Tuesday in the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 11, 2023

Matthew 9, 32-38

A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”  Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. 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.”

Following the miracles that confirmed the Lord’s previous preaching on faith and grace Matthew gives us a third, in that a possessed man was brought to Jesus for exorcism.  The Lord, seeing their faith, did as they asked.  Linked to this incident is the lack of faith by the Pharisees which is contrasted with the faith of the crowds, the “little ones” of Matthew 11, 25.  These have been neglected by the Pharisees who see no benefit to them in teaching the crowds about God.  The Lord, at the end of today’s Gospel Reading, tells the Apostles to pray for “laborers” to tend to the harvest.

“A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.”   A demon who possesses a person can force the person’s body to behave in certain ways.  Here, the demon causes the man to not be able to speak.  The man retains the ability to speak but the demon does not allow him to use this ability.  For the ancient peoples, to say a person was mute also meant that he could not hear, either.  The exorcism of the demon especially impressed the crowd because Jesus spoke to the demon directly and not through the man’s ears, and commanded him to depart, which it did.  

“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”  The Jews did not have the authority to drive out demons.  It did happen, though, that a demon manifesting itself within a person would go quiet during an attempted exorcism by a rabbi and seem to be cast out.  But the Lord’s exorcisms are clearly successful, often with the demon or demons crying out as they exited the person whom they had possessed.  The crowds were duly astounded at these signs of divine power and they professed it as such.  “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”  The Pharisees, however, tie themselves in knots trying to explain away the Lord’s exorcisms by resorting to absurdities, only making themselves look ridiculous.  

“Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.”  This verse summarizes all that the Lord did during the three years of his Public Life up the the time of the Passion.  Matthew seems to mean not only all the towns and villages of Galilee but also Judea.  He did this in order to offer salvation to all the Jews present in the Holy Land and also to offer an example to the Apostles of how zealous they also must be when he sends them out into the world.  We note that according to the verse, Jesus left out no town or village, no matter how small or otherwise insignificant.  

“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.”  For centuries the Israelites had been led by charismatic figures like Moses, Joshua, and the Judges.  Then there were kings, and when the kings failed there were the Prophets.  Under the Maccabees they had regained their land from the Greeks, but with the decay of that family no one stepped forth to lead them against the Romans.  The priests had never done much more than officiate in the Temple, and the Pharisaic sect did not arise to teach and lead so much as to insulate its members from the corruption of the religion which they perceived.  When John the Baptist arose, his role was limited to preparing the people for the Messiah, not to lead them as the Judges had done over a thousand years before.  Abandoned by the priests, despised by the Pharisees, the people were indeed sheep without a shepherd.  The Lord Jesus grieved at this and provided the solution: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  That is, to teach the Faith and to administer the Sacraments.  The Apostles themselves, filled with the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, as the laborers, would begin to gather the harvest.  When the Lord tells us about a problem, he means for us to do something about it.  And so not only should all the members of the faithful pray that those whom God has chosen for his laborers do his will, but that we ourselves might take our part in the harvest.  There are many kinds of work involved in harvesting, and everyone of us can do something.