July 8, 2026
Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 385
Reading 1
Israel is a luxuriant vine
whose fruit matches its growth.
The more abundant his fruit,
the more altars he built;
The more productive his land,
the more sacred pillars he set up.
Their heart is false,
now they pay for their guilt;
God shall break down their altars
and destroy their sacred pillars.
If they would say,
“We have no king”—
Since they do not fear the LORD,
what can the king do for them?
The king of Samaria shall disappear,
like foam upon the waters.
The high places of Aven shall be destroyed,
the sin of Israel;
thorns and thistles shall overgrow their altars.
Then they shall cry out to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall upon us!”
“Sow for yourselves justice,
reap the fruit of piety;
break up for yourselves a new field,
for it is time to seek the LORD,
till he come and rain down justice upon you.”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (4b) Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Kingdom of God is at hand:
repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the Twelve Apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070826.cfm
Commentary on Hosea
10:1-3,7-8,12
Israel under Jeroboam II (793-753) ‘never had it so good’.
The Northern Kingdom is called Israel after the name of its ancestor and it is
described as a “luxuriant vine”, which was a frequent metaphor for Israel.
But as we so often see happening in our own world, the good
life does not result in moral living.—quite the opposite, in fact, is common.
We have only to look around in our present time to see this. The prophet says:
The more his [i.e. Israel’s] fruit
increased,
the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
he improved his pillars.
How true! The greater the prosperity, the higher the
standard of living, the more idols are erected, things which people use all
their energies in worshipping and pursuing.
But the people’s “heart is false”, their “hearts” are in the
wrong place. Their heart is divided between worship of Yahweh and the Baals, or
hesitating between Egypt and Assyria for their alliances. Israel formally calls
on God, but it dishonours him through its worship of idols. But God:
…will break down their altars
and destroy their pillars.
The principles of truth, love and justice do not fit in the
face of unlimited materialism, consumerism, hedonism, uninhibited sexual
indulgence, fashion, status, success, power and all such worldly values.
In fact, in so far as worldly values are denials of truth
and love and justice, they will ultimately collapse because of their inbuilt
contradictions. These false ‘values’ are essentially opposed to people’s
deepest aspirations—aspirations planted in our very being by our Creator.
Referring to the idol they have set up to worship, the
prophet says:
For now they will say:
“We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord,
and a king—what could he do for us?”
The prophet’s question is rhetorical and requires no answer.
Little do they realise, in the midst of their prosperity,
that “Samaria’s king”, namely the calf-idol, is doomed to disappear “like a
chip on the face of the waters”. Similarly, the “high places of Aven”, that is,
the idolatrous shrine at Bethel, the “sin of Israel”, will meet with
destruction and “thistle shall grow up on their altars”, i.e. weeds will cover
them up.
They will be terrible days indeed when the people will call
out for the hills to cover them and fall on them. Cries of utter despair quoted
by Jesus when speaking to the women who sympathised with him as he carried his
cross to Calvary (and referring to the coming destruction of Jerusalem):
Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will
say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts
that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’
and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ (Luke 23:28-30)
The last verse in our reading today from Hosea is also cited
in Revelation (6:16) in the context of the cosmic upheaval accompanying the
coming of the ‘Day of the Lord’.
But there is a way out, if the people change their ways and
begin to plant justice—a justice where all share equitably in the resources
available—and reap the fruits that come from deeply loving and compassionate
hearts. It is time now to ‘plough new furrows’ in what has up to now been
fallow and unproductive ground and go in search of God, becoming instead
productive and fruitful. We remember what Jesus said would happen to the vine
whose branches did not bear fruit.
It is for us to ask ourselves today to what extent we have
been carried away by the affluence of our societies and the prevailing values
(or lack thereof). Let us think about ‘ploughing a new field’ in our own lives
and work to produce the fruit that matters, the fruit that lasts—fruit that not
only we ourselves can enjoy, but which can be shared with others.
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Commentary on Matthew
10:1-7
We begin today the second of the five discourses of Jesus
which are a unique feature of Matthew’s Gospel. It consists of instructions to
Jesus’ disciples on how they are to conduct their missionary work and the
reactions they can expect in carrying it out.
