June 17, 2026
Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 367
Reading 1
When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a
whirlwind,
he and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.
Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here;
the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.”
“As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live,
I will not leave you,” Elisha replied.
And so the two went on together.
Fifty of the guild prophets followed and
when the two stopped at the Jordan,
they stood facing them at a distance.
Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up
and struck the water, which divided,
and both crossed over on dry ground.
When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha,
“Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you.”
Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of your spirit.”
“You have asked something that is not easy,” Elijah replied.
“Still, if you see me taken up from you,
your wish will be granted; otherwise not.”
As they walked on conversing,
a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them,
and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
When Elisha saw it happen he cried out,
“My father! my father! Israel’s chariots and drivers!”
But when he could no longer see him,
Elisha gripped his own garment and tore it in two.
Then he picked up Elijah’s mantle that had fallen from him,
and went back and stood at the bank of the Jordan.
Wielding the mantle that had fallen from Elijah,
Elisha struck the water in his turn and said,
“Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?”
When Elisha struck the water it divided and he crossed over.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (25) Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope
in the Lord.
How great is the goodness, O LORD,
which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
you show in the sight of the children of men.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the plottings of men;
You screen them within your abode
from the strife of tongues.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Love the LORD, all you his faithful ones!
The LORD keeps those who are constant,
but more than requites those who act proudly.
R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door,
and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
"When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to others to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061726.cfm
Commentary on 2
Kings 2:1,6-14
Today we move on to the Second Book of Kings and we continue
where we left off with the First Book. The division into two books is artificial
and no such division is found in the earliest Hebrew bibles. The passage we are
reading today acts as an introduction to the story of the prophet Elisha. Today
we bring the story of Elijah to a conclusion and see Elisha taking over as his
successor.
As Elijah is about to leave to go to the Jordan in obedience
to the Lord’s call, he tells Elisha to remain behind. Whether this was said to
test Elisha is not clear, but Elisha renewed his commitment as a disciple of
Elijah and insisted on following him.
They are followed by fifty fellow-prophets who will be
witnesses to what is about to happen by the banks of the Jordan, which the two
prophets have now reached. Elijah then takes his cloak, rolls it up and strikes
the waters of the river. As with Moses long ago crossing the Red Sea, the water
of the river divides to right and left and the two prophets walk across on dry
ground.
It is then that Elijah, about to go away, invites Elisha to
make a final request. The younger prophet boldly asks to be given a double
share of Elijah’s spirit. Elisha was not expressing a desire for a ministry
twice as great as Elijah’s, but he was using terms derived from inheritance law
to express his desire for a full sharing in Elijah’s ministry. In Jewish
society it was normal for the elder son to inherit a double share of his
father’s property. So, in making his request, Elisha is asking to be regarded
as the genuine heir to Elijah’s prophetic powers and spirit.
Elijah replies that it is a difficult request to honour, for
ultimately the giving of such a gift lies with God and not with Elijah. But he
promises that there will be a sign given by which Elisha will know whether his
request has been granted. And that will be the Lord’s doing and not Elijah’s.
God indicates that the request is granted by allowing Elisha to see what is
hidden from other human eyes, namely, Elijah’s being taken up to heaven.
All of a sudden, a chariot of fire with two fiery horses
came between the two men and Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind. Elisha alone
could see this—a sure sign that his request had been granted. By riding the
chariot, a symbol of Israel’s strength, it is clear that Elijah, and not the
king, is the Lord’s true representative among his people. And Elijah, like
Enoch before him (Gen 5:24), was taken up to heaven bodily without experiencing
death; like Moses (Deut 34:4-6), he was taken away outside the promised land.
It was generally believed by later generations that Elijah
would return to die the natural death that is the fate of all. And his return
was expected to herald the imminent coming of the Messiah. In the Gospels, John
the Baptist is seen to fill that role.
Elisha then tore his own clothes in half, perhaps in grief
at the loss of his master and perhaps as signifying the end of his former life.
He picked up the cloak of Elijah which had fallen off as Elijah was carried
away in the chariot, thereby symbolically taking on Elijah’s ministry and
mission.
Once again Elisha went back to the River Jordan’s bank. As
he had seen Elijah do earlier, he struck the water with Elijah’s cloak while he
prayed:
Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? Where is he?
When he struck the water, it divided to right and left and
Elisha crossed over. The power was not in Elisha or in the cloak, but only in the
Lord God, of whom the prophet is an agent, but it was also a clear indication
that the prophet’s role and powers had been passed on to Elisha.
In crossing the Jordan as Joshua had before him, Elisha is
shown to be Elijah’s ‘Joshua’ (Elisha and Joshua are very similar names, Elisha
meaning “God saves” and Joshua, “The Lord saves”). Elisha would play the role
of Joshua (who led the Israelites into the promised land) as Elijah played the
role of Moses (who did not get to cross the Jordan).
In this story we can see:
- the
loyalty of Elisha’s discipleship,
- his
being called by God to carry on the mission of Elijah,
- his
becoming, like Elijah, the instrument of God for his people.
In some way, this applies to each one of us in our
relationship with Jesus.
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Commentary on
Matthew 6:1-6,16-18
We move today to a different theme, namely, the way in which
we are to pay our worship to God. Jesus’ teaching is based on the three basic
acts of religion expected of a devout Jew—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In
each case, Jesus warns his disciples not to indulge in any form of ostentation
so as to attract the admiration of others.
He presents exaggerated images of how we should not do
things in the way of ostentatious hypocrites. He speaks about people who blow
trumpets in the streets to draw the attention of everyone when they give alms
to the poor. He speaks about hypocrites who say their prayers in the most
conspicuous places so that people will marvel at how holy they are. He speaks
about people putting on gloomy and drawn looks so that everyone will know that
they are fasting. In fact, Jews were only expected to fast on one day in the
year—on the Day of Atonement, but the practice of regular fasting had become
more common in Jesus’ time.
