ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
14 JUNE 2026
All
three of today’s readings remind us that God has always loved us, along with
God’s desire to be in relationship with us.
In the first reading, Moses reminds his people that God is like a mother
eagle, bearing her babies up on her wings to teach them how to fly. God has shown his loving kindness, his
strength, and his protection to the people he has chosen as his own. Saint Paul focuses on Jesus Christ, who
willingly died for us, even when we were still sinners. We can boast of the love of God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. In the Gospel, Jesus is moved with pity for
the crowd who has been hearing about the Kingdom of God which he tells them is
in their midst. They are troubled. The Roman occupation and the difficulties of
their lives have burdened them. Their
religious leaders have abandoned them.
He is the shepherd who cares for his beloved sheep. In showing heartfelt
pity and compassion from his heart, he chooses twelve of his disciples to join
him in spreading the Good News of the Kingdom of God. He gives them authority to do what he has
done. The harvest is ready, and they are
the laborers charged with bring it in.
These
twelve have no formal training. They
have no particular talents, except that they have been with Jesus, heard his
teaching, witnessed his miracles, and have left everything to follow him. Simon Peter is impulsive, bold in one minute
and cowardly in the next. He is quick to
speak and quick to stumble. His brother
Andrew is quieter, known more for bringing others to Jesus instead of leading
himself. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, have earned the nickname “sons of
thunder.” They are hot tempered,
ambitious, and ready to call down fire on their enemies. Philip struggles to grasp the identity of
Jesus, even at the Last Supper.
Bartholomew is skeptical, wondering if anything good can come out of
Nazareth. Thomas carries doubts and
questions and insists on touching the wounds of the risen Lord before he could
believe. Matthew is a tax collector,
collaborating with Rome and profiting from his own people’s oppression. He is despised by his neighbors. Simon the Zealot comes from a radical
nationalist movement intent on overthrowing Rome by violence. Imagine how these two get along! There is also James, the son of Alphaeus and
Thaddaeus (sometimes called Judas son of James). They are almost anonymous. We know nothing about them, except they serve
in quiet faithfulness without recognition.
Finally, there is Judas Iscariot, who would betray Jesus for thirty
pieces of silver.
This is the
group sent out by Jesus to go first to the Jewish people, the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, and eventually to the ends of the earth. They are the workers sent to bring in the
harvest. These are fishermen, hotheads, skeptics, collaborators,
revolutionaries, quiet unknowns, and a traitor.
Not one of them is a rabbi. Not
one is a scholar. None of them is a
political insider. And yet, they have
succeeded, spreading the Kingdom of God through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Gathering the harvest does not
depend on perfect people, but on empowered people – harvesters energized by the
Spirit of God.
Last week,
the United States Bishops dedicated our country on our 250th
anniversary to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
It is through his Sacred Heart that Jesus shows pity and compassion to
the crowds gathered to hear him. It is
from his wounded heart on the cross that the Sacramental life of the Church
flows – water for Baptism and blood for the Eucharist. We, the baptized followers of Jesus Christ,
are here because we believe the witness of the Apostles. We too believe that he has conquered sin and
death, bringing us into his kingdom. We
are harvesters of the Kingdom of God when we imitate the compassion and pity of
the Sacred Heart extend the gifts of love and mercy, especially to those who
are burdened by so much of life.
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