First Saturday of Advent – Is 30:19-21,23-26; Matthew 9:35-10:1,5,6-8

“They were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.” Considering today’s passage, it’s hard not to put it in the context of two statements. The first is the information that appeared in 2011 on Vatican Radio. The title was a poke in the eye and provoked reflection. “I just don’t have the priests,” the chairman of the Italian Episcopate confessed on air. The situation isn’t any better now.

The second is a quote from the letter of St. Francis Xavier to St. Ignatius Loyola. “In these countries, many are not Christians just because there is no one who is an apostle among them. I often remember, as it used to be at European universities, and especially at the Sorbonne, when I went out, I shouted out to those who have more knowledge than love, and I exhorted them with these words: Oh, how many souls because of your fault lose heaven and sink into the abyss of hell!”

If we have more love than knowledge, there’s nothing else left except to end sterile discussions, to fall to our knees and to humbly ask. So that He sends. And He liberates from fear (“there is no fear in true love”) when He indicates with His finger and says: YOU.