All this, Jesus says, is not worship of God, but a kind of
self-advertisement. Such people, he says, get their reward, namely, the
admiration of the onlooker, but it is not the reward that comes from acts of
genuine worship.
When his disciples pray or fast or give alms they should do
it in such a way that their actions will be directed entirely to God and not to
themselves. We do remember earlier in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus said
people should be able to see the good works of his disciples, but then the
purpose was not that they would be praised, but that people would be led to
glorify God.
It should also be pointed out that Jesus’ recommendation
that we pray in private where only God can see us shouldn’t be interpreted as
meaning that it is not necessary for us to take part in forms of community
prayer—which Jesus himself would have done whenever he attended the synagogue
or went to the Temple. It would be a gross misreading of this text to argue, as
people sometimes are heard to do, that it is not necessary to attend Sunday
Mass because “I can pray equally well in the privacy of my home”. To speak in
such a way is to misunderstand completely the essentially communal nature of
the Eucharistic celebration.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2114g/
Wednesday,
June 17, 2026
11th Week of Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, our hope and our
strength, without you we falter. Help us to follow Christ and to live according
to your will.
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18
Jesus said to his disciples: 'Be
careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention;
otherwise, you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you
give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell
you, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must
not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your
Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
'And when you pray, do not imitate the
hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at
the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had
their reward. But when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and
so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees
all that is done in secret will reward you. 'When you are fasting, do not put
on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they go about looking unsightly to let
people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face, so that no one
will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in
secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
Reflection
The Gospel of today continues the meditation on the Sermon on
the Mountain.
In the previous days we have
reflected at length on the message of chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel. In today’s
Gospel and the following days, we meditate on the message of chapter 6 of this
Gospel. The sequence of chapters 5 and 6 can help us to understand it. The
passages in italics indicate the text of today’s Gospel. The following is the
schema:
•
Matthew 5: 1-12: The Beatitudes: solemn opening
of the New Law
•
Matthew 5: 13-16: The new presence in the world:
Salt of the earth and Light of the world
•
Matthew 5: 17-19: The new practice of justice;
relationship with the ancient law
•
Matthew 5: 20-48: The new practice of justice:
observing the new Law.
•
Matthew 6: 1-4: The new practice of piety: alms
•
Matthew 6: 5-15: The new practice of the works
of piety: prayer
•
Matthew 6: 16-18: The new practice of the works
of piety: fasting
•
Matthew 6: 19-21: New relationship to material
goods: do not accumulate
•
Matthew 6: 22-23: New relationship to material
goods: correct vision
•
Matthew 6: 24: New relationship to material
goods: God and money
•
Matthew 6: 25-34: New relationship to material
goods: abandonment in Providence.
Today’s Gospel treats three
themes: alms giving (6: 1-4), prayer (6: 5-6) and fasting (6: 16-18). These are
three works of piety of the Jews.
•
Matthew 6: 1: Be careful not to parade your
uprightness to attract attention. Jesus criticizes those who do the good works
to be seen by men (Mt 6: 1). Jesus asks to build up interior security not in
what we do for God, but in what God does for us. From the advice that he gives
there results a new type of relationship with God: “Your Father who sees all
that is done in secret will reward you” (Mt 6: 4). "Your Father knows what
you need before you ask him” (Mt 6: 8). "If you forgive others their
failings, your heavenly Father will forgive your failings” (Mt 6: 14). It is a
new way which opens itself now to have access to the Heart of God our Father.
Jesus does not allow that the practice of justice and of piety be used as a
means for self-promotion before God and before the community (Mt 6: 2, 5, 16).
•
Matthew 6: 2-4: How to practice almsgiving. To
give alms is a way of sharing, very recommended by the first Christians (Ac 2:
44-45; 4: 32-35). The person who practices alms giving and sharing to promote
herself before others merits to be excluded from the community, as it happened
to Ananias and Saphira (Ac 5: 1-11). Today, in society as well as in the
Church, there are persons who make great publicity of the good that they do to
others. Jesus asks the contrary: to do good in such a way that the left hand
does not know what the right hand does. It is the total detachment and the
total gift in total gratuity of the love which believes in God the Father and
imitates all that he does.
•
Matthew 6: 5-6: How to practice prayer. Prayer
places the person in direct relationship with God. Some Pharisees transformed
prayer into an occasion to show themselves before others. At that time, when
the trumpet sounded in the three moments of prayer, morning, noon, and evening,
they should stop in the place where they were to pray. There were people who
sought to be in the corners in public places, in such a way that everybody
would see that they were praying. Well then, such an attitude perverts our
relationship with God. This is false and has no sense. This is why, Jesus says
that it is better to close oneself in a room to pray in secret, maintaining the
authenticity of the relationship. God sees you even in secret, and he always
listens to you. It is a question of a personal prayer, not of a community
prayer.
•
Matthew 6: 16-18: How to practice fasting. At
that time the practice of fasting was accompanied by some very visible external
gestures: not to wash one’s face, not to comb one’s hair, use sober dresses.
These were visible signs of fasting. Jesus criticizes this form of fasting and
orders to do the contrary, and thus others cannot become aware that you are
fasting: bathe, use perfume, and comb your hair well. In this way, only your
Father who sees in secret knows that you are fasting and he will reward you.
Personal Questions
•
When you pray, how do you live your relationship
with God?
•
How do you live your relationship with others in
the family and in community?
Concluding Prayer
Yahweh, what quantities of good things you have in
store for those who fear you, and bestow on those who make you their refuge,
for all humanity to see. (Ps 31: 19)
