June 14, 2026
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 91
Reading 1
In those days, the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai
and pitched camp.
While Israel was encamped here in front of the mountain,
Moses went up the mountain to God.
Then the LORD called to him and said,
“Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob;
tell the Israelites:
You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians
and how I bore you up on eagle wings
and brought you here to myself.
Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my special possession,
dearer to me than all other people,
though all the earth is mine.
You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (3c) We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
The LORD is good:
his kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
Christ, while we were still helpless,
yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person
one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood,
will we be saved through him from the wrath.
Indeed, if, while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son,
how much more, once reconciled,
will we be saved by his life.
Not only that,
but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ 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.”
Then he 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 from Cana, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
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.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061426.cfm
Commentary on Exodus
19:2-6; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36—10:8
The Gospel opens with Jesus looking over the crowds of
people. He is filled with compassion for them. They are “harassed and helpless”
like sheep without a shepherd. Things have not changed that much. So many today
are still harassed by various forces and helpless, drifting without any real
direction in their lives. “Do you know where you’re going to?” Diana Ross and
the Supremes sang many years ago. How many of us can really answer that question?
A rich harvest
So Jesus says to his followers:
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Certainly the harvest is plentiful. There are nearly 2.4
billion Christians in the world today and that seems like a huge number. Even
so, we account for less than one-third of the world’s population. Over
seventy-percent still do not know Christ! And even among many of those who
carry the name Christian and have been baptised, he is to a large extent, a
stranger.
However, there are over 3 billion people who fervently
belong to other faiths: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Undoubtedly
these religions have profound insights into the meaning of life and they
produce their own saints, prophets and mystics. It is wrong to refer, as we did
in the past, to such people as ‘pagans’ and ‘infidels’. If we really want to
find pagans and infidels, that is, people who live a totally secular life in
our own time, shouldn’t we rather look at our own wealthy, post-Christian
western societies?
Where are the labourers?
The harvest is indeed plentiful, right on our own doorstep. Undoubtedly, the
labourers, too, are few. That does not just mean that we do not have enough
priests, brothers and sisters. The call to be a harvester is being made to
every single follower of Christ. It is being made to every single person here.
The way each one of us does harvesting depends on the circumstances of our
life: our family situation, work situation, education, personality and
temperament, and so on.
One way we can ask the Lord to send labourers into his
harvest is for each one of us to say to him:
Here am I; send me! (Is 6:8)
So often we pray for “vocations”, but we do so in a very
narrow way, as if the only vocation was to be a priest or religious. And
somehow, we always seem to be thinking of other people, people we do not know,
certainly not people in our own family or our own children. Today, let us hear
the call made to ourselves and reflect on how we can answer.
The first harvesters
In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins by calling his first harvesters. He picked out
twelve of his disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits—to
liberate people from them and to heal every disease and sickness. Notice that
the mandate is not just ‘religious’. It is for both spiritual and physical
healing, the making whole of the complete person at every level.
These disciples are called “apostles”. It may surprise us
that this is the only time this word is used in Matthew’s Gospel. A disciple is
basically a follower, someone who learns from a master and becomes more and
more like him. The word ‘apostle’ is a more active word. It implies someone who
is entrusted by his lord and master with carrying an important message to
others. Of course, one has first to be a good disciple before becoming a
reliable apostle.
Why twelve? Because in the old Israel there were the twelve
sons of Jacob, who became the patriarchs and the heads of the twelve tribes
into which Israel was divided. These twelve men are the leaders of the new
Israel, the new Kingdom being established through Jesus.
A mixed bunch
The Apostles are certainly a mixed bunch of people. Some of them were probably
illiterate, which was not such a serious handicap in those days when there were
hardly any books. One of them was a former tax collector, one of a class much
despised for its venality and corruption. Another seems to have been some kind
of anti-government rebel or zealot. And one, of course, turned out to be a
traitor.
