June 21, 2026
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 94
Reading 1
Jeremiah said:
"I hear the whisperings of many:
'Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!'
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
'Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.'
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
for he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!"
Responsorial Psalm
R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my mother's children,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness;
in your great mercy turn toward me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!''
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
Through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death,
and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—
for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world,
though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who did not sin
after the pattern of the trespass of Adam,
who is the type of the one who was to come.
But the gift is not like the transgression.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Spirit of truth will testify to me, says the Lord;
and you also will testify.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to the Twelve:
"Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062126.cfm
Commentary on
Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Twelve:
…have no fear…
In times of uncertainty about the future it is not
surprising that many show signs of fear and anxiety. The words of Jesus may
sound good, but do they give any real reassurance in times of trouble?
Much of the fear and anxiety of people today is about their
material security, even when times are good. Perhaps times are good now, but
will they last? The Gospel is not terribly concerned with that. In the ideal
Christian community, material security will not be a major problem because
believers will take care of each other and share their resources with those in
need. The fact that such sharing communities are not very common makes one
wonder how much real Christianity in practice exists!
Reactions of hatred
The readings today are concerned with a rather different problem,
namely, what happens when the living of the gospel is taken seriously. We are
being reminded that to become a follower of Christ in the full sense (as
opposed to just a churchgoing Catholic) and to spread his message of love,
justice and peace in word and practice will be seen by some people as a real
threat to be resisted.
It is quite an illusion, which we sometimes live under, to
think that the perfect Christian is someone who is loved and admired by all. On
the contrary, such a person is likely to be bitterly hated “for my name’s
sake”.
To be a fully committed Christian involves loving others
with the same love that Christ showed for us, but it is no guarantee whatsoever
that we will be loved in return. We are not Christians in order to be loved and
looked up to, but to proclaim by word and example the vision of a fully human life
that Jesus taught us.
Sign of contradiction
This will mean quite often calling into question the less than human
standards that often prevail in our societies. In doing this, the Christian is
a ‘sign of contradiction’ to people whose vision of life is very different from
the gospel message that we try to live out. Even presenting our case in the
most loving and non-violent and non-manipulative way can be seen as a negative
judgement by some and invite retaliations of hate, bitterness, violence—and sometimes
death.
Examples of this abound in the history of the Church. A
prominent example in the 1980s was when Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down
in the middle of celebrating Mass by the military rulers of El Salvador. This
was followed some years later by the brutal and sadistic murder of six priests
dragged from their beds in the middle of the night. All that these men did was
to draw attention to the many injustices being perpetrated against the poor and
powerless in their society. Altogether some 75,000 people fell victims to
military oppression in El Salvador alone. Sadly, in that country today, as well
as in other places in the world, atrocities are still occuring.
All of these men could easily have avoided their fate if
they had simply been ‘good’ churchgoing Catholics, avoided touching on
political and social issues and kept their mouths shut. (Which, incidentally,
is what some expected Archbishop Romero to be like. He was in fact chosen by
his peers as a known conservative who would not ‘rock the boat’.)
But we do not have to go to Central America for examples.
They can be found, for instance, in the history of the Church in Africa, China,
Japan and Korea where thousands have given (and, in some places, continue to
give) their lives for the sake of, and shed their blood in the name of, the
gospel. It has been said that there have been more Christian martyrs in the
most recent century than in any other since the time of Jesus.
Standing up to be counted
Today’s Gospel reminds us that we do have a responsibility to stand up
and be counted. And, thank God, many are still doing so:
Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I
also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before
others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
At the same time, we are assured of God’s protection and
help.
The greatest danger is not the loss of our lives, although
some people will be prepared to make any compromise to survive physically. As
Jesus says:
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matt
10:28)
The greatest fear is not that we may be killed, but that we
may be seduced into betraying those values on which our integrity as human
persons depends.
To save our ‘bodies’ at the expense of truth, love, justice,
freedom or at the expense of human solidarity—this is the real danger. That is
the real death.
Prophets
Some in the Christian community are called to greater prominence in
proclaiming God’s message. We call these people ‘prophets’. They are not so
called because they are fortune tellers who know the future, but it is true
that the genuine prophet can read more clearly ‘the signs of the times’ and
anticipate trends in society. Politically, Winston Churchill was such a
‘prophet’ when, in the 1930s, he stood relatively alone on the British
political scene denouncing any form of appeasement with Hitler. We know now how
right he was.
