Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071012.cfm

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.
Then he said to his disciples,
"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.

If some prognosticators of the future are correct, the third millennium will be the Age of the Laity; or perhaps, the Age of the Church, when the evangelical spirit animates not only the clergy and consecrated virgins but also single and married men and women.

I have seen that age emerging in the Marriage Encounter movement. Married couples, discovering their sacrament feel impelled to consecrate their love both to making disciples of their children and to supporting their priests in the work of the church.

I have not worked with the Marriage Encounter movement in many years but I have experienced a rebirth of wonder in marriage as I meet married, Catholic veterans in the Veterans Hospital. There is a night-and-day difference between them and the many unhappy veterans who never experienced the blessings of marriage.

Most of them, of course, have been married; more often than not, several times. These lonely men are often accompanied by their gfs, as the charts discretely name them – girlfriends – except that the gfs left their girlhood behind a long time ago. I guess they're called girls because the aging, alcohol-addled boys are still looking for girls. They might also be called mothers because that’s really what the boys need.

What they never saw, knew or found was the blessing of marriage. In many cases they grew up in “broken homes” and were never disciplined – made disciples – by married parents. They are indeed sheep without a shepherd -- and pitiful.

The married Veterans, on the other hand, are surrounded by their families. With the companionship of their wives they enjoy the prayers and presence of children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. Those who are widowed suffer no lack of support from their loved ones. When it comes time to die they enter eternally life peacefully, ready to embrace the love of their Lord and Savior. I sometimes have to peel myself away from these wonderful families to minister to the needier Veterans in the hospital. 

As you know the plague of divorce is growing and takes many forms: serial marriage, polygamy, gay marriage, Internet porn, and sexual violence. In its path it leaves desolate, troubled human beings. 

they (are) troubled and abandoned,like sheep without a shepherd.

For every new priest the Church needs fifty married couples

…so ask the master of the harvestto send out laborers for his harvest.