June 28, 2026
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 97
Reading 1
One day Elisha came to Shunem,
where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her.
Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine.
So she said to her husband, “I know that Elisha is a holy man of God.
Since he visits us often, let us arrange a little room on the roof
and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp,
so that when he comes to us he can stay there.”
Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight.
Later Elisha asked, “Can something be done for her?”
His servant Gehazi answered, “Yes!
She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years.”
Elisha said, “Call her.”
When the woman had been called and stood at the door,
Elisha promised, “This time next year
you will be fondling a baby son.”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2a) Forever I will sing the goodness of the
Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever,
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever;”
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
You are the splendor of their strength,
and by your favor our horn is exalted.
For to the LORD belongs our shield,
and the Holy One of Israel, our king.
R. Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation;
announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his apostles:
“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 a righteous man
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 the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062826.cfm
Commentary on 2
Kings 4:8-11,13-16; Romans 6:3-4,8-11; Matthew 10:37-42
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says:
Whoever loves father or mother…son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me…
Jesus seems to be making an attack on family life, telling
us to turn our backs on our own flesh and blood. These seem to be scandalous
words and a hard saying which many would find difficulty in accepting.
No matter what the Gospel may say, for a large number of
people their family comes first before everything else. Yet we need to remember
that Jesus himself belonged to a people which has as strong a sense of family
as any culture anywhere.
Centrality of family
Others might find Jesus’ words disturbing for other reasons. They feel that
there is already too much of a breakdown in family life both in the West and in
other parts of the world. There are too many people abandoning their
responsibilities to their families either as parents or as children.
Now, more than ever, the family needs special nurturing. In
these times we find so many living together, but not formally married; so many
marriages end up in separation or divorce with tragic consequences for all
concerned, but for the children most of all; as a consequence, there are so
many single parents and abandoned mothers. These problems, in turn, create
serious social problems on a wide scale and have become a major concern of many
governments.
What Jesus is saying
However, with a more careful reading, we can see that Jesus is in fact touching
on the roots of these very problems. The opening words of today’s Gospel may be
understood in two interlocking ways.
First, Jesus is saying that no individual and no group of
people can so live their lives as to put their own interests absolutely above
those of others. This is the false “find their life” which Jesus speaks of. We
might say, “My country—right or wrong”, “My race or my religion—right or
wrong”, or “My family—right or wrong”.
The wants of any person or any group of people (e.g. a
family) cannot be met by trampling on or denying the basic rights and needs of
others. If people in my family were to act in such a way, I would, in
conscience, have to separate myself from such behaviour. And I would do this
precisely because I love my family. I simply cannot join them
in behaviour which I know to be unjust and evil and self-centred. I could not
condone immoral practices, e.g. becoming rich by fraud or criminal practices,
on the part of one or both parents.
How does the family view society?
We speak of the family as the nucleus of any society and rightly so. But the
family cannot be an end in itself, as seems to happen not infrequently. Many
families seem to see society as there to provide them with whatever they want
to have.
In our day, we may distinguish between ‘political refugees’
and ‘economic migrants’. Some flee their countries because they are likely to
suffer harassment and persecution. Others flee from poverty to a place where
they hope to find some economic security. We can sympathise with all of these.
Whatever the reason, there is something wrong when there is
no loyalty, no commitment whatever, no sense of making any contribution to the
well-being of the society where they live, be it their birthplace or some place
‘overseas’. Jesus’ words are very relevant in such a situation.
A larger sense of family
The second meaning of Jesus’ words follow logically from this. In the view of
Jesus—and it is a theme running right through the New Testament—those who
identify with him and become his followers belong to a new family. It is a
family where every single person, including family members, relatives, friends
as well as complete strangers, but most especially, those in need, are truly my
brother or sister.
It does not at all mean that we love our family members
less. In fact, because of our closeness to them, we have special
responsibilities towards them. But we now see those related to us by blood as
part of a larger family to whom we also have responsibilities.
Jesus wished to spell the end of the divisions that bedevil
the relations between human beings: divisions according to race, culture,
nationality, religion, class, employment and so on. Various forms of tribalism
(you only have to go to a big football match to find it!) still flourish
everywhere and family life is not an exception.
The view of Jesus means that there will be times when I will
have to give more love, more compassion, more material help to strangers—the
hungry, the thirsty, the sick, those in prison, the social outcasts, the
unemployed or unemployable, the disabled, the lonely and those unloved—who are
in greater need than members of my own family. He tells us:
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least
of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)
And it is the very same me and brothers and
sisters in need, when Jesus says:
Whoever loves father or mother…son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me…
Hospitality to the stranger
This is spelt out in the rest of today’s Gospel and in the First Reading.