The role of the prophet is well described in today’s First
Reading. Jeremiah was initially not a very willing prophet. He did not think he
had the qualifications, but God assured him that he was the man God wanted.
He soon found that the role of a prophet in bringing God’s
message to his people did not win him many friends. He heard people say:
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!
And he complained:
All my close friends
are watching for me to stumble.
People watched out for him to put a foot wrong so that he
could be denounced.
This is a common reaction to prophets. It makes it easier
for people not to have to listen to their message. In spite of all, however,
Jeremiah knew that God and Truth were upholding him:
…the Lord is with me like a terrifying warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Institutional and charismatic
We see two kinds of prophets in our Church today. One group could be
called ‘institutional’ and they include bishops, priests, theologians and other
religious leaders, both women and men. Their main role is to help all of us to
be faithful to the true spirit of Jesus’ gospel in the way we live our daily
lives both individually and corporately.
The second group we can call ‘charismatic’ prophets and
these are prophets in the more real sense of the word. From our own recent past
we might cite the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the already mentioned
Archbishop Romero. Both these men gave their lives for what they believed. But
one would also say that St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) was a prophet,
not so much for what she said, but for what she did, and in particular, by
drawing our attention to caring for the ‘poorest of the poor’ and finding
Christ in them. Perhaps each one of us can add our own names to the list of
Christian (and non-Christian) prophets in the world today and in our own
communities. Who are the real prophets in our country, in our society, in our
community today?
All called to be prophets
Prophecy is seen in the New Testament as a very special gift of the
Spirit and, in its full sense, is a special vocation. However, some form of
prophecy is incumbent on all of us. Each baptised person is called on to give
witness to Christ in his or her life situation. Each one of us is called on to
give witness to the values of the gospel both by word and example and that may
mean, at times, being a ‘sign of contradiction’ in our families, in our
schools, in our working places and in the wider society.
If we find that we are not known to be Christian, or that
being a Christian seems to be no different from anyone else, if we find that
our Christian communities and our parishes leave no mark on their surrounding
society, then we need to ask ourselves seriously what kind of Christian lives
we are leading and what kind of witness to the gospel we are giving.
It is not enough simply to be assembling together once a
week. Our lives—individually and together—need to witness visibly to justice,
equal dignity of all, honesty, a spirit of service, sharing resources and
defending the weak and marginalised.
To be a living witness to Christ may generate some hostility
among people we know. For instance, it may happen when we insist on being
honest, rather than ‘on the make’, serving rather than manipulating people for
our own ends, being friendly and fair to all and not just to ‘one’s own’ and
standing up for immigrants and strangers in our community. It is better to be
right with Christ than wrong with the crowd. To be a living witness, one needs
confidence in Christ and in oneself, and a conviction that the only way that
benefits all is the Way of Jesus.
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Sunday,
June 21, 2026
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
In the darkness of a starless night, a night of no sense,
you, the Word of life, like lightning in the
storm of forgetfulness, entered within the bounds of doubt under cover of the
limits of precariousness to hide the light. Words made of silence and of the
ordinary, your human words, heralds of the secrets of the Most High: like hooks
cast into the waters of death to find man once more, immersed in his anxious
follies, and reclaim him, plundered, through the attractive radiance of
forgiveness.
To you, Ocean of Peace and shadow
of eternal Glory, I render thanks: Calm waters on my shore that awaits the
wave, I wish to seek you!
And may the friendship of the brothers protect me when night
falls on my desire for you. Amen.
Reading
The Gospel Text – Matthew 10: 26-33
26 'So do not be afraid of them. Everything now covered up
will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. 27 What I say
to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim
from the housetops. 28 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot
kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. 29
Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without
your Father knowing. 30 Why, every hair on your head has been counted. 31 So
there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32 'So if
anyone declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, I will declare
myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. 33 But the one who
disowns me in the presence of human beings, I will disown in the presence of my
Father in heaven.
A Moment of Silence:
Let us allow the voice of the Word to resonate within
us.
