July 13, 2026
Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 389
Reading 1
Hear the word of the LORD,
princes of Sodom!
Listen to the instruction of our God,
people of Gomorrah!
What care I for the number of your sacrifices?
says the LORD.
I have had enough of whole-burnt rams
and fat of fatlings;
In the blood of calves, lambs and goats
I find no pleasure.When you come in to visit me,
who asks these things of you?
Trample my courts no more!
Bring no more worthless offerings;
your incense is loathsome to me.
New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies,
octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear.
Your new moons and festivals I detest;
they weigh me down, I tire of the load.
When you spread out your hands,
I close my eyes to you;
Though you pray the more,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood!
Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power
of God.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think you that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.“Whoever loves father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.“Whoever receives you
receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is righteous
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because he is a disciple–
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”When Jesus finished
giving these commands to his Twelve disciples,
he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071326.cfm
Commentary on Isaiah
1:10-17
Last Saturday we saw Isaiah’s call to be a prophet of God
taken from the sixth chapter. We now go to the beginning of the book and from
now on will have selected readings from chapters 1-39, which are really part of
Isaiah’s own ministry. The rest of the Book of Isaiah (Parts 2 and 3) is
now attributed to other writers.
Isaiah pulls no punches in communicating his
message. When he writes: “you rulers of Sodom” and “you people of
Gomorrah”, these are not addressed to the peoples of those cities which were
long ago destroyed. He is speaking to the rulers and people of Jerusalem
and the southern kingdom of Judah of which it is a part.
Today’s reading is a severe attack on religious
hypocrisy. It is part of an oracle presumably uttered in the Temple at
the beginning of Isaiah’s ministry. Like Amos (see the First Reading for
Wednesday of Week 13 of Ordinary Time), Isaiah castigates ritual divorced from
morality. He makes it clear that the sincerity of the worshipper, not the
number of his or her religious activities, is most important.
On the face of it, the people seem deeply religious. But he
disparages:
…the multitude of your sacrifices…burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts…the blood of bulls
or of lambs or of goats.
God finds no pleasure in a mere multiplicity of
offerings. He does not even expect them:
When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Their offerings are not really directed to God, but are a
form of self-adulation: “How good we are! How pious and dedicated we
are!”
The air filled with the smell of incense has become
loathsome to Yahweh. He has no time for all their “new moons”, which were
celebrated at the beginning of every month. Special sacrifices and feasts were
part of the observance.
All their efforts at religious celebration and observance
are in vain. When they spread out their hands in prayer, Yahweh hides his eyes:
When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen…
Why? Because their “hands are full of blood”—on the one
hand, the blood of sacrificial victims; on the other, the blood of the poor and
weak who have been exploited and abused.
At first sight, it all seems to contradict everything we
have heard about our merciful, forgiving and compassionate God. We
remember, too, how Jesus taught us to pray incessantly. But here the
prayers are so hypocritical. They consist of purely external ritual
devoid of any real commitment to Yahweh’s will.
Their prayers can never be heard until they emanate from
deep within the heart. Their prayers will be heard when people’s lives are
seen to change radically—when they cease to do evil things and concentrate on
what is good.
They need to wash themselves clean and put away their
misdeeds, which no amount of sacrifices and holocausts will cover up.
They must have only one aim:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean…
learn to do good;
seek justice;
rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
plead for the widow.
When they search for justice and reach out to the oppressed,
when they treat the widow and the orphan with justice, love and compassion,
then and only then will their sacrifices be truly acceptable to the Lord.
In a society which knew nothing of social welfare, where the
needy depended on support from the family, the widow and the orphan were
particularly vulnerable to abuse and neglect. The widow might very well
be relatively young, having lost her husband through disease, accident or
war. She had no future as no man would again marry her. If she was
childless, she was of no interest to her father’s family or even her own.
The orphan, too, was left exposed to destitution or having recourse to prostitution,
male or female.
Applying this reading to our own situation is not difficult.
