Wrestling with God: The Struggle That Forms Disciples
Today’s reading reflects on Jesus’ words, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few,” . . .
. . . emphasizing that the “harvest” refers not to the perfect or righteous, but to the broken, wounded, and lost . . . a world in desperate need of salvation. The Homily challenges the common, passive prayer for vocations, asserting that vocations do not arise from nothing; they come from a Church that is itself faithful, rooted, and committed to spiritual struggle.
Jacob Wrestling and Its Lesson
Drawing from the story of Jacob wrestling through the night and leaving with a limp, the Homily powerfully illustrates that authentic discipleship requires tenacity, struggle, and a willingness to hold fast to God even when it’s difficult. True laborers in the Lord’s harvest are formed in the soil of the Church, shaped by prayer, moral conviction, and fidelity. Only then can they reach out to others with strength and purpose.
Ultimately, the homily challenges all to not just pray for vocations, but to live in such a way that they help create them. How?
Listen more to this Meditation Media. Listen to:
Wrestling with God: The Struggle That Forms Disciples
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Quote From The Homily
And it’s important that we recognize this because there’s a certain naive way of hearing these words about the harvest and laborers that allows us very quickly to miss the point and the thrust of what Jesus is talking about here.
It is not a harvest of the perfect, but a harvest of the broken. It is not a harvest of the found, but a harvest of the lost because without Christ, that is what the world is. Without Christ, that is what the human heart is.
There are none that are healthy. There are none who are found. All are lost. All are wounded. All are guilty. This is the harvest, the world that needs saving. And so it is then that the Lord looks out at that tremendous need for salvation, this ocean of need that he says pray. Then ask the Lord of the harvest to send Laborers for the laborers are few. And again, we have to pause. What does it mean recognizing that the laborers are few, . . .
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Jacob Wrestling with the Angel: French Painter, Illustrator and Artist: Gustave Doré: 1855
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Gospel Reading: Matthew 9: 32-38
First Reading: Genesis 32: 23-33
