His Heart Was Moved with Pity

In today's first reading, Hosea 8: 4-7, 11-13, the Lord is frustrated with His people  for the many ways in which they have abandoned His precepts, created their own gods, worshiped idols and chosen a variety of paths that have led to their own destruction. In grief, God says to His people: "Cast away your calf , O Samaria! my wrath is kindled against them; [h]ow long will they be unable to attain innocence in Israel? the work of an artisan, no god at all.  Destined for the flames--such is the calf of Samaria!  ....Though they offer sacrifice, ..., the Lord is not pleased with them. He shall still remember their guilt and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt."  The responsorial psalm, Psalm 115, confirms Hosea's message in saying that our idols "are silver and gold, the handiwork of men. They have mouths but speak not; they have eyes but see not; they have ears but hear not...."  
We are those people!

 In the Gospel, Matthew 9: 32-38, Jesus encounters us in the demoniac who is unable to speak and cast out the demon. Jesus walked around to "all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel  of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them, because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd...."  Jesus walks around our towns and villages, our cities and suburbs,  teaches in our churches and synagogues, cures all of our diseases and illnesses, those of mind and body and spirits. "His heart is  moved to pity", seeing us  "troubled and abandoned, sheep without a shepherd"! He says to us, as He said to those He encountered in all of Israel, Samaria, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Galilee: "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest--ask Jesus--to send out laborers for his harvest"  (Matthew 9: 38).