It does not give us much reason to say, as sometimes people
do, that, “I am not good enough to do the Lord’s work”. When we look at the
Church today in all its vastness and complexity and in the extraordinary
cultural richness it has given to the world, we are amazed that this was all
begun by such seemingly ‘ordinary’ people. If Jesus could use them, he can
certainly use me. Again, can I say to him today:
Here am I; send me! (Is 6:8)
At first, the Apostles are told only to go to the ‘lost
sheep’ of Israel and to avoid the Samaritans and Gentiles. God’s message is
first for his own people and, in general, Jesus’ own work is almost entirely
confined to the Jewish community. Later, of course, the mandate is extended to
people everywhere. And what are these missionary Apostles to do? They are to
proclaim that:
The kingdom of heaven has come near.
Kingdom of God, or heaven?
This does not mean, as mentioned in a previous commentary, that people are all
going to die in the next day or two and go to “heaven”. Matthew, writing
primarily to the Jewish converts to Christianity, always goes out of his way to
avoid using the name of God, and ‘heaven’ is one of his favourite substitutes.
So, in reality, we are talking about the Kingdom of God. And that Kingdom is
not a place. The Greek word used in the Gospel is basileia, meaning
‘rule or reign’. So it is better to speak of the reign or Kingship of God. The
Kingship of God is close because of the presence of Jesus Christ. We enter the
Kingdom not by going somewhere, but by aligning ourselves totally with the Way
of Jesus, when his thoughts become our thoughts and his ways become our ways.
The Apostles are to show the nearness of the Kingdom when
they:
Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin
disease; cast out demons.
These are all signs of God’s loving power working through
them and reaching deep into people’s lives.
A programme for our own time
In modern terms, we could describe these works as:
- Curing
the sick—People can be sick in many ways, and not just physically. We can
all be agents for bringing healing and wholeness back into people’s lives,
especially those we come in contact with.
- Raising
the dead—We cannot literally raise people from the dead. We can, however,
help people to recover an interest and zest for living. People can be
physically alive, but dead in many other respects.
- Cleansing
those with a skin disease—For us, that is to rehabilitate and bring back
fully into our communities all those who, for one reason or another, are
marginalised, rejected, despised, or ostracised on the basis of race,
nationality, marital status, religion, gender, sexual orientation, certain
modern-day illnesses and so on.
- Casting
out demons—In our day demons are all those suffocating and enslaving
forces which dominate, manipulate and restrict our freedom to live in
truth and love. They include many elements of our contemporary lifestyle;
the pressures to conform to what is in fashion, whether it be clothes,
food, drugs of all kinds—prescribed and non-prescribed; and the tendencies
to hedonism, extreme individualism and violence of all kinds. Our abortion
culture is simply one of the symptoms and effects of all this. We have to
start by casting out these demons from our own hearts first before helping
others to true liberation.
Finally, says Jesus:
You received without payment; give without payment.
Yes, all that we have are God’s gifts to us. God’s gifts are
literally ‘price-less’. They are meant to be used freely and liberally for the
benefit of all. We are not in the business of sharing our faith for the money
or the kudos it brings. To paraphrase the famous statement of President John
Kennedy in his inaugural address, we should:
“Ask not what others can do for you—ask what you can do for
others.”
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Sunday,
June 14, 2026
11th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Our Father, your Word dwells in the world
through the coming of Jesus your Son. He has proclaimed it to us by his
teachings, but above all by his works and the gift of his life. The Word became
flesh. Before leaving us, he promised us the help of the Spirit so that we
could remember all that he had said and understand more deeply the meaning
hidden in our hearts hardened by sin. Give us now your revealing and consoling
Spirit. May our hearts be inflamed with his presence and your Word become a
living and effective provocation to serve you in our brothers and sisters with
joy.
Gospel Reading – Mt 9: 36-10: 8
The Context of the Gospel Passage
We are at the beginning of the second of the
five "discourses" of Matthew, that of the mission. Jesus, the new
Moses, continues to bring to fulfillment (Mt 5: 17) the old law by sending the
citizens of the new Kingdom not to judge (Jn 3: 17f; Mt 11: 4-5), but to free
his people from all kinds of ailments and diseases as he does. This sending on
mission takes place during the public life of Jesus. There will be another,
solemn and universal, after the resurrection (Mt 28: 18-20). The twelve
apostles, in continuity and rupture with the twelve tribes of Israel, are
called to gather the hopes of the old Israel that resembles a disoriented
people, like a flock without a shepherd (Mt 9: 36). A Possible Division of the Passage:
•
Matthew 9: 36-38: Narrative introduction
•
Matthew 10: 1: The transmission of power
•
Matthew 10: 2-4: The names of the Twelve • Matthew 10: 5-8:
Instruction and sending out The Text:
And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion
on them, because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a
shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but
the laborers are few. 38 Pray therefore the
Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his
harvest."
