Carmelite homily for Tuesday (Week 14), July 7, 2020 – Lectionary 384 (Matthew 9:32-38)
In today’s Gospel we have Jesus very busy. He’s going to, it says, all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming that the kingdom of God is at hand. And he sees the crowds. He says that they’re like sheep without a shepherd. Let us pray for shepherds for these people. Saint John of the Cross, in the famous opening of his poem, One Dark Night, writes, “One dark night, fired by love’s urgent longings – ah, the sheer grace – I went out unseen; my house being now all stilled.” Oftentimes we think that is us – me, you – going to search for the Lord, but in today’s Gospel it’s the Lord going out searching to all the towns and villages for us. It works both ways. As we search for God, God searches for us.
