Jesus looks at us with Love

XI SUNDAY “A” Matthew 9:36—10:8 At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ 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.” Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon from Cana, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Today’s Gospel, the call of the first disciples offers us much to reflect upon. I usually like to reflect upon our call, that we are the disciples that Jesus is calling today and that we are sent to proclaim the gospel, heal the sick and all those things are a part of the Reign of Jesus. Today I would like to reflect upon the gospel from a different angle. Not from our call but from Jesus looking upon us with compassion. It says that Jesus saw the crowds and his heart was moved with compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus looks at us with the same compassion as he did the people in his days. We are those crowds that Jesus is looking upon with compassion and love. All of us need the compassion and love of Jesus in our lives. In fact, it is the only thing that we need, that Jesus looks upon with compassion and love. We are sheep without a shepherd if we don’t turn to Jesus. So, what does Jesus send the disciples out to do? How is that Jesus wants to show his compassion to each one of us? To proclaim the Kingdom, cure the sick, raise up the dead, cleanse lepers and drive out demons. In today’s world we hear too much about other kingdoms. We need remind ourselves that we are of the kingdom of Jesus. Our kingdom isn’t Trumps, “make America Great Again.” It isn’t Claudia’s, 4th Transformation and most certainly isn’t Elon Musk’s who this week became the world’s first trillionaire. All those kingdoms are obscene; they are not Gospel values they are anti-Gospel values. That is why we must hear the Gospel message proclaimed to us. We must remind ourselves that the values that Jesus proclaimed didn’t put the Claudias, Donalds and Elons first in the world, rather he put them last. In God’s Kingdom it is the poor, the sick and the lame that are first. Cure the sick: Some of us must assuredly are physically sick. Some of us might be dealing with cancer or other illness, we come to Jesus to be cured. But all of us are sick in some way: physically, mentally, spiritually. We come to Jesus to be healed, to be made whole, to be made complete. There are a lot of quick fixes promised in our world today, but there is no quick fix. Jesus alone can cure of us. Raise the dead: again, no one here is physically dead but many of us experience death in other ways. Maybe we are in relationships that are not life giving, jobs that are meaningless. Maybe we are cut of from the people that we love and care about. Jesus comes to restore us to life, to help us live our lives fully, filled with meaning. Cleanse lepers: Leprosy was not just another disease in Jesus’ time. Leprosy was anything that separated our put us outside of the community. Today it could be members of the LGBTQ community, people who are divorced, people who don’t have a job, immigrants in the US but also here in Mexico. If you feel excluded Jesus’ compassion is telling you that you are no longer on the outside, that you are loved and you are part of the community. Drive out demons: again, it goes without saying that we all have demons inside of us. Not the devil but those bad habits and harmful behaviors that do us harm. It seems like we are powerless to them whether it be jealousy of the person who has more than we do or the tendency to put ourselves down and to think less of ourselves. We can’t overcome those demons on our own, but Jesus can. Jesus can drive them out and make us whole again. And the good news is that Jesus’ compassion is freely given. Of course that means we don’t have to pay for it, but even more so it means that we can come to Jesus as we are. We don’t need to get our lives together, we don’t need to be perfect. The first step is never confession, the first step is always just allowing Jesus to gaze upon us with love. We are sick and need to be cured, we are dead and need to come to life. We are possessed and need to have our demons driven from us. What is it that is keeping us from the fullness of life. All of us in our heart of hearts want to enter into the fullness of life. We want to be cured, resurrected and freed. We want to laugh again, enjoy life, face each day with enthusiasm. Let us allow Jesus to gaze upon us once again and know that he alone can bring us to fullness of life.