And he called his twelve disciples
to him, and gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to cure
every disease and every sickness.
2 The names of the twelve Apostles are these:
Simon first, who is called Peter, and his
brother Andrew; James the Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip, and
Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the Alphean, and
Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out, after giving
them these instructions: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles or enter
a city of Samaritans; 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 Go and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, raise
the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
Freely you received it; freely
give it.
Silence
Let us welcome the resonance of the Word in us.
Some Questions
•
Has the sight of people ever brought up in me a
particular feeling?
•
Do I remember a moment of compassion that I have
had, in what circumstances, have I met someone who has had a great passion for
humanity, have I asked God to make me his envoy, to be his apostle? What is the
mission entrusted by Jesus to his disciples? Mission impossible, because it is
gratuitous?
A Key to the Reading
Jesus, after having proposed his new
alternative program to the current mentality (Mt 5), after having announced the
overcoming of the law and observance with the greater demands of love (Mt 6-7),
after having given testimony with concrete gestures of liberation of what he
had announced (Mt 8-9), calls his disciples and sends them to the people giving
them his same powers (Mt 10). The community is called to prolong and extend his
liberating and salvific restorative action. The new people of God, on the
foundation of the twelve apostles, is a priestly, royal, prophetic people (1 Pt
2: 4-9) called to collaborate with Jesus.
Meditation
Going Deeper into Some Particulars.
•
9: 36
And when he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion, because they were
oppressed and afflicted, like sheep without a shepherd.
In the introduction, starting from verse 35, the public
ministry of Jesus is summarized. It repeats in part 4: 23-25, the introduction to the discourse on the mountain. Our
fragment starts from the observation that great crowds followed him. People
without a shepherd (1 Kings 22: 17),
tired of hearing words without following them in deeds, dejected by the
countless observances, oppressed by the leaders who impose incomprehensible
laws on them (Mt 23: 1-4). The
compassion that Jesus experiences (Mt 15:
30; Lk 9: 11; Jn 6: 5) for the hungry (Mk 6-34) is here
directed to the "poor unlearned of the field," cursed by the
Pharisees (Jn 7: 49). There is no
one who loves them and who looks for them as a good shepherd (Jn 10).
•
9: 37
Then he says to his disciples: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers
are few. 38 Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into
his harvest!"
The
mission is compared to the harvest (cf. Lk 10: 2-3; Jn 4: 35-38).
There are many people ready to respond to the Gospel, many who are waiting for
a word of life. The messengers of peace are always few, the multitude is
immense. The exhortation to prayer comes to mean that God is at the origin of
the mission, He is responsible for the harvest, to Him we must turn with
prayer. The Holy Spirit is already at work, in fact the harvest is available.
The harvest is a term originally linked to the final judgment (Is 27: 12; Hos 6: 11; Joel 3: 13). John
the Baptist believed that the time of judgment had come (Mt 3: 12). But here it is not the angels who
are called to carry out this work, but men to save other men from judgment and
not to judge them. We live in a time of mercy; the judgment has not yet come.
•
10:1
And he called unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them power over unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to cure all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease.
This calling of the twelve in Matthew is not as in Mark 3: 13-15 or Luke 6: 13. It is not the result of a selection, but of the commission
entrusted to them. It is a group already formed (Mt 4: 18; 8: 19-22) that now
receives a mandate. The number twelve refers to the twelve tribes of Israel. In
order to announce the new law of the new Moses, there is need of a new people
that welcomes the word of the new Moses (Jesus). In Sacred Scripture the number
twelve indicates, above all, the people of God in its totality. Against the
background of the people of the twelve tribes we must place the call of
"the twelve" (Mk 9: 35;
10: 32 par.; Jn 6: 70; 20: 24; 1Cor 15: 5 and
elsewhere) on the part of Jesus during his ministry in Galilee.