Meditation
Questions for Reflection:
•
There is nothing hidden which will not be
revealed: the truth under the veil of silence is spread more than if it is
exposed in the avid or greedy hands of men who are deaf to the breath of the
Spirit. Where do you place the Word of God that you listen to? In the power of
your adventurous thoughts or in the sacrarium of your profound acceptance?
•
That which I tell you in the dark, tell it in
the daylight: Christ speaks in the dark, in the secret of the heart. To offer
his words to the light, these must go though your thought, within your
feelings, in your entrails before they come to your lips. The words which you
habitually say to others are they words said in the secret of Him or rather
syllables of thoughts which just come to mind?
•
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body:
nothing nor nobody can do you harm if God is with you. They can make you a
prisoner, but they cannot take away liberty and dignity from you because these
are unseizable by anybody. Fears, worry, suspicions, anxieties... can become a
souvenir which is far away. When will you leave all this aside, trusting that
God will not abandon you ever and will take care of you?
•
Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And
yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. God’s Providence
can be similar to destiny, but it is something different. Sparrows which fall
to the ground. It is not God who throws them down, but when they fall the
Father is there. It is not God who sends sickness, but when man becomes ill,
the Father is there with him. Our things belong to him. Solitude, which
frequently presses on us is not abandonment. Will we look around to encounter
the eyes of Christ who lives with us in that moment of desolation?
•
If anyone declares himself to be for me in the
presence of human beings, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my
Father: Give Christ the courage of our faith in him... this is a requirement of
life in which God is not an accessory, but daily bread and the identity card of
himself. Does this challenge you or does it remain only a hidden desire? Even
among the heads or leaders, says John, many believed in him, but did not
recognize him openly because of the Pharisees, so as not to be expelled from
the Synagogue. Would you risk your name for him?
Key for the Reading:
Do not fear! This is a key word
which, repeated three times, gives unity to the passage.
Probably is it a literary unity
which joins together four isolated sayings. Faith requires as a basic
disposition, not to fear. The themes which emerge:
•
public proclamation of the Gospel (vv. 26-27)
•
the availability to face martyrdom sacrificing
physical life to attain eternal life (v. 28)
•
images of trust in Providence (vv. 29-31)
•
the courageous profession of faith in Christ (vv.
32-33) The counter-positions are of a remarkable efficacy: veiled/unveiled, or
covered/uncovered, hidden/known, darkness/light, body/soul, acknowledge/deny...
which make evident the shore of a life lived evangelically. The veils of
knowledge open themselves in the light and on the roofs of the universe the
word heard in secret goes forth. The whole man is present to the heart of God,
and if the creatures of the earth arouse tenderness, how much more the life of
a creature-son. Belonging makes the difference in the witness. One who lives
the divine sonship of God cannot deny the paternal roots!
•
v. 26. Do not be afraid of them, for everything
now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.
That which is covered is not reserved for few but it is simply kept waiting
that it be manifested. There is a time to keep hidden and a time to make
manifest, as Qohelet would say... to know how to keep the truth in the secret
of the days that go by: this is what forges the credibility of the
manifestation. A seed cannot be thrown into the air, it is put into the furrow
of the heart, it is left to itself while it is transformed in dying, and it is
attentively followed until it germinates and comes to light, until the spike
will be ripe and ready to be harvested. Every word of God requires that it
passes through the furrow of one’s own history in order to bear abundant fruit
in due time.
•
v. 27. What I say to you in the dark, tell it in
the daylight, and what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops. Jesus
speaks in secret; we speak in the light. God speaks, we listen, and we become
his mouth for others. The darkness of the listening, of putting it in, of
assimilation, precede the dawn of every proclamation. And when from the housetops
the good news will be heard, men will be obliged to look up. A treasure of
glory is enclosed in every moment of listening, it is a moment of waiting which
prepares to the birth of light.
•
v. 28. Do not be afraid of those who kill the
body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and
soul in hell. One can be afraid of those who can strike that which is not man
in fullness: to stop earthly life is not equal to death. The only really
fearful is God. But God also after death preserves the life for man, that is
why we should not fear. Whatever can happen, God is with man. This is a
certainty which permits us to sail on even in the midst of the most devastating
storms, because the treasures of man
are taken care of in God, and from the
hands of God nobody can snatch the elect.
