WE ARE THE WORKERS AND THE HARVESTS
Our meditation today has the theme: We are the Workers and the Harvests. Saint Jerome studied law in Rome and while studying theology as well, he then repented, was baptized, and then chose to live an ascetic life. He chose a solitary life to study the scriptures in the Syrian desert. The Pope Damasus I commissioned him to translate the scriptures into Latin, and this translation is known as the vulgate. He is known as an extraordinary biblical scholar. His famous saying is: to know the scriptures is to know Jesus Christ.
The great work of Saint Jerome in the translation of the scriptures from the original language, gave way to the big opportunity for everyone to know and study the scriptures. This process serves to help us know Jesus Christ and to love Him to this moment of our life. Today Jesus specifically teaches us about the calling and duty to work in His field of abundant harvest.
Saint Jerome had proven himself to be a worker at the service of the great harvest, that is, all of us who have and use the bible. Each of us as follower of Christ has a calling and the duty we carry it out, which is to serve the abundant harvest around us. We are actually workers, who are ready to hear or to read the Word like the priest Esra and the Jews did in the first reading today.
Such work is not enough to make us real followers of Christ. What is also necessary is to understand, meditate and internalize the words that have been read or heard. Through this process we may be made happy and lucky because of this spiritual experience. There can also be curiosity, yearning, anxiety and seeking for the meaning of God's word which often cause a person not comfortable and not in peace. When people understand and believe in the Word, then there is peace and joy. Like it or not, when our spiritual life is empty or unstable, we feel that we must recover it with the word of God and His commandments which is abundant.
Up to this point, the acts of hearing and understanding actually signify our being as the harvests. What a beautiful and meaningful experience to hear and understand the proclamation of the Word of God. Our love, obedience, reverence and devotion to hear it, then our joy, comfort, strength and gratitude to understand and believe in it, all these should be the spiritual fruits that we may obtain. The harvest becomes more and more apparent when many other people around us can be led accordingly to live in God's grace. We are actually both workers and harvests in the Lord's vineyard.
Let's pray. In the name of the Father... May Your words manifested in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ grow in our hearts today and tomorrow. Hail Mary full of grace... In the name of the Father...