Tuesday – 14^th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Matthew 9:32-38

I Am Tired!

Sheep!

Are you tired?  Worn out?  Stressed out?  Do you get up after a fitful night of sleep feeling even more exhausted than the day before?  We are all feeling it – tired of greed and selfishness, of worry, of watching the news, tired of violence and hatred, tired of unconscionable acts of cruelty, tired of seeing nothing change, tired of people with too many divisive words and not enough healing actions.  I think we are all feeling that way lately, a bit lost, sheep looking for a good shepherd!

We don’t often see the human side of Jesus in the Gospels.  Mostly we see the miracle-worker, the raiser of people from the dead, the healer, the teacher, the Resurrected Son of God.  But sometimes, like in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see His humanity, what we share in common with Him.  And we get a glimpse of that human side in today’s Gospel. 

Jesus spends all His time traveling from town on town (on foot).  He teaches in the synagogues, He preaches the Kingdom of God and He cures every illness and disease.  And it never stops; the crowds keep coming, the poor, the sick, the lame, the neglected, they all keep coming with seemingly no end in sight. 

And yet He welcomes them all.  He comes across today as physically tired and exhausted and yet, out of compassion for the abandoned and the troubled, He turns no one away.  He knows they need a shepherd.  But He also knows that more shepherds are needed.  He recognizes that there will always be the poor and the sick and the marginalized. And so He prays that more laborers, more shepherds, step up to the task.

And that is our calling.  No matter how tired we are, there is always someone else who doesn’t even have a place to sleep.  As stressed as we are, there is always someone else whose problems and situation are so much worse. 

Great Spirit, help me live today with an open heart.  No matter how tired or worn out I am, may I be open to the needs of others, open to compassion and service, open to the sick and the troubled, open to the call of the Creator!