The Gospel of the Mass1 tells us something that must have happened many times as the Lord went through cities and villages preaching the coming of the Kingdom of God: when he saw the crowds, he was filled with compassion for them, he was moved to the depths of his being, because they were mistreated and dejected like sheep without a shepherd, deeply disoriented. Their shepherds, instead of guiding and caring for them, were leading them astray and behaving more like wolves than shepherds. Jesus, addressing the disciples, said: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. As today, the laborers are few in proportion to the task. There is harvest that is spoiled because there is no one to harvest it; hence the urgent need for joyful, effective, simple Christians, faithful to the Church, aware of what they have in their hands. And this concerns us all, because the Lord needs workers and students who know how to bring Christ to the factory and to the University, with their prestige as good professionals and with their apostolate; exemplary professors who teach with a Christian sense, who give their time generously to their students and are true teachers; men and women who are consistent with their faith in every human activity; fathers and mothers who are concerned about the faith of their children, who are involved in parents' associations in schools, in the neighborhood.
Faced with so many disoriented people, empty of God and filled only with material goods or the desire to have them, we cannot remain on the sidelines. Even under a cloak of indifference, deep down in their souls people are thirsting, even today, to be told about God and the truths that concern their salvation. If we Christians do not work with sacrifice in this field, what the Prophets announced will happen: the harvest will be destroyed, the earth will be in mourning; for the wheat is dry, the wine desolate, the oil lost. Be confounded, O ye husbandmen; cry out, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley. There is no harvest. God was waiting for these fruits and they were lost because of the negligence of those who had to take care of them and gather them.
The words of the Lord in the Gospel - the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few - should lead us to examine ourselves every day, asking ourselves: what have I done today to make God known, to whom have I spoken about Christ today, what have I done for the apostolate, am I concerned about the salvation of those around me, am I aware that many would come to the Lord if I were bolder and more exemplary in the fulfillment of my duties?
Hablar con Dios