Harvesters

"Then he said to his disciples: The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." (Matthew, 9:37)

The lesson here does not refer to the spiritual crop of the great periods of renovation throughout time; but rather, to the harvest of consolations that the Gospel enfolds within it.

On that occasion, mobs of disenchanted and roving hearts remained around the Master, according to the narrative by Matthew, resembling a flock without the shepherd. There were melancholy faces and supplicant eyes in sad disenchantment.

It was then that Jesus erected the symbol of a really great harvest, accompanied by few harvesters.

It is that the Gospel remains in the world as a blessed celestial harvest, destined to enrich the human spirit; meanwhile, the percentage of individuals ready to work in the harvesting is very small. The majority awaits the beneficial wheat or the finished bread for their own nourishment. Rare are those that confront the storms, the rigors of the work and the dangerous surprises that the effort of reaping requires of a devoted and faithful worker.

Because of that, the multitude of the desperate and disillusioned occurs continuously in the world, in increasing rows, throughout the centuries.

The self-sacrificing workers of the Christ proceed charged in virtue of the many hungry that roam around the harvest, lacking the precise courage of personally finding the nourishment of the eternal life. That picture will continue to persist on Earth, until the good consumers also learn to be good harvesters.

XAVIER, Francisco Cândido. Our Daily Bread. By the Spirit Emmanuel. Spititist Alliance for Books, 2003. Chapter 148.