We can see people devoting a great deal of energy to religious activities such
as devotions, pilgrimages and novenas. We can see them obsessed with
keeping commandments and regulations and external observances, but in their
daily lives there may be a widespread lack of charity, compassion or
willingness to forgive, to tolerate, to understand. There is often a wide
dichotomy between what they proclaim in church and what they do in their daily
lives.
“Don’t speak of love; show me!” exclaimed Eliza Doolittle to
Professor Higgins in the old play, My Fair Lady. That could
well sum up what God is saying to his people in today’s reading.
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Commentary on
Matthew 10:34—11:1
Today, we come to the final part of Jesus’ apostolic
discourse in chapter 10. At a first reading, today’s passage could be puzzling,
if not to say highly disturbing to some. Jesus seems to contradict everything
that he has said and done so far.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the
earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.
But do we not call Jesus the Prince of Peace? Does Jesus not
say during the Last Supper discourse in John’s Gospel (14:27) that he has come
to give his peace to his disciples, a peace that no one will ever be able to
take away from them?
And Jesus goes on to apply to himself a passage from the
prophet Micah (7:6):
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
It sounds a terrible thing for Jesus our Saviour to be
saying. But it expresses, not what he wants to happen, but what he sees as an
inevitable outcome of his message of love. It says more about us than about
him.
Unfortunately, what Jesus says has only been confirmed again
and again. We have mentioned before the paradox that Jesus’ message of truth,
love, justice and freedom for people everywhere is seen by some as highly subversive
and dangerous. And people who subscribe to this vision of Jesus and try to
implement it in their lives are likely to run into headlong opposition with
those who have a totally different vision of life and who see Jesus’ vision as
a real threat to their interests. In a world of conflicting ideologies,
philosophies, cultures, traditions, ethnic and religious identities, to declare
that one is opting for the Way of Jesus is often to invite opposition,
persecution and even death.
What Jesus says here is a fact—and was already a known
experience when this Gospel was written. Christianity divided families and, in
some places, it still does. But people who see and understand and accept the
vision of life that Jesus offers know they have no choice but to follow it,
even if close family members object. To go with Christ is to enter a new
family, with new bonds—a family which, for its part, does not at all reject
those who reject it. The Christian may be hounded and hated and expelled by
family members, but that is not the way he or she is going to respond to them.
On the contrary, the dearest wish of the new Christian is for family members to
be able to see what he or she sees and, until they do, that new Christian will
pray for them, bless them and love them.
Jesus then goes on to lay down the conditions necessary to
be a genuine disciple.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy
of me…
In many cultures this is a hard saying and seems to fly in
the face of the filial piety and respect for the authority of elders which is
at the heart of such societies.
It is not, in fact, a conflict. Love and respect for family
members is a very high value for the Christian, but there are even higher
values which may take precedence. Filial piety and parental authority can be
very inward-looking, too centred on just this group of people. Racial, national
and religious identity can also be very narrow and intolerant in its
understanding.
Christianity is outward-looking and realises that there are
people out there whose needs are even prior to those of my family. To the
Christian, members of his or her blood family are only some among many brothers
and sisters who have to be loved, served and cared for. One is also never bound
to follow family requirements which would be against such values as truth,
love, justice and honesty. As a Christian, I cannot obey a parent or other
family member who practices dishonesty in business, who cheats, who sexually
abuses, who practices racism or narrow-minded nationalism and the like and
urges me to do the same.
Jesus, as the Word of God, stands for a level of truth and
integrity and love which is the ultimate measure of all that I do and say. I
cannot conform to the wishes of anyone, however close, who falls short of that
measure. But my Christian love and concern for that person will not be
diminished, in spite of how I may be treated.
To live like this can at time involve pain, separation,
intense suffering and even death. This, I think, is what Jesus means when he
says that I am not worthy of him unless I am willing to take my cross and walk
with him. There is a price to be paid for being true and loving and just. This
also is what he means by ‘finding’ life and ‘losing’ my life. To ‘find’ life is
to take the easy way of accommodation and compromise, not to mention material
gain and pleasure; to ‘lose’ is to let go and let Jesus take charge. Of course,
as Jesus points out, in the long run it is the ‘losers’ who find and the
‘finders’ who lose.
