July 7, 2026
Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 384
Reading 1
Thus says the LORD:
They made kings in Israel, but not by my authority;
they established princes, but without my approval.
With their silver and gold they made
idols for themselves, to their own destruction.
Cast away your calf, O Samaria!
my wrath is kindled against them;
How long will they be unable to attain
innocence in Israel?
The work of an artisan,
no god at all,
Destined for the flames—
such is the calf of Samaria!
When they sow the wind,
they shall reap the whirlwind;
The stalk of grain that forms no ear
can yield no flour;
Even if it could,
strangers would swallow it.
When Ephraim made many altars to expiate sin,
his altars became occasions of sin.
Though I write for him my many ordinances,
they are considered as a stranger’s.
Though they offer sacrifice,
immolate flesh and eat it,
the LORD is not pleased with them.
He shall still remember their guilt
and punish their sins;
they shall return to Egypt.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
115:3-4, 5-6, 7ab-8, 9-10
R. (9a) The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Our God is in heaven;
whatever he wills, he does.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the handiwork of men.
R. The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
They have mouths but speak not;
they have eyes but see not;
They have ears but hear not;
they have noses but smell not.
R. The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
They have hands but feel not;
they have feet but walk not.
Their makers shall be like them,
everyone that trusts in them.
R. The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,
and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.
The crowds were amazed and said,
“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
But the Pharisees said,
“He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
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.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070726.cfm
Commentary on Hosea
8:4-7,11-13
Hosea is in a very different mood today from yesterday. He
makes a scathing attack on the idolatrous practices of the Northern Kingdom
(referred to here also as “Israel”, “Samaria” and “Ephraim”) when they set up
kings without the Lord’s approval.
This passage refers to the dynastic upheavals of Israel’s
declining days. Between the death of Jeroboam II and the fall of Samaria to the
Assyrians, a matter of some 25 years, there were four separate dynasties on the
throne and as many murdered kings. In fact, after Jeroboam II there were five
kings in 13 years, and three of them took power violently. They were certainly
not God’s choice.
Worse still, they melted down their silver and gold to make
false gods, a move that could only bring the downfall of the people. The Lord
said:
Your calf is rejected, O Samaria.
Jeroboam I (930-909 BC) had set up golden calves in the
shrines of Bethel and Dan and told the people, “These are your gods”. But says
Hosea:
…it is not God.
And the Lord commands:
The calf of Samaria
shall be broken to pieces.
The prophet then quotes a proverb that we still hear today:
When they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind.
One evil leads to something much worse. And another saying:
The stalk of grain that forms no ear can yield no flour.
This is another familiar proverb about the results of doing
evil. In the Hebrew, there is a play on the similar-sounding words for ‘stalk’
and ‘flour’.
Israel sowed the wind of idolatry and reaped the whirlwind
of Assyria. And, even if it did produce flour, it would be devoured by the
stranger, namely, the Assyrians. Israel will be swallowed up and, among the
nations, become of no value. The idolatry of the people, their turning their
backs to their God in favour of idols, will lead to the disaster of the
Assyrian invasion and their deportation into exile.
Meanwhile the very ordinances of God are seen now as
something foreign. They go through the motions of offering sacrifices and
eating the sacrifice as a sign of participation and unity, but God knows their
hearts are far from him:
When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin,
they became to him altars for sinning.
Some of the sacrifices were partly eaten by the offerer and
priests as a sign of the sacrifice’s union with the god. There was no such
union, of course, nor could there be with man-made idols.
God is mindful of their guilt because of their idolatrous
practices and recourse to impotent gods. They shall be punished by “return to
Egypt”. To go back to ‘Egypt’ was to go back into foreign bondage, as was the
case before the Exodus. Now the slavery and bondage is under the Assyrian ruler
who will carry them off into exile.
We might ask ourselves two questions today, arising out of
these readings:
- How
sincere is my offering of myself to God and to Jesus when I celebrate the
Eucharist? Is my daily life truly an expression of what I am doing in the
church?
