June 20, 2026
Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 370
Reading 1
After the death of Jehoiada,
the princes of Judah came and paid homage to King Joash,
and the king then listened to them.
They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers,
and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols;
and because of this crime of theirs,
wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD,
the people would not listen to their warnings.
Then the Spirit of God possessed Zechariah,
son of Jehoiada the priest.
He took his stand above the people and said to them:
"God says, 'Why are you transgressing the LORD's commands,
so that you cannot prosper?
Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.'"
But they conspired against him,
and at the king's order they stoned him to death
in the court of the LORD's temple.
Thus King Joash was unmindful of the devotion shown him
by Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, and slew his son.
And as Zechariah was dying, he said, "May the LORD see and avenge."
At the turn of the year a force of Arameans came up against Joash.
They invaded Judah and Jerusalem,
did away with all the princes of the people,
and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.
Though the Aramean force came with few men,
the LORD surrendered a very large force into their power,
because Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers.
So punishment was meted out to Joash.
After the Arameans had departed from him,
leaving him in grievous suffering,
his servants conspired against him
because of the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest.
He was buried in the City of David,
but not in the tombs of the kings.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34
R. (29a) For ever I will maintain my love for my
servant.
"I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations."
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
"Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.
I will make his posterity endure forever
and his throne as the days of heaven."
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
"If his sons forsake my law
and walk not according to my ordinances,
If they violate my statutes
and keep not my commands."
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
"I will punish their crime with a rod
and their guilt with stripes.
Yet my mercy I will not take from him,
nor will I belie my faithfulness."
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
"No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'
or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062026.cfm
Commentary on 2
Chronicles 24:17-25
About this passage, the Vatican II Missal says:
“We turn today to Second Chronicles for a further unhappy
episode in the history of Judah. The zealous high priest Zechariah, son
of the same Jehoiada who had saved King Joash, is murdered in the Temple area.
Jesus referred to this sad story (see Matt 23:31).”
Our reading is taken from the Second Book of Chronicles, but
chronologically, it follows on the events of yesterday’s reading where we saw
the young Joash, who had been rescued from certain death at the hands of his
murderous grandmother, Athalia, and made king through the instrumentation of
Jehoiada, the high priest. Sadly however, as happens so often in these
accounts, treachery again takes over.
When Jehoiada died, officials began to work on King Joash,
who listened to what they had to say. As a result, the people of Judah began to
abandon worship in the Temple and turned to various forms of idolatry. For
this reason, “wrath [God’s anger] came upon Judah and Jerusalem”—the southern
kingdom and its capital. The Hebrew word for ‘abandon’ or ‘forsake’ is repeated
three times in the passage, indicating the reason for the divine punishment
which follows. There are many similar examples in other parts of the Old
Testament.
When prophets were sent to bring them back to their senses
and to God’s ways, the people refused to listen. Their rejection of these
prophets was a rejection of Yahweh himself, thus sowing the seeds of the
destruction to follow.
Then Zechariah, the son of the former high priest Jehoiada, was
inspired to call the people back to the worship of Yahweh. He told them:
Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken
you.
But instead of listening to his appeals, they plotted
against him and, at the orders of the king, stoned him to death right there in
the Lord’s Temple—causing a terrible sacrilege to take place.
The blame is laid fairly and squarely on King Joash.
It was an extraordinary act of ingratitude to the son of the man who had
rescued the king as a young child from the same fate. As he died,
Zechariah cried out:
May the Lord see and avenge!
The cry is a contrast to the words of Jesus on the cross and
of Stephen before his martyrdom. In the Old Testament, justice is often
achieved through vengeance, and violence met with violence. In the New
Testament, violence is not the Way.
This cruel death is referred to indirectly by Jesus when,
speaking to the Pharisees, he says:
Thus you testify against yourselves that you are
descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
(Matt 23:31)
The retribution was not long in coming. A year later
an army of Aramaeans attacked King Joash and executed his officials, perhaps
those very ones who had led him and the people astray to the worship of idols.
Although the Aramaean forces were not large in number, they
were, by God’s power, able to overcome the much larger army of Joash and the
Judeans, defeated for deserting their God. Just as God had helped the small
army of Judah against overwhelming odds when the king and people were faithful
to him (2 Chron 14:8-9; 2 Chron 20:2,12), so now in their unfaithfulness they
are defeated by a much smaller force of invaders.