It begins by the summoning of the inner circle of twelve
disciples. Matthew presumes we already know about their formal selection, which
he does not recount (the Gospels of Mark and Luke clearly distinguish the
selection of the Apostles from their later missioning). These twelve disciples
are now called Apostles.
The two words are distinct in meaning and we should not
confuse them. A disciple (Latin discipulus, from discere,
to learn) is a follower, someone who learns from a teacher and assimilates that
teaching into his or her own life. An apostle (Greek, apostolos from apostello)
is someone who is sent out on a mission, someone who is deputed to disseminate
the teaching of the master to others. In the New Testament a distinction is
made between the two. All the Gospels, for instance, speak of the Twelve
Apostles and Luke mentions 72 disciples.
However, that does not mean the two roles are mutually
exclusive. On the contrary, all of us who are called to be disciples are also
expected to be apostles, actively sharing our faith with others. It is very
easy for us to see ourselves, ‘ordinary’ Catholics, as disciples and to regard
priests and religious as doing the apostolic work of the Church. That would be
very wrong. Every one of us called to be a disciple is, by virtue of Baptism
and Confirmation, also called to be an apostle.
Applied to the twelve men (yes, they were all men—and
therein lies the source of many disputes!), the word ‘apostle’ does have a
special sense. They would become, so to speak, the pillars or foundations on
which the new Church would be built, with Peter as their leader. They would
have the special role of handing on and interpreting the tradition they had
received from Jesus, a role which in turn they handed on to those whom we now
call the bishops, with the pope as leader and spokesperson.
Later on, Paul would be added to their number and Matthias
would be chosen to replace the renegade Judas. In fact, it is interesting to
see the mixed bunch of people that Jesus chose. We know next to nothing about
most of them, but they were, for the most part, simple people—some of them
definitely uneducated and perhaps even illiterate. Judas may well have been the
most qualified among them. And yet we see the extraordinary results they
produced, and the unstoppable movement they set in motion. The only explanation
is that it was ultimately the work of God through the Holy Spirit.
The first instructions they are given are to confine their
activities to their own people. They are not to go to pagans at this stage, or
even to the Samaritans. As the heirs to the covenant and as God’s people, the
Jews are to be the first to be invited to follow the Messiah and experience his
saving power. And their proclamation is the same one that Jesus gave at the
outset of his public preaching:
The Kingdom of Heaven [i.e. of God] has
come near.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2144g/
Wednesday, July 8, 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 10: 1-7
Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority
over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and to cure all kinds of
disease and all kinds of illness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who
is known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his
brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector;
James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot,
who was also his betrayer.
These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:
'Do not make your way to gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan
town; go instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go,
proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.
Reflection
The second great Discourse: The Discourse of the Mission
begins in charter 10 of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew organizes his Gospel as
a new edition of the Law of God or like a new “Pentateuch” with its five books.
For this reason his Gospel presents five great discourses or teachings of Jesus
followed by a narrative part, in which he describes the way in which Jesus puts
into practice what he had taught in the discourses. The following is the
outline: Introduction: the birth and preparation of the Messiah (Mt 1 to 4)
• Sermon
on the Mountain: the entrance door into the Kingdom (Mt 5 to 7)
• Narrative
Mt 8 and 9
• Discourse
of the Mission: how to announce and diffuse the Kingdom (Mt 10)
• Narrative
Mt 11 and 12
• Discourse
of the Parables: The mystery of the Kingdom present in life (Mt 13)
• Narrative
Mt 14 to 17
• Discourse
of the Community: the new way of living together in the Kingdom
(Mt 18)
• Narrative
19 to 23
• Discourse
of the future coming of the Kingdom: the utopia which sustains hope (Mt 24 and
25)
• Conclusion:
Passion, death and Resurrection (Mt 26 to 28)
Today’s Gospel presents to us the beginning of the Discourse
of the Mission, in which the accent is placed on three aspects: (a) the call of
the disciples (Mt 10: 1); (b) the list of the names of the twelve Apostles who
will be the recipients of the Discourse on the Mission (Mt 10: 2- 4); (c) the
sending out of the twelve (Mt 10: 5-7).
