PARISH NEWS

Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody

Jesus (Matt 9:36-10:8) laments the shortage of workers in the harvest, asking his chosen followers to pray (as we often do in church) for workers in the harvest but then he actually commissions them to be the those workers in the harvest. They are given the authority to do as Jesus has done to spread the missionary activity of Jesus. As Jesus followers in the 21^st century, this is our call as well.

Fr Frank Moloney reminds us, “The mission of Jesus continues. We are called to repeat what Jesus did, to bring peace and healing to all who are sick, and all who are troubles. The Kingdom of God is at hand. However, in our fragility we must recognise … that we are no better than the next person. What we are given and learn from our Christian lives and experience is a gift. It is not a gift, however, to be jealously guarded within the exclusive club of the Christian Church. It has been given to us without charge. We must give without charge”. (Moloney, F. This is the Gospel of the Lord, St Paul Publications, 1995) But who is going to work in the harvest? St Vincent de Paul Society have a tale about this dilemma:

Once upon a time, there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody…. When there was an important job to be done, Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. When Nobody did it, Everybody got angry because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Somebody would do it, but Nobody realised that Nobody would do it. So it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place! (‘Spiritual Reflections’- SVDP 2003).

And therein lies the message for us. We are each called to courageously step up as Christians doing whatever we can, wherever we can.

Deacon Mark Kelly