- Who
or what are the gods in my life? And do they impede service of my Creator
God?
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Commentary on
Matthew 9:32-37
We come today to the end of the section recounting ten
miracles of Jesus (chaps 8-9). The last miracle described is that of a man
whose deafness arises from his being possessed by a demon. It follows
immediately the cure of two blind men, a story which we did not read and which
is told again by Matthew in chapter 20. It seems to correspond to the healing
of the blind man Bartimaeus in Mark (chap 10), although there are significant
differences.
The man is brought to Jesus by the people. Jesus drives out
the demon and the man immediately is able to speak. There is a double reaction.
The people are astounded:
Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.
The implications of Jesus’ divine origins are very clear. On
the other hand, Pharisees were saying:
By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.
Elsewhere Jesus will show the absurd illogicality of that
charge.
Stories of the blind, deaf, and mute in the Gospels always
have a deeper meaning. Far more serious than physical blindness, deafness and
an inability to speak are being spiritually blind, deaf and mute. The Pharisees
in the Gospels represent such people, and we see it happening in this story.
They are blind because they cannot see or do not want to see God at work in
Jesus. They are deaf because they do not hear or do not want to understand what
he says. And they are also mute because they cannot speak the words of life
that Jesus gives them.
The very same can happen to each one of us. Let us pray
today to be able to see clearly, to understand what God says to us and to be
able to share it with others.
This section of Matthew concludes with a general description
or summary of what Jesus was doing. He was going through all the towns and
villages of Galilee; he was teaching in synagogues; he was proclaiming the Good
News of the Kingdom; and he was healing all kinds of diseases and sickness.
But behind all that he does, is his deep compassion for the
needs of the people. He sees them harassed and dejected, wandering and aimless,
like sheep without a guiding shepherd—a familiar image in the Old Testament
(see Ezekiel 34). Then, looking at his disciples, he says:
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…
Jesus cannot do it all on his own. In fact, he will hardly
step outside the boundaries of Palestine. He needs many helpers.
Today, the situation has not changed. The harvest is as big
as ever; people are as lost and rudderless as they have ever been in spite of
the great strides in knowledge we have made. Where are the labourers? They are
not just the bishops, the priests or the religious brothers and sisters. That
is a very narrow concept of labourers.
Every single baptised person is called, in some way, to be a
harvester, to help people find and experience the truth and love that God gives
in Jesus. Every single person, in that sense (and it is a very real sense) has
a vocation, a call to serve and to build the Kingdom. What and where and with
whom is my vocation?
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2143g/
Tuesday, July 7,
2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father,
through the obedience of Jesus,
your servant and your Son, you raised a fallen world. Free us from sin and
bring us the joy that lasts for ever.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 9: 32-38
A man was brought to Jesus, a dumb demoniac. And when the
devil was driven out, the dumb man spoke and the people were amazed and said,
'Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.' But the Pharisees said, 'It
is through the prince of devils that he drives out devils.' Jesus made a tour
through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming
the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and all kinds of
illness. And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were
harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his
disciples, “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of
the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest.”
Reflection
Today’s Gospel presents two facts:
(1) the cure of a possessed dumb person (Mt 9: 32-34) and (2) a summary of the
activity of Jesus (Mt 9: 35-38). These two episodes end the narrative part of
chapters 8 and 9 of the Gospel of Matthew in which the Evangelist seeks to
indicate how Jesus put into practice the teachings given in the Sermon on the
Mountain (Mt 5 and 7). In chapter 10, the meditation which begins in the Gospel
of tomorrow, we see the second great discourse of Jesus: The Discourse of the
Mission (Mt 10: 1-42).
•
Matthew 9: 32-33a: The cure of a dumb. In one
only verse Matthew describes the arrival of the possessed person before Jesus,
the expulsion of the demon and the attitude of Jesus, which in the fourth
Gospel there is the attention and affection of Jesus with sick persons. The
illnesses were many, social security nonexistent. The illnesses were not only
deficiencies of the body: deafness, blindness, paralysis, leprosy and so many
other sicknesses. In fact, these illnesses were nothing else than a
manifestation of a much deeper and vast evil which undermined the health of
persons, and that is the total abandonment and the depressing and inhuman state
in which they were obliged to live. The activity and the cures of Jesus were
directed not only against physical sickness, but also and above all against
this greater evil of material and spiritual abandonment, in which people were
obliged to live the few years of life.