Hospitality, welcoming the stranger into one’s house, follows on what has been
said. It is given a high priority in the New Testament and is a tradition which
lives on in many parts of the Church today. The basis of all hospitality is
that we all belong to one family and that every person is a brother or sister
in a very real (and not just a ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ sense). It can, in
the words of the Gospel, be something as simple as offering “even a cup of cold
water”. Unfortunately, in our affluent urban societies, the protection of our
material goods now usually takes priority over welcoming the stranger. The open
door has been replaced by iron bars, alarms and surveillance cameras. It is
again a sign of the serious distortion of our values and a breakdown in human
relationships.
We need to realise to what extent materialism and
consumerism are dominating our lives and turning our families and homes into
isolated fortresses. We live in a society which is based on competition, power,
influence and success. We are urged to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and
to make it on our own, even at the expense of others.
There is only so much of the cake available. We are
encouraged to fight for the biggest slice possible for ourselves and our own
families. Just too bad if others don’t get enough—obviously, they did not try
hard enough.
In decency, of course, some crumbs will be allowed to fall
from our tables for those who just ‘can’t make it’ (see Jesus’s story about the
rich man and Lazarus—Luke 16:19-31). Certainly, helping the poor often means
dropping a few coins in a plate or basket, but it is not allowed to impinge on
our enjoyment of what is not really ‘necessary’ in our lives. For instance,
would we be ready to give up a holiday abroad and take a cheaper one at home in
order to support victims of hunger, disease or homelessness?
More than enough
What Jesus in substance is saying is that when we all work hard to ensure that
everyone has enough, there will be more than enough for all. Jesus’ concern,
then, is that others have all they need, and my concern is that I have all that
I need (not just what I want).
The bottom line for all of us is: Am I living my life at the
expense of others? Do I treat society as a place which owes me—and no one
else—a living? Or am I trying to live somehow in solidarity with others? Am I
aware of neighbours or people in my area who are in real need? Am I more
concerned about the value of my house than that the disabled be given a sense
of belonging in society? Am I more concerned about my social status than being
seen in the company of ‘those people’? What does ‘family’ mean to me? Do I see
the human family as being part of my family?
As we prepare soon to share the Body of Christ, which is an
expression of our belonging to the family of all God’s children, we will say
together the ‘Our Father’. The ‘Our’ refers not just to us gathered here, still
less our own family members, or the people of our own race, but rather to every
single human being. Because we all have one, common Father, we are all very
really brothers and sisters to each other.
Far from speaking against the family, Jesus is telling us
that we can only be really part of our own families when we realise that we
belong to, and are called to share with others, what we have; that we are part
of the human family all over the world.
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Sunday,
June 28, 2026
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the
Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to
Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to
discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and
death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them
the source of life and of resurrection.
Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in
Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor
and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples
from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to
others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and
peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father
and sent us your Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Reading – Matthew 10: 37-42
A Division of the Text to Help with the
Reading:
•
Matthew 10: 37: Love of Jesus must be above love
of father and mother and children
•
Matthew 10: 38: The cross is part of the
following of Jesus
•
Matthew 10: 39: To know how to lose one’s life
so as to keep it
•
Matthew 10: 40-41: Jesus identifies himself with
the missionary and the disciple
•
Matthew 10: 42: The least deed done to one of
the least is rewarded A Key to the
Reading:
In the 13th Sunday of ordinary time, we meditate on the last
section of the
Discourse on Mission (Mt
10: 1-42). This discourse contains words and counsels of
Jesus, teaching us to carry out the mission of
proclaiming the Good News of God. Jesus does not deceive and points out clearly
the difficulties that this mission implies. As we read this text, it is good to
pay attention to what follows: “What is Jesus’ basic demand of those who go on
mission?” Text:
37 '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. 38
Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of
me. 39 Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my
sake will find it.
40 'Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and
anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 '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. 42 '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.'
A Moment of Prayerful Silence
so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten
our life.
Some Questions
to help us in our personal reflection.
•
What part of the text touched you most? Why?
•
What recommendations does this text hold for us?
What is its basic demand?
•
Jesus says: "No one who prefers father or
mother to me is worthy of me” – How must we understand this statement?
•
What does the text tell us about the mission we
must undertake as disciples of Jesus?
To Go Deeper into the Topic
The Context of Our Text in the Gospel of
Matthew:
The Gospel of Matthew organizes
the words and actions of Jesus around five
great discourses:
•
Matthew 5 to 7: The Discourse of the Mountain describes the gateway to the Kingdom.
