The work is great, but few people want to work. Already in Jesus’ day, the feeling is that the field of the world and people’s lives is so boundless that it demands as many people as possible to take the world and people’s stories to heart. Christ’s disciples have this fundamental call: to take the world and every person in it to heart so that they receive what they most need: Meaning and significance. For us this has a name of its own, Jesus Christ. When you love someone, that someone feels that their life has meaning. They experience in their own experience who God is. For God is Love. There is such a great need for Love that there are never enough workers. Jesus’ appeal is an appeal to the saints, to those who want to get their hands dirty in this. But Jesus does not just tell us that there is this need, he also tells us what the working conditions are: ‘Go; behold, I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither bag nor sack nor shoe and greet no one on the way. Whichever house you enter, say first, ‘Peace to this house!’ If a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; if not, it shall return to you. Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they have, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. In whatever town you enter, if they receive you, eat what is set before you, heal the sick there, and say to them: ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’. The concrete translation is this: do not rely on what you have but on the One who sends you. Do not go as fools, but remember that wolves are outside, not kittens. Do not go as lone heroes, but try to find strength in the fact that there is someone beside you. Bring peace, and go and talk especially to those who are suffering. This is usually the backbone of the saints and what they do.
