“The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Matthew)
Recently, our pastor at St. John’s Church at Creighton got a new assignment. At the same time, our lay pastoral minister was named to a university Ignatian spirituality post. We were distraught about losing both of them because they’ve formed an inspiring clerical/lay leadership team (our first). Fortunately, they will be succeeded an equally dynamic Jesuit/lay pair. People were equally excited about the choices for both positions – evidence that this experiment in pastoral leadership has taken root.
This model is also in keeping with the message of today’s gospel from Matthew about the need for more laborers to gather the harvest.
For years Catholics have focused on the need for more priests. But this is too narrow. Jesus is calling ALL women and men to participate in the Church’s mission and ministry in significant ways including leadership.
When I was growing up, priests ran the church and nuns taught the school. Lay people were expected to “pay, pray and obey.” Our parish had lay trustees because the state required this, but they had very little responsibility. I remember one trustee telling my dad that all he had been asked to do was to fix the plumbing. Pastors who didn’t want lay involvement in decision making could treat the parish councils that began after Vatican II as window dressing.
But in this era of priest shortages and synodality, we are ALL called to full participation in the life of our church including exercising leadership and authority. In Elise Allen’s inspiring new biography of Pope Leo, she describes how he has long embraced this idea. In Peru, he appointed lay people including numerous women to positions of authority. In his parishes and diocese. Will this become his model for the whole Church? Let’s hope so for the good of the Church.
Leadership studies have shown that organizations do best with a mixture of male and female administrators and that surely includes the Church. At St. John’s, I’ve seen the positive impact that our female pastoral minister has made. By the time Pope Leo’s successor is elected, will lay women and men be running numerous departments in the Vatican and dioceses worldwide? There are no theological barriers to this.
Today when we “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest,” we need to ask God to inspire “laborers” of all states of life to give their best talents to the Church and for ordained “laborers” to maximize the use of those gifts.
Eileen Wirth
I’m a retired Creighton journalism professor, active in St. John’s parish and a CLC member. In retirement, I write books about state and local history, including a history of the parish, and do volunteer PR consulting for groups like Habitat for Humanities, refugees etc. I love to read, work out, spend time with family and friends including those who can no longer get out much.
Writing reflections has deepened my faith by requiring me to engage deeply with Jesus through the Scriptures. In the many years I have been doing this, I’ve also formed friendships with regular readers nationally, most of whom I have never met. Hearing from readers and what I learn by writing make the hours I spend on each reflection well worth the effort.