•
v. 29. Can you not buy two sparrow for a penny?
And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Two sparrows,
one penny. A minimum value but which is in the thought of the Father. Where
life beats, there God is, completely. This attentive care enchants and
consoles... and invites to listen to all that vibrates and presents holy images
of the Eternal splendour. Two sparrows: two very small creatures of a brief
life. The value of things is not given to them because of the greatness or the
strength, but from that which animates, that which is “body”. Therefore, every
space where there is life which accepts the print of the Creator is a place of
encounter with Him, it witnesses of his solicitude.
•
v. 30. Why every hair on your head has been
counted. The solicitude or thoughtfulness of God extends itself even to count
the hair on our head. It is absurd, the way the Lord loves! When desolation and
abandonment become the word s of our today, it will be enough to count some of
our hair to remember the presence of God with us. The protection of the
Heavenly Father will not be lacking for the disciples of Jesus. The Mystery
which embraces all cannot be less towards those who have chosen to follow His
Son, leaving the earth of their human securities.
•
v. 31. So there is no need to be afraid; you are
worth more than many sparrows! If God uses his thought for two sparrows how
much more will he not think of us! Fear disappears before this living image of
human and religious sensibility of Christ. God is in favor of man, not against
him. And if he keeps silence it is not because of lack of care, but because his
thoughts on us have broader perspectives which go beyond the horizons of
earthly temporality.
•
v. 32. If anyone declares himself for me in the
presence of human beings, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my
Father in Heaven. To acknowledge oneself. When you find yourself in a square
crowded to the full among unknown faces, you have the experience of being a
foreigner. But as soon as you see a familiar face, your heart expands and you
make your way until you get close to him. This recognizing others allows to
manifest oneself before others and to expose oneself. Christ in the midst of
the crowd is the familiar face to recognize him as the Master and Lord of our
life. And what fear can we have if we think that he will declare us before his
Father in Heaven?
•
v. 33. But the one who disowns me in the
presence of human beings, I will disown in the presence of my Father in Heaven.
Could we think of a revengeful God? this is not a discourse to “put wood into
the fire”, but a discourse which comes from an existential encounter. Christ
will not be able to recognize as his own the one who will have chosen
everything outside of him, it is a discourse of fidelity and of respect for the
human liberty. God respects the creature to the point of not interfering in the
space of his error.
The Gospel demands belonging, not words and actions. The
heart lives in heaven, when Christ is its beating of life!
Prayer
Psalm 22: 22-31
I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full
assembly:
'You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All the race of Jacob,
honour him! Revere him, all
the race of Israel!' For he has not despised nor disregarded the poverty of the
poor, has not turned away his face, but has listened to the cry for help.
Of you is my praise in the thronged assembly,
I will perform my vows before all who
fear him. The poor will eat and be filled, those who seek Yahweh will praise
him, 'May your heart live for ever.' The whole wide world will remember and
return to Yahweh,
all the families of nations bow
down before him. For to Yahweh, ruler of the nations, belongs kingly power!
All who prosper on earth will bow before him,
all who go down to the dust will
do reverence before him. And those who are dead,
their descendants will serve him,
will proclaim his name to generations still to come;
and these will tell of his saving justice to a people yet unborn: he has
fulfilled it.
Contemplation
Lord, among the veils of what I have received and have not
given, may I be able to meditate and to accept everything from you. Let not my
proclamation be an unconscious repeater, but rather a word possessed in so far
as it has indwelling and digested for a long time. May the beauty of your
presence be unveiled to my senses, and in the mystery of your unceasing giving
may the veil of the encounter descend bringing you closer. The treasure hidden
for centuries is now known, and from darkness to light, the dawn has raised for
centuries, in a day without sunset which, shining on that which love has
created and the sin being broken, it makes all things new. I will recognize
you, my God, before my brothers because it will be impossible for me to hide
the lamp that you have lit in my life. Who will give me the words which create
me and make of my limitations a marvelous definition of that which I am, I, in
particular, like nobody else? Only you, Lord have words of eternal life. And I
will eat them and will offer them, at the cost of being devoured with them. It
will be sufficient for me to feel that I am a sparrow to find again the hope
when the tempest will fall on me, because the pennies that you give for the
sparrows are not counted in your knapsack. Amen.