Joash was treated, in the thinking of the time, as his royal
status deserved, but they left him a very sick man. Finally, his own
officers, the ones perhaps who had helped Jehoiada engineer the coup against
Athalia, moved to avenge the death of the high priest’s son Zechariah, and
murdered the king in his bed. He was buried in the citadel of David, but
not in the tombs of the kings.
Once again, sin does not pay.
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Commentary on
Matthew 6:24-34
Today we continue with Jesus’ teaching on our attitude to
material and visible things. We have to make a choice between the vision of
life that Jesus offers or a preoccupation with money and possessions. They are
not compatible. They involve conflicting goals in life and different visions of
what is most important in life. The truly materialistic person may have a
veneer of Christian practice, but cannot be a really committed Christian and
vice versa.
Jesus preaches what St Ignatius Loyola calls ‘indifference’
to material things. Obviously some material things—like food and clothing and
shelter—are necessary to daily living. At different times other things will be
necessary too.
The attitude of ‘indifference’ is not that one does not
care; on the contrary, one cares very much. But one cares to have things and to
use things only in so far as they are needed to love and serve God and others
for his sake. Jesus urges us to liberate ourselves from worry and anxiety about
our body and material things such as food and clothing.
To be concerned about food because right now I am very
hungry and do not have any is very different from worrying whether I will have
food next month; to be anxious about what is happening when I am in intensive
care is very different from wondering how long my health will hold up in the
coming years; to be fretting because I have no money to pay my rent with the
landlord knocking at the door is very different from wondering whether I will
ever be rich.
Worry and anxiety about the future are a waste of time and
energy yet we indulge in them so much. We are invited to:
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap
nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Likewise, the flowers in the field—they do nothing except be
themselves and God takes care of them. And how beautiful they are! When their
time comes they pass away.
We are often so busy regretting the past or worrying about
the future that we never get to enjoy life. Enjoyment and happiness are only in
the present—nowhere else. If we keep looking forward or looking back we will
never find happiness. And yet it is right here in our grasp at every moment of
every day. As Jesuit Fr Tony de Mello has written:
“You have everything you need right now to be happy.”
How our lives would be transformed if only we could really
believe that! Because happiness can only be in the now. Yesterday’s
happiness is gone; tomorrow’s does not exist. If I am not happy now, I never
will be.
So to follow the advice of Jesus today:
…do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring
worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
God is in the here and now and nowhere else. He is always
available.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o2117g/
Saturday,
June 20, 2024
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: 24-34
Jesus said to his disciples: "No one can
serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to
one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. "Therefore I
tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about
your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more
than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they
gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you
more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to
your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild
flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in
all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of
the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not
much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say,
'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' All
these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them
all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will
take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."
Reflection
•
Today’s Gospel helps us to review our
relationship with material goods and presents two themes of diverse importance:
our relationship with money (Mt 6: 24) and our relationship with Divine
Providence (Mt 6: 25-34). The advice given by Jesus gave rise to several
difficult questions. For example, how can we understand the affirmation: “You
cannot serve God and money” (Mt 6: 24)? How can we understand the recommendation
not to worry about food, about drink, and about dress (Mt 6: 25)?
•
Matthew 6: 24: You cannot serve God and money.
Jesus is very clear in His affirmation: “No one can serve two masters: he will
either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and
despise the second. You cannot serve God and money… Each one has to make
his/her own choice. They should ask themselves: “To what do I give the first
place in my life: God or money?” This choice will depend on understanding the
advice which follows about Divine Providence (Mt 6: 25-34). It is not a
question about a choice made only in one’s head, but rather a very concrete
choice of life that has to do with attitudes.
•
Matthew 6: 25: Jesus criticizes excessive worry
about eating and drinking. This criticism of Jesus, even in our day, causes
great fear in people because the great worry of all parents is how to get food
and clothing for their children. The reason for the criticism is that life is
worth more than food and the body more than the clothes. In order to clarify or
explain his criticism Jesus presents two parables: the birds of the air and the
flowers.
•
Matthew 6: 26-27: The parable of the birds of
the air: life is worth more than food. Jesus orders them to look at the birds.