The number twelve is not to be understood in a restrictive
sense, but in the sense of excellence. The mission of the disciples is placed
in close parallel with the mission of Jesus. The dominant idea is that the
ministry of the apostles is the prolongation of that of Jesus. The disciples
are given the same "power" that Jesus had (9:6-8; 7:29; 8:9) and the
same healing work (4: 23; 9: 35). It is not about a power to guide, to command,
but about what is needed to carry out the mission entrusted to them, to serve
humanity. The answer is here before the resurrection. The term
"apostle" is found only in Matthew, elsewhere it speaks of disciples
(11: 1; 20: 17, 26: 14, 20, 20, 47). It is not used as in Luke and Paul to
indicate a commission, but in the etymological sense as "commanded"
"sent". Therefore, it can be understood as an invitation addressed to
all the new Israel through the twelve, pillars of the new people of the new
law, that of love. The community of converted Jews to whom Matthew was
addressing himself saw here the beginning of the new Israel, the Church.
Continuity and break with the synagogue. 10:2 The names of the twelve Apostles
are these: first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the Zebedee
and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the publican;
James the Alphean and Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite and Judas the Iscariot,
who betrayed him.
The various lists of the twelve (Mk 3: 16-19; Lk 6: 13-16;
Acts 1-13) always place Peter first and Judas last. The names have few
annotations that vary in the different lists. It is necessary to note the two
pairs of brothers (Simon-Andrew and James-John) as indicating the fraternity as
the foundation of the new community. Diversity: a publican, a Canaanite, an
Iscariot who will betray him. No great people, nor illustrious, nor
trustworthy. The call comes from a free choice of Jesus and not from the merits
or the importance of the persons, so that in their weakness the power of God is
revealed (1 Cor 27-29).
•
10: 5
These twelve Jesus sent out, after giving them these instructions: "Do not
go the way of the Gentiles or enter a Samaritan city; 6 but go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 Go and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out
demons. Freely you received it; freely give it.
The instruction for the mission, brought here only in part,
is completed at the end of verse 16. Verses 5-8 are exclusive to Matthew,
except for the command to proclaim that the kingdom is near (Lk 10: 9, 11). The
limitation of the confines of the mission in this context before the
resurrection is not in contradiction with Mt 24: 25, after the resurrection, in
which it is said to go to the whole world. It underlines the priority to be
given to the house of Israel. An interest for "the lost sheep" (Ez
34: 1-16; Is 53-16) first of all and then for those "unknown" (the
Gentiles). Matthew highlights God's love for the people of Israel. The mandate
entrusted to the apostles is very committed: heal the sick, raise the dead,
cast out demons. Should it be understood in a metaphorical sense? Certainly
there are illnesses and deaths that are spiritually no less easy to cure and
revive than physical ones; there are also those possessed by destructive
ideologies and mentalities. We must remember that it is Jesus who sends, that
nothing is impossible for him: "Believe me: I am in the Father and the
Father in me; but believe it by the same works. Truly, I say to you, he who
believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater works than
these, because I go to the Father" (Jn 14: 11-12). John Paul II of
venerable memory wrote in the encyclical Redemptoris
missio: "Liberation and salvation, the gates of the kingdom of God,
reach the human person in both its physical and spiritual dimensions" (RM
14).
Mission is therefore made up of preaching and healing,
proclamation and human promotion, the coming of the kingdom together with the
struggle for justice and peace.
The mission therefore cannot be anything but gratuitous, it
does not belong to those who are sent. It cannot be enjoyed for one's own
material advantage, thus putting into action the spirit of the beatitudes (Mt
6: 25-34).
Prayer with Psalm 100
Shout to Yahweh, all the earth, serve Yahweh with gladness, come to him with
rejoicing!
Know that Yahweh is God, he has made us, and we are his, his
people and the flock of his pasture.
Enter into his gates giving
thanks, into his courts singing praises, give thanks to him, bless his name.
For Yahweh is good and his love endures forever, his
faithfulness endures from age to age.
Contemplation
O Father, you have made of us a prophetic and
priestly people, called to be a visible sign of the new reality of your
kingdom; grant that we may live in full communion with you in the sacrifice of
praise and in service to our brothers and sisters, so that we may become
missionaries and witnesses to the Gospel. Make your compassion our compassion,
your missionary urgency our urgency, yes Lord, send me!
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