•
Matthew 10: the Discourse on the Mission describes the way those who follow Jesus
must proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom and the difficulties involved.
•
Matthew 13: the Discourse of the Parables, by means of parallels taken from daily
life, Jesus reveals the presence of the Kingdom in people’s lives.
•
Matthew 18: the Discourse on Community describes how Christians ought to live
together in such a way that the community becomes a revelation of the Kingdom.
•
Matthew 24 and 25: the Eschatological Discourse describes the future coming of the Kingdom
of God. Through this literary device, Matthew imitates the five books of the Pentateuch, and thus presents the Good News
of the Kingdom as the New Law of God.
In the Discourse on the Mission (Mt 10: 1-42), the
Evangelist puts together words and recommendations of Jesus that shed light on
the difficult situation of the Judeo-Christians towards the second half of the
first century. He wants to encourage them not to lose heart in spite of the
many and grave difficulties they have to face in proclaiming the Good News to
the brothers and sisters of their race. It is indeed at this time, the 80’s,
that the Jews are recovering from the disaster of the destruction of Jerusalem
which took place in the 70’s, and are beginning to reorganize themselves in the
regions of Syria and Galilee. A tension is growing between the “Synagogue” and
the “Ecclesia”. This tension, source of much suffering and persecution, forms
the background to the Discourse on the Mission and, thus, to the Gospel of the
13th Sunday of ordinary time.
A Commentary on the Text:
•
Matthew 10: 37: Love of Jesus must be greater
than love of parents and children
Jesus says: “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”. We
find this same statement in the Gospel of Luke with even greater force: “If
anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and
children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my
disciple” (Lk 14: 26). Does Jesus then want to disintegrate family life? This
cannot be so, because elsewhere he insists on the observance of the fourth
commandment which binds us to love father and mother (Mk 7: 8-13; 10: 17-19).
He himself obeyed his parents (Lk 2: 51). These seem to be contradictory
statements. One thing is certain: Jesus does not contradict himself. We shall
give an interpretation to show that the two statements are both true and not
mutually exclusive.
•
Matthew 10: 38: The cross is part of following
Jesus
Jesus says: “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow
in my footsteps is not worthy of me”. In Mark’s Gospel Jesus says: “If anyone
wishes to come after me. let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow me!” (Mk 8: 34). In those days, the cross was the death sentence imposed
by the Roman Empire for thieves and the marginalized. To take up one’s cross
and follow Jesus was equivalent to accepting being marginalized by the unjust
system of the Empire. Jesus’ cross is the consequence of the free commitment
taken on to reveal the Good News that God is Father and that, therefore, all
are to be accepted and treated as brothers and sisters. Because of this
revolutionary proclamation, Jesus was persecuted and was not afraid to give up
his life. Greater love than this no man has, that he lay down his life for his
friends.
•
Matthew 10: 39: To know how to lose one’s life
so as to keep it
This manner of speaking was quite common among the early
Christians because it expressed what they were living through. For instance,
for Paul to be faithful to Jesus and obtain life, he had to lose everything he
had, career, the respect of his people, and suffer persecution. The same happened
to many Christians. Christians were persecuted for being Christian. Paul says:
“I am crucified with Christ”. “I wish to experience his cross and his death, so
that I may also experience his resurrection.” “I am crucified to the world and
the world to me”. This is the paradox of the Gospel: The last is first, the one
who loses wins, the one who gives all keeps all, the one who dies lives. The
one who has the courage to lose life obtains it. This is a logic that is quite
different from the neo-liberal system that rules the world today.
•
Matthew 10: 40-41: Jesus identifies himself with
the missionary and the disciple
For the missionary and the disciple, it is very important
to know that he/she will never be alone. If she/he remains faithful to her/his
mission, she/he will have the certainty that Jesus identifies himself with
her/him, and through Jesus the Father will reveal himself to those to whom the
missionary and disciple proclaim the Good News. And so, just as Jesus reflected
the face of the Father, so also the disciple must or should be a mirror where
people can glimpse something of the love of Jesus.
•
Matthew 10: 42: The least deed done for the
little ones, reveals the presence of the Father
In order to change the world and human relationships, the
political decisions of powerful persons are not enough, nor are the decrees of
Councils and of bishops. What is needed is a change in the lives of people, in
interpersonal and community relationships otherwise nothing will change. That
is why Jesus puts so much importance on small acts of sharing: a glass of water
given to a poor person!
A Deepening: To Love Father and Mother, To
Hate Father and Mother!