The discourse ends with some advice about finding Jesus in
other people, especially his own followers. Anyone who welcomes a follower of
Jesus, whether that person is a ‘prophet’ (a missionary) or a ‘holy man’ (an
ordinary Christian), welcomes Jesus himself and welcomes the Father also. Even
giving a cup of cold water to someone will not go unrewarded.
The discourse is then clearly brought to an end by Matthew,
saying:
…when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve
disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/O2152g/
Monday, July 13,
2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God our Father, your light of truth guides us to the way of Christ.
May all who follow him reject what is contrary to the gospel.
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: 34-11, 1
Jesus said to his disciples: 'Do
not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I
have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set son against father,
daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against motherin-law; a person's enemies
will be the members of his own household. 'No one who prefers father or mother
to me is worthy of me. No one who prefers son or daughter to me is worthy of
me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy
of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my
sake will find it. 'Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and anyone who
welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 'Anyone who welcomes a prophet
because he is a prophet will have a prophet's reward; and anyone who welcomes
an upright person because he is upright will have the reward of an upright
person. 'If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little
ones because he is a disciple, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly
not go without his reward.'
When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples he
moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns.
Reflection
Some years ago, the V Conference
of Latin American Bishops, which was held in Aparecida in the north of Brazil,
wrote a very important Document on the theme: Disciples and Missionaries of
Jesus Christ, so that our peoples may have life.” The discourse of the Mission
of chapter 10 of the Gospel of Matthew, offers much light in order to be able
to carry out the mission as disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ. The
Gospel today presents to us the last part of this Discourse of the Mission.
•
Matthew 10: 34-36: I have not come to bring
peace to the earth but the sword. Jesus always speaks of peace (Mt 5: 9; Mk 9:
50; Lk 1: 79; 10: 5; 19: 38; 24: 36; Jn 14: 27; 16: 33; 20: 21, 26). And then,
how can we understand the phrase in today’s Gospel which seems to say the
contrary: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; no, I have
not come to bring peace but the sword.” This affirmation does not mean that
Jesus was in favor of division and the sword. No! Jesus does not want neither
the sword (Jn 18: 11), nor division. He wants the union of all in truth (cf. Jn
17: 17-23). At that time, the announcement of
the truth that He, Jesus of Nazareth,
was the Messiah became a reason of great division among the Jews. In the same
family or community, some were in favor and others were radically contrary. In
this sense the Good News of Jesus was truly a source of division, a “sign of
contradiction” (Lk 2: 34) or, as Jesus said, he was bringing the sword. In this
way the other warning is understood: “I have come to set son against father,
daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother– in-law; a person’s
enemies will be the members of his own household.” In fact, that was what was
happening in the families and in the communities: much division, much discussion,
the consequence of the announcement of the Good News among the Jews of that
time, because some accepted, others denied. Today the same thing happens. Many
times, there where the Church renews itself, the appeal to the Good News
becomes a ‘sign of contradiction’ and of division. Persons, who during years
have lived comfortably in their routine of Christian life, do not want to allow
themselves to be bothered by the ‘innovations’ of Vatican Council II. Disturbed
by the changes, they used all their intelligence to find arguments in defense
of their opinions and to condemn the changes considering them contrary to what
they thought was the true faith.
