Wednesday, July 19 : Saint John Chrysostom

Jesus Christ, loaded with scorn and insults by his foes, set himself still more to doing them good… He went through towns, villages and synagogues, teaching us not to pay back calumny with calumny but with even greater generosity. If you have God’s good pleasure and not other people’s in mind when you do good to your neighbor, whatever they may do to you don’t stop doing good to them. Your reward can only be all the greater… That is why Christ did not wait for the sick to come to him; he himself went to them, taking them two essential goods at the same time: the Good News of the Kingdom and the healing of their ills. Nor even was that enough for him: he showed his concern in yet another way. “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.'” Note, once again, his distancing himself from vainglory. Not wanting to draw everyone to follow him, he sent his disciples. He wanted to train them, not just for the struggles they were going to undergo in Judea, but also for the battles they will set in motion throughout the earth… Jesus gives his disciples the power to heal bodies while waiting before confiding to them the equally important power to heal souls. Note how he demonstrates both the ease and the necessity of this work at the same time. What does he say, in fact? “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” I am not sending you out to sow but to harvest… In speaking like this our Lord gave them confidence and showed them that the most important work had already been achieved.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team