One of the things that Jesus
insists on for those who wish to follow him is that of leaving behind father,
mother, wife, children, sisters, house, land, to leave everything for love of
Him and his Gospel (Lk 18: 29; Mt 19: 29; Mk 10: 29). He even commands us “to
hate father, mother, wife, children, sisters, brothers. Otherwise, you cannot
be my disciples” (cf Lk 14: 28). These demands are not just for some but for
all those who wish to follow him (Lk 14: 25-26, 33). How can we understand
these statements that seem to dismantle and break up all family ties? We cannot
imagine Jesus demanding of all men and women in Galilee to leave their
families, lands, villages to follow him. In fact, this did not happen except
for a small group of followers. So what is the meaning of these demands?
If we place the demand to leave
one’s family within the social context of the period, we can see another
meaning, much more fundamental and practical. The invasion of Palestine in 64
B.C. and the imposition of the tribute by Herod
(35 to 3 B.C.) and his son Herod
Antipas (3 B.C. to 37 A.D.), a policy in favor of the Roman government, brought
progressive impoverishment and growing unemployment. Through Herod’s policy,
supported by the Roman Empire, the Hellenic ideology permeated daily life, thus
bringing with it growing individualism. All this caused the larger family, the
clan and the community to disintegrate. Thus the small family began to feel
bound to turn in on itself and not able to practice the law. Besides, the
practice of ritual purity caused people to despise and exclude those persons
and families that lived in legal impurity. The economic, social, political and
religious context made it possible for families to turn in on themselves and
weaken the clan. Preoccupation with family problems stopped people from uniting
in community. It stopped the clan
from realizing the aim for which it was created, that is, to offer real and
adequate protection for families and persons, to preserve identity, to defend
land, to prevent exclusion and to welcome the excluded and the poor, and thus
to reveal the face of God. Now, for the Kingdom to reveal itself again in the
sharing, it was necessary to break the vicious circle. People had to overcome
the strict limits of the small family to open themselves to the larger family
and the Community. This is the context that forms the background to the words
proclaimed by Jesus. Jesus himself gives an example. When his family tries to
claim him, he reacts and says, “Who are my mother and my brethren?” And looking
around he says: “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whoever does the will
God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mk 3: 33- 35). He stretched the
family. He created community. The people he attracted and called were the poor
and the excluded (Lk 4: 18; Mt 11: 25). He asked the same thing of those who
wished to follow him. The excluded and marginalized must be welcomed again into
the sharing and thus feel welcomed by God (cf Lk 14: 12-14). This was the way
to achieve the end of the Law that said: “There should be no one of you in
need”
(Dt 15: 4).
Jesus tries to change the process of disintegration of the
clan, of the community. Like the great prophets of the past, he seeks to
consolidate community life in the villages of Galilee. He takes up again the
deep meaning of the clan, of the family, of the community as an expression of
the incarnation of the love of God in the love of neighbor. That is why he asks
of those who wish to be his disciples to leave father, mother, wife, brother,
sister, house, all! They have to lose their life in order to possess it! He is
the guarantor of this: “Amen I say to you, there is no one who has left house
or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and
for the Gospel’s sake, who shall not receive now in the present time a
hundredfold as much, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children
and lands – along with persecutions, and in the age to come life everlasting”
(MK 10: 29-30). Truly, those who have the courage to break the closed circle of
their family, will find again, in the clan, in the community, a hundredfold
whatever they have left: brother, sister, mother, child, land! Jesus does that
which people expected in messianic times: to lead back the hearts of parents to
their children, and the hearts of children to their parents, to rebuild the
clan, reweave the social pattern.
Psalm 19: 7-14
The Law of Yahweh is Perfect
The Law of Yahweh is perfect,
refreshment to the soul; the decree of Yahweh is trustworthy, wisdom for the
simple. The precepts of Yahweh are honest, joy for the heart; the commandment
of Yahweh is pure, light for the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is pure, lasting for
ever; the judgements of Yahweh are true, upright, every one, more desirable
than gold, even than the finest gold;
his words are sweeter than honey, that drips from the comb.
Thus your servant is formed by them;
observing them brings great reward. But who can detect his own failings? Wash
away my hidden faults. And from pride preserve your servant, never let it be my
master.
So shall I be above reproach, free from grave sin.
May the words of my mouth always find favour, and the
whispering of my heart, in your presence, Yahweh, my rock, my redeemer.
Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank for the word that has enabled us to
understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions
and grant us the strength to practice that which your Word has revealed to us.
May we, like Mary, your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word.
You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever
and ever. Amen.
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