My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, followers, and friends of St. Michael’s Catholic Parish and the Unified Old Catholic Church: Welcome. As we gather for this Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, the sacred liturgy brings us into a profound encounter with the very heart of God. In our first reading from the Book of Exodus, we hear the beautiful, comforting reminder of how the Lord delivered His people, declaring that He bore them up on eagles’ wings to bring them safely to Himself. This is not a distant, historical memory; it is the reality of our lives today. How many times has the Lord carried us through the storms, lifted us when our own strength failed, and brought us to the safety of His sanctuary? He does this because He has chosen us to be a holy nation set apart to reflect His light in a world that so desperately needs it.

Yet, as we turn to the Gospel of Matthew, we see that the grace we receive is never meant to be kept to ourselves. We are told that as Jesus looked out at the crowds, He was moved with profound compassion for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. The Greek word used here for compassion indicates a deep, visceral pulling of the heart. Christ did not look at the brokenness of humanity with judgment, frustration, or indifference; He looked at them with an agonizing love that demanded action. He saw their hidden wounds, their anxieties, and their search for truth. Turning to His disciples, He uttered those words that echo across the centuries to us today: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

As a Dominican priest, a son of Saint Dominic, my life is rooted in the charism to praise, to bless, and to preach the Truth—Veritas. But this Gospel reminds us that the call to be a laborer in the vineyard belongs to every single one of us by virtue of our baptism. Jesus did not just leave the crowd in their weariness; He called His apostles, gave them authority, and sent them out to heal, to comfort, and to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He told them, “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” This is the exact mission of our parish community. St. Michael’s must always be a place broad enough to provide shade, safety, and a spiritual home for anyone seeking refuge. The harvest is not somewhere far away; it is right outside our church doors, in the streets of San Antonio, and in the everyday corners of our lives where people are hurting, lonely, and searching for a shepherd.

We cannot do this work through mere human strategy or our own limited strength. As we prayed in our Collect today, without God, our mortal frailty can do nothing. We must rely daily on His grace to transform our hearts so that we can look at our neighbors with the exact same compassion that Christ has shown to us. Every small act of mercy, every word of truth spoken in love, and every moment of authentic hospitality we extend is a seed planted in the harvest. We give freely because we have received everything from a God whose love knows no bounds.

As we look forward to the ultimate end of our earthly pilgrimage—that glorious day when we hope to see heaven face to face and rest eternally in the presence of the Almighty—we must examine how we are living today. Reflecting on this Gospel and the urgent call of the Master, what is one concrete step you can take this week to move from being a mere bystander in the crowd to becoming a true laborer in the harvest, bringing Christ’s healing compassion to someone who is weary and searching for a way home?