solution because in working through them, that’s when God shows himself more powerfully than any other time.
Good times are wonderful, peaceful times are absolutely essential. Happiness is core need. But struggle is equally essential, equally important. And it’s the meat of this work we have as spiritual creatures in this world. It’s the drink, it’s the food, it’s him in us, that’s the key. And without it we stay abandoned and hopeless.
Amen. Foreign Help us to remember always that your plan for us is not so much that we grow in a personal perfection, but rather we enter more fully into the participation of you saving the world. Bless us with this hope. Bless us with this kind of sense that there is meaning in all that we do. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner.
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