When a farmer looks across a field in winter,
he sees mud.
When he looks in spring,
he sees shoots.
When he looks in summer,
he sees grain.
But when harvest comes,
he sees something else.
He sees that the work is almost finished.
The field is ready.
The time has come.
That is the image Jesus chooses today.
Not a battlefield.
Not a courtroom.
A harvest.
And that is surprising.
Because when Jesus looks at the crowds,
He sees sickness.
Poverty.
Confusion.
People burdened by sin.
People struggling with life.
People who seem far from God.
Yet He does not say: “Look how hopeless everything is.”
He says: “The harvest is rich.”
In other words: God is already at work.
That is important because Christians often become discouraged.
We look at society and see empty churches.
We see confusion.
We see people drifting from faith.
We see families struggling.
And we think: Everything is getting worse.
Yet Jesus looks at the world and says: The harvest is rich.
Because God is always working long before we arrive.
Long before a conversion.
Long before a Confession.
Long before a vocation.
God is preparing souls.
Quietly.
Patiently.
Often invisibly.
Think about your own life.
Most people do not suddenly wake up one morning and become holy.
God spends years preparing a soul.
A grandmother praying.
A difficult experience.
A chance conversation.
A moment of suffering.
A question that refuses to go away.
A longing for something more.
God is cultivating the field.
And then we hear St Paul say:
“While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
Not after we were ready.
Not after we became good.
While we were sinners.
That means that even when we thought we were far from God,
God was already acting.
Even when we ignored Him,
He was working.
Even when we wandered,
He was pursuing us.
The first reading says the same thing.
“I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.”
Israel thought it had escaped Egypt.
God says:
No.
I carried you.
You thought you were walking.
I was carrying.
You thought you had found Me.
I was bringing you to Myself.
And perhaps that is one of the most beautiful truths in Christianity.
We spend so much time thinking about our search for God.
The Gospel is really about God’s search for us.
Then comes the challenge.
The harvest is rich.
The labourers are few.
The problem is not that God has stopped working.
The problem is that too few people are willing to join Him.
Too few willing to pray.
Too few willing to invite.
Too few willing to teach.
Too few willing to witness.
Too few willing simply to be recognisably Christian.
The saints understood this.
When St Augustine came to England,
when St Patrick went to Ireland,
when missionaries crossed oceans,
they did not arrive believing God was absent.
They arrived believing God had already gone before them.
That there were souls waiting.
A harvest waiting.
Perhaps we need that confidence again.
Because many Catholics speak as though Christianity is losing.
Jesus never speaks like that.
He looks at a wounded world and sees a harvest.
He looks at sinners and sees future saints.
He looks at failures and sees apostles.
He looks at Simon and sees Peter.
He looks at Saul and sees Paul.
He looks at us and sees what grace can become.
So perhaps the question today is not: “Is the world getting worse?”
The question is: Do we see what Christ sees?
When we look at people,
do we see problems?
Or do we see a harvest?
Do we see enemies?
Or future saints?
Do we see hopelessness?
Or grace already at work?
Because the Lord who carried Israel,
the Lord who died for sinners,
the Lord who looked upon the crowds with compassion,
is still working.
Still preparing souls.
Still gathering His harvest.
And perhaps someone sitting beside you today is part of it.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 