VATICAN/ANGELUS - Pope Leo: we must ask the “Lord of the harvest” to send out “joyful laborers” to the “mission field”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Church and the world “do not need people who fulfill their religious duties as if the faith were merely an external label”. Instead, we need “laborers who are eager to work in the mission field, loving disciples who bear witness to the Kingdom of God in all places”. And to arouse their enthusiasm, we do not need “too many theoretical ideas about pastoral plans”. Instead, we need to “pray to the Lord of the harvest”, and ask Him for everything.

Pope Leo XIV recalled this today, in the brief catechesis that preceded the recitation of the Marian prayer of the Angelus. Looking out of the window of his study at the Apostolic Palace, in front of the multitude gathered in St. Peter's Square despite the great heat, Pope Leo took inspiration from the passage of the Gospel of Luke read in the liturgy of the day to recall some of the specific and incomparable features of the apostolic dynamism that animates the Church.
Today's Gospel - Pope Prevost began - "reminds us of the importance of the mission to which we are all called, each according to our own vocation and in the particular situations in which the Lord has placed us". In the Gospel passage read today during the Masses, Jesus sends seventy-two disciples two by two to places and cities where he himself intends to go. A symbolic number, referring to the nations that were then believed to be present on earth. A number - Pope Leo explained - "that indicates that the hope of the Gospel is meant for all peoples, for such is the breadth of God’s heart and the abundance of his harvest. Indeed, God continues to work in the world so that all his children may experience his love and be saved".

In the dynamism of apostolic work - the Pontiff noted - it is God himself who sows and makes the harvest grow from reaping. It is the Lord who, "like a sower, has generously gone out into the world, throughout history, and sowed in people’s hearts a desire for the infinite, for a fulfilled life and for salvation that sets us free". Thus "the Kingdom of God grows like a seed in the ground, and the women and men of today, even when seemingly overwhelmed by so many other things, still yearn for a greater truth; they search for a fuller meaning for their lives, desire justice, and carry within themselves a longing for eternal life".

Faced with the blossoming of expectations of salvation and eternal life - the Pontiff continued, recalling the words of Jesus - "there are few laborers to go out into the field sown by the Lord; few who are able to distinguish, with the eyes of Jesus, the good grain that is ripe for harvesting". There are few "who perceive this, pause to receive the gift and then proclaim and share it with others".

Pope Leo, continuing his reflection, recognized that "perhaps there is no shortage of “intermittent Christians” who occasionally act upon some religious feeling or participate in sporadic events; but there are few who are ready, on a daily basis, to labor in God’s harvest, cultivating the seed of the Gospel in their own hearts in order then to share it in their families, places of work or study, their social contexts and with those in need". And to see other "laborers in God's field" arrive, "we do not need too many theoretical ideas about pastoral plans; instead, we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest". In this way, "he will make us his laborers and send us into the field of the world to bear witness to his Kingdom".

After the recitation of the Angelus, together with the words of greeting to the multitude and to various particular groups present in Saint Peter's Square, the Pontiff expressed sincere condolences to the families who lost their loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas, in the United States. "We pray for them", said Pope Leo, who then, referring to the war scenarios that are tearing the world apart, asked "the Lord to touch the hearts and inspire the minds of those who govern, that the violence of weapons be replaced by the pursuit of dialogue.". Finally, the Bishop of Rome announced his transfer to Castel Gandolfo, "where I intend to have a short period of rest. I hope that everyone will be able to enjoy some vacation time in order to restore both body and spirit". (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 6/7/2025)

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