• Matthew
10: 1: The call of the twelve disciples. Matthew had already spoken about the
call of the disciples (Mt 4: 18-22; 9: 9). Here, at the beginning of the
Discourse of the Mission, he presents a summary: “He summoned his twelve
disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive
them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and all kinds of illness.” The task
or the mission of the disciple is to follow Jesus, the Master, forming
community with him and carrying out the same mission of Jesus: to drive out the
unclean spirits, to cure all sorts of diseases and all sorts of illness. In
Mark’s Gospel they receive the same two-fold mission, formulated with other
words: Jesus constituted the group of Twelve, to remain with him and to send
them out to preach and cast out devils” (Mc 3: 14-15). 1) To be with him, that
is to form a community, in which Jesus is the center. 2)To preach and to be
able to cast out the devils, that is, to announce the Good News and to conquer
the force of evil which destroys the life of the people and alienates persons.
Luke says that Jesus prayed the whole night, and the following day he called
the disciples. He prayed to God so as to know whom to choose (Lk 6: 12-13).
• Matthew
10: 2-4: The list of the names of the Twelve Apostles. A good number of these
names come from the Old Testament. For example, Simon is the name of one of the
sons of the Patriarch Jacob (Gn 29: 33). James is the same as Giacomo (Gn 25:
26). Judas is the name of the other son of Jacob (Gn 35: 23). Matthew also had
the name of Levi (Mk 2: 14), who was the other son of Jacob (Gn 35: 23). Of the
Twelve Apostles seven have a name which comes from the time of the Patriarchs.
Two are called Simon; two are called James; two are called Judas, one Levi!
Only one has a Greek name: Philip. This reveals the desire of people to start
again the history from the beginning! Perhaps it is good to think in the names
which are given today to the children when they are born. Because each one of
us is called by God by his/her name.
• Matthew
10: 5-7: The sending out or the mission of the twelve apostles toward the lost
sheep of Israel. After having given the list of the names of the twelve, Jesus
sends them out with the following recommendation: “Do not make your way to
gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town, go instead to the lost
sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the Kingdom of
Heaven is close at hand.” In this one phrase there is a three-fold insistence
in showing that the preference of the mission is for the House of Israel: (1)
Do not go among the gentiles, (2) do not enter into the towns of the
Samaritans, (3) rather go to the lost sheep of Israel. Here appears a response
to the doubt of the first Christians concerning opening up to pagans. Paul, who
strongly affirmed the openness to the gentiles, agrees in saying that the Good
News of Jesus should first be announced to the Jews and, then to the gentiles
(Rm 9: 1a; 11: 36; cf. At 1: 8; 11: 3; 13: 46; 15: 1; 5: 23-29). But then, in
the same Gospel of Matthew, in the conversation of Jesus with the Canaanite
woman, the openness to the gentiles will take place (Mt 15: 21-29).
• The
sending out of the Apostles toward all peoples. After the Resurrection of
Jesus, there are several episodes on the sending out of the Apostles not only
toward the Jews, but toward all peoples. In Matthew: Go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe everything which I have commanded. And
I will be with you until the end of time” (Mt 28: 19-20). In Mark: “Go to the
entire world, proclaim the Good News to all creatures. Those who will believe
and will be baptized will be saved; those who will not believe will be
condemned” (Mk 15-16). In Luke: "So it is written that the Christ would
suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that in his name,
repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations,
beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this (Lk 24: 46-48; Ac 1: 8)
John summarizes all in one phrase: “As the Father has sent me, so I also send
you!” (Jn 20: 21).
Personal Questions
• Have
you ever thought sometime about the meaning of your name? Have you asked your
parents why they gave you the name that you have? Do you like your name?
• Jesus
calls the disciples. His call has a two-fold purpose: to form a community and
to go on mission. How do I live in my life this two-fold purpose?
Concluding Prayer
Seek Yahweh and his strength, tirelessly seek his presence!
Remember the marvels he has done, his wonders, the judgements he has spoken.
(Ps 105: 4-5)
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