•
Matthew 10: 37: No one who prefers father or
mother to me is worthy of me. Luke gives this same phrase, but much more
demanding. Literally he says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his
father and mother, his sons and brothers, his sisters, and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14: 26). How can this affirmation of Jesus be
combined with the other one in which he orders to observe the fourth
commandment: love and honor father and mother? (Mk 7: 10-12; Mt 19: 19). Two
observations: (1) The fundamental criterion on which Jesus insists always is
this one: the Good News of God should be the supreme value of our life. In our
life there can be no greater value. (2) The economic and social situation at
the time of Jesus was such that the families were obliged to close themselves
up in themselves. They no longer had the conditions to respect the obligations
of human community living together as for example: sharing, hospitality,
invitation to a meal and the acceptance of the excluded. This individualistic
closing up in self, caused by the national and international situation produced
distortion: (1) It made life in community impossible (2) It limited the
commandment “honour father and mother” exclusively to the small family nucleus
and no longer to the larger family of the community (3) It prevented the full
manifestation of the Good News of God, because if God is Father/Mother we are
brothers and sisters of one another. And this truth should be expressed in the
life of the community. A living and fraternal community is the mirror of the
face of God. Human living together without community is a mirror which
disfigures the face of God. In this context, the request of Jesus: “to hate
father and mother means that the disciples should overcome the individualistic
closing up of the small family on itself, and extend it to the community
dimension. Jesus himself put into practice what he taught others. His family
wanted to call him to close himself up in self. When they told him: “Look, your
mother and your brothers are outside and they are looking for you”, he
answered: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And looking at the
persons around him he said: “Behold, my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does
the will of God is my brother, my sister and my mother” (Mk 3: 32-35). He
extends the family! This was and continues to be even today for the small family
the only way to be able to keep and transmit the values in which he believes.
•
Matthew 10: 38-39: The demands of the mission of
the disciples. In these two verses, Jesus gives important and demanding advice:
(a) To take up the cross and follow Jesus: Anyone who does not take his cross
and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. In order to perceive all the
significance and important of this first advice it is well to keep in mind the
witness of Saint Paul: “But as for me, it is not of the question that I should
boast at all, except of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the
world has been crucified to me and I to the world” (Ga 6: 14). To carry the
cross presupposes, even now, a radical drawing away from the iniquitous system
which reigns in the world. (b) To have the courage to give one’s life: “Anyone
who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will
find it.” Only the one, who in life has been capable of giving himself totally
to others, will feel fulfilled. This second advice confirms the deepest human
experience; the source of life is in the gift of life. Giving one receives. If
the wheat grain does not die … (Jn 12: 24).
•
Matthew 10: 40: The identification of the
disciple with Jesus and with God himself. This human experience of donation and
of the gift receives here a clarification, a deepening: ”Anyone who welcomes
you welcomes me: and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” In
the total gift of self, the disciple identifies himself with Jesus; there the
encounter with God takes place, and God allows himself to be found by the one
who seeks him.
•
Matthew 10: 41-42: the reward of the prophet, of
the just and of the disciple. The discourse of the Mission ends with one phrase
on reward: “Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have a
prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes an upright person because he is
upright will have the reward of an upright person If anyone gives so much as a
cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is a disciple, then
in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not go without reward.” In this
phrase the sequence is very meaningful: the prophet is recognized because of
his mission as one sent by God. The upright person is recognized by his behavior,
by his perfect way of observing the law of God. The disciple is recognized by
no quality or mission, but simply by his social condition of being least among
the people. The Kingdom is not made of great things. It is like a very big
house which is constructed with small bricks. Anyone who despises the brick
will have great difficulty in constructing the house. Even a glass of water
serves as a brick for the construction of the Kingdom.
•
Matthew 11: 1: The end of the Discourse of the
Mission. The end of the Discourse of the Mission. When Jesus had finished
instructing his twelve disciples he moved from there to teach and preach in
their towns. Now Jesus leaves to put into practice what he has taught. We will
see this in the next chapters 11 and 12 of the Gospel of Matthew.
Personal Questions
•
To lose life in order to gain life. Have you had
some experience of having felt rewarded for an act of donation or gratuity for
others?
•
He who welcomes you welcomes me, and who
welcomes me, welcomes the One who sent me. Stop and think what Jesus says here:
He and God himself identify themselves with you.
Concluding Prayer
How blessed are those who live in your house;
they shall praise you continually. Pause Blessed those who find their strength
in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. (Ps 84: 4-5)
