This week's readings Week of June 16 - 22 Sunday, June 16, 2002 Reading I: Ex 19:2-6a Reading II: Rom 5:6-11 Gospel: Mt 9:36--10:8 Monday, June 17, 2002 Reading I: 1 Kgs 21:1-16 Gospel: Mt 5:38-42 Tuesday, June 18, 2002 Reading I: 1 Kgs 21:17-29 Gospel: Mt 5:43-48 Wednesday, June 19, 2002 Reading I: 2 Kgs 2:1, 6-14 Gospel: Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Thursday, June 20, 2002 Reading I: Sir 48:1-14 Gospel: Mt 6:7-15 Friday, June 21, 2002 Reading I: 2 Kgs 11:1-4, 9-18, 20 Gospel: 1 Mt 6:19-23 Saturday, June 22, 2002 Reading I: 2 Chr 24:17-25 Gospel: Mt 6:24-34 Pope's Prayer Intentions June General Intention Cooperation among all religions for world peace: That both leaders and members of the world's religions may together seek world peace through conversion of hearts and brotherly dialogue. June Mission Intention To live out our Baptism in thought, word, and deed: That we the Baptized may use all that Baptism imparts to us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world in the whole circuit of our daily lives.

Ask the Master:
To send out laborers

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

A few years ago the movie "Men In Black" took theaters by storm. Part science fiction, part humor, the movie showed how the existence of intelligent beings from other worlds would change our view of the universe and of society. It was the job of the men in black to mediate the relationship between human beings and extraterrestrials - for our own safety.

" . . . pray for the 'man in black' to whom God has entrusted you and your family."

Well this summer the "Men In Black" are back, and not only in the movies. Those men are our priests.

We are all surely very keenly aware of how the priesthood is the center of the sacramental life of the Church, for priests stand "in persona Christi" - in the person of Christ. Jesus, who is the true minister of the Sacraments, works through the hands and hearts, the voices, ears, and eyes of his priests.

Yet, in part due to the declining number of priests, in part due to the world's devaluation of the true meaning of human sexuality and thus of celibacy, some people view the priesthood as perhaps irrelevant. Even worse, when sin strikes at the core of priestly life - when some violate their most sacred trust - the priesthood is looked upon with scorn, perhaps even derision and hatred.

Readings for 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (June 16) Exodus 19:2-6a Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5 Romans 5:6-11 Matthew 9:36--10:8

In the Book of Exodus, God promised Moses that the Israelites would be a priestly people, "dearer to me than all other people," God said. This "holy nation" was one that God took as his very special possession. And he has not forsaken his promise, for the Church is the new Israel, destined to enter one day into the heavenly Jerusalem.

Even in their darkest hour of slavery and hopelessness, God loved the Hebrews he had chosen for his own, and he sent Moses to deliver them. Even when they turned their backs on him after he saved them, God did not abandon them, but purified them through their 40 years in the desert.

And even when the "stiff-necked people," as we read in the Scriptures, failed to live up to the immense promises of the covenant which God offered them, he sent his only Son to become the eternal high priest of the new covenant. Poured out in Christ's blood, this new covenant makes God's chosen people - Jew and Gentile, slave and free, man and woman - into a priestly people, a sacramental people.

"We are now justified by his blood," teaches Saint Paul. We, who were enemies, have been saved by Christ's death on the cross. Through Jesus, "we have now received reconciliation."

When Jesus named 12 of his disciples to be The Twelve, the Apostles, he did so in the context of seeing how needy God's people were for the preaching of the Gospel. Not coincidentally, preaching is what the Second Vatican Council calls the most important duty of a priest.

Thus the priestly ministry of the Church and the call of Christ come together in the "men in black" who serve our parishes, who baptize our children, who forgive our sins, who teach, sanctify, and govern us, who visit the sick and those in prison, who comfort the dying, and who offer the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ each day.

Is it any wonder that Jesus told his disciples, as he looked out on the crowds "troubled and abandoned," to "ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest?" God's people, God's holy and priestly people, are in need of the presence of Christ in their midst.

So it is that the men in black, the priests whom Jesus has called to follow him in a special way, are not mere mediators between God and his people, but are the hands and heart, the voice, ears, and eyes of Christ in the world.

When they succeed, let us ask the Master to send out more laborers, for the harvest will be greater when the Gospel is preached fervently and faithfully. When they fail, let us ask Christ to strengthen them, and us, for the sins of one member affect the whole body.

Most of all, pray for the "man in black" to whom God has entrusted you and your family. He needs your help and your prayers especially these days as he proclaims "the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.