They do not sow, or reap or gather into barns, but they always have something
to eat because the Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than
they are?” Jesus criticizes the fact that the worry about food occupies the
whole horizon of the life of people, without leaving space to experience and
relish gratuity and fraternity and the sense of belonging to the Father. This
is why materialism is wrong, because it obliges the great majority of people to
live 24 hours a day, worried about food and clothing, and produces in a rich
minority, quite a limited one, the anguish of buying and consuming up to the
point of not leaving space for anything else. Jesus says that life is worth
more than the goods to be consumed! Materialist prevents living the Kingdom.
•
Matthew 6: 28-30: the parable of the lilies in
the fields: the body is worth more than clothing. Jesus asks us to look at the
flowers, the lilies of the fields. How elegant and beautiful God dresses them!
“Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are
there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not much more look
after you, you who have so little faith?” Jesus says to look at the things of
nature, because seeing the flowers of the field, people will remember the mission
which we have: to struggle for the Kingdom and to create a new life, living
together, which can guarantee the food and clothing for everybody.
•
Matthew 6: 31-32: Do not be like the Gentiles.
Jesus once again criticizes the excessive worry over food, drink, and clothing.
He concludes: “The gentiles are concerned about these things!” There should be
a difference in the life of those who have faith in Jesus and those who do not
have faith in Jesus. Those who have faith in Jesus share with Him the experience
of the gratuity of God the Father, Abba. This experience of paternity should
revolutionize life together. It should generate a community life which is
fraternal, and the seed of a new society.
•
Matthew 6: 33-34: Set your hearts on the Kingdom
first. Jesus indicates two criteria: “To seek first the kingdom of God” and not
to worry about tomorrow. To seek first the Kingdom and its justice is a means
to seek to do God’s will and allow God to reign in our life. The search for God
is concretely expressed in the search for a fraternal and just life together.
From this concern for the Kingdom springs a community life in which all live as
brothers and sisters and nobody is lacking anything. Here there will be no
worry for tomorrow, that is, there will be no worry about storing up things.
•
Seek first of all the kingdom of God and its
justice. The kingdom of God should be at the center of all of our concerns. The
Kingdom demands a life together, where there is no storing up of things, but
sharing in such a way that all have what is necessary to live. The Kingdom is
the new fraternal life together, in which each person feels responsible for
others. This way of seeing the Kingdom helps us to better understand the
parables of the birds and the flowers, because for Jesus, Divine Providence
passes through the community. To be concerned about the kingdom of God and its
justice is the same as to be concerned about accepting God, the Father, and of
being brother and sister with others. Before the growing impoverishment caused
by economic consumerism, the concrete form which the Gospel presents to us
gives us an alternative so that the poor will be able to live via the
solidarity of the organization.
•
A sharp knife in the hands of a child can be a
mortal weapon. A sharp knife in the hand of a person hanging on a cord can
save. The words of God on Divine Providence are like this. It would not be
evangelical to say to a jobless father, who is poor, who has eight children and
a sick wife: “Do not worry about food or drink! Why worry about health and
clothes?” (Mt 6: 25-28). We can say this only when we ourselves imitate Jesus,
organize ourselves to share, guaranteeing in this way to the brother the
possibility of surviving. Otherwise, we are like the three friends of Job, that
in order to defend God they told lies (Job 13: 7). It would be like “abandoning
an orphan and betraying a friend”. In the mouth of the rich, these words can be
a mortal arm against the poor. In the mouth of the poor they can be a real and
concrete outlet for a better life together, more just and more fraternal.
Personal Questions
•
What do I understand by Divine Providence? Do I
trust in Divine Providence? How do I express it in real life? Can it be better
expressed now that I look at it and myself?
•
In helping others we participate in Divine
Providence, which is to participate in the Kingdom as well. What are the
opportunities I had today to help and participate in God’s plan to help sustain
others that I missed or avoided or shrunk away from?
•
When I pass someone on the street asking for
money, do I just toss them a coin or do I spend time to find out what they need
and who they are? Is there more that I can do? Even talking to them and
treating them as a friend is a form of welcoming them into the community and
respect for a brother or sister – something they likely do not feel.
Concluding Prayer
I observe Your instructions, I
love them dearly.
I observe Your precepts, Your judgments, for all my
ways are before You. (Ps 119: 166-167)