Then, in addition to the economic exploitation which stole
half of the family stipend, the official religion of that time, instead of
helping people to find strength in God, to resist and have hope, taught that
sickness was a punishment from God for sin. This increased in them the
sentiment of exclusion and condemnation. Jesus did all the contrary. The
acceptance full of tenderness of Jesus and the cure of the sick form part of the
effort to knit together again the human relationship among persons and to
re-establish community and fraternal living in the villages of Galilee, his
land.
•
Matthew 9: 33b-34: The twofold interpretation of
the cure of the dumb man. Before the cure of the possessed dumb man, the
reaction of the people is one of admiration and of gratitude: “Nothing like
this has ever been seen in Israel!” The reaction of the Pharisee is one of
mistrust and malice: “It is through the prince of devils that he driver out devils!”
They were not able to deny the facts which cause admiration in the people, the
only way which the Pharisees find to neutralize the influence of Jesus before
the people is to attribute the expulsion to the power of the evil one. Mark
presents an extensive argument of Jesus to demonstrate the lack of coherence
and the malice of the interpretation given by the Pharisees (Mk 3: 22-27).
Matthew does not present any response of Jesus to the interpretation of the
Pharisees, because when malice is evident, truth shines by itself.
•
Matthew 9: 35: Tireless, Jesus goes through the
villages. The description of the tireless activity of Jesus is beautiful, in
which emerges the double concern to which we referred: the acceptance full of
tenderness and the cure of the sick: “Jesus went through all the towns,
teaching in their Synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing
all kinds of diseases and all kinds of illness.” In the previous chapters,
Matthew had already referred several times to this itinerant activity of Jesus
in the villages and towns of Galilee (Mt 4: 2324; 8: 16).
•
Matthew 9: 36: The compassion of Jesus. “Seeing
the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like
sheep without a shepherd.” Those who should be shepherds were not shepherds;
they did not take care of the flock. Jesus tries to be the shepherd (Jn 10:
11-14). In this, Matthew sees the realization of the Prophecy of the Servant of
Yahweh, who took upon himself our sickness, and bore our infirmities” (Mt 8: 17
and Is 53: 4). As it was for Jesus, the great concern of the Servant was “to
find a word of comfort for those who were discouraged.” (Is 50: 4). Jesus shows
the same compassion toward the abandoned crowd, on the occasion of the
multiplication of the loaves: they are like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 15:
32). The Gospel of Matthew has a constant concern in revealing to the converted
Jews of the communities of Galilee and of Syria that Jesus is the Messiah
announced by the Prophets. For this reason, frequently, he shows that in Jesus’
activity the prophecies are fulfilled (cf. Mt 1: 23; 2: 5, 15, 17, 23; 3: 3; 4:
1416; etc.).
•
Matthew 9: 37-38: The harvest is rich, but the
laborers are few. Jesus transmits to the disciples the concern and the
compassion which are within him: “The harvest is rich, but the laborers are
few! Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers to his
harvest!”
Personal Questions
•
Compassion for the tired and hungry crowds. In
the history of humanity, there have never been so many tired and hungry people
as today. Television diffuses the facts, but does not offer any responses. De
we, Christians, succeed to have the same compassion of Jesus and to communicate
it to others?
•
The goodness of Jesus toward the poor disturbed
the Pharisees. They have recourse to malice to neutralize the discomfort caused
by Jesus. Are there many good attitudes in the persons who disturb me? How do I
interpret them: with pleasant admiration as the crowds or with malice as the
Pharisees?
Concluding Prayer
Sing to him, make music for him, recount all his
wonders! Glory in his holy name, let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice! (Ps
105: 2-3)
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