A Call to Divine Service

“Do not be afraid” - there’s that phrase again as it begins this week’s gospel reading. We hear it spoken so often in the scriptures and yet do we really hear its words and understand its meaning? Often it is spoken when an encounter occurs between God and humanity, when for example Gabriel appears to Mary to tell her what is going to take place to her. So, when Jesus says it to his apostles in today’s Gospel, what is the divine encounter which is about to take place?

Last week, Jesus called us to become labourers in the harvest, and he gave us our instructions for what to do and how our labour was to be administered. Have we reflected on what it implies for us? Recall those four tasks Jesus names; to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast our devils. Have we taken on board the awesome nature of what they convey? If we approach them simply as frightening realities, then we are not going to be able to tackle them. If we think that the prospect of doing such things either overwhelms us or fills us with trepidation, leaving us frozen, then we are not listening properly to Jesus’ words. Perhaps we’ve covered up our ears and have failed to listen in a way which uncovers the potential that lies within the heart of each one of us to love in the way that Jesus calls us to love. If we understand the divine encounter that takes place when we open ourselves up to his call, if we hear that call not as a frightening closing down of our humanity, but as a beautiful awakening of the value of our character and its capacity to serve and heal, then each one of us suddenly becomes aware of something extraordinary: nothing less than the value that is inherent in every person, or as Jesus puts it – every hair on your head has been counted.

Such an encounter with Jesus thus raises the work of the harvest to a different order. Those four deeds are no longer beyond our capabilities because we see in them something beautiful, something true and something good. in other words, something of God. We see in them the spark of the divine life which becomes incarnate and raised up. It is a call to take up the work of divine service which is made visible in and among each one of us. We do it in our homes, our parishes, our schools, our workplaces because this is where the harvest is to be gathered in. This is our work and through it we declare ourselves for Christ, who will sacralise this work and present it to the Father