Jesus put it this way: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few” ~ and this was actually putting it mildly!

Each of the readings today point out (in some manner) how God gives extraordinary power to carry out his amazing work in the world. Jesus says: “I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy..!” The prophet Isaiah says, “The Lord’s power shall be known to his servants.”

After the Apostles return from their first missionary journey they say ecstatically, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name!” Even Jesus joins in their excitement when he says, “I saw Satan fall like lighting from the sky!”

We learn from the example of the Apostles that the power of God is made manifest in all of its glory when we sincerely utter the little word that unleashes extraordinary grace in our lives: Y-E-S! Put another way, when we exercise that underrated virtue called obedience, the devil is roundly defeated! Why? Because deliverance from the Evil One comes through obedience to the Holy One.

By obeying the instructions of Jesus, the Apostles found out how true the saying is that “the Lord won’t lead you where his grace can’t keep you!” If more of us believed this today, the vocation crisis would be the devil’s problem (too many vocations) and not ours!