Walking with Jesus: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Sunday, June 18, 2023

Exodus 19:2-6, Romans 5:6-11, Matthew 9:36-10:8

In Sunday Homily Helps from Franciscan Media, I read this story that fits in perfectly with the direction the readings are instructing us today: “‘This is the last piece of my puzzle, the one where I go home to God.’ Dick was 97 and not far from death. He was explaining to his niece that he saw life as a puzzle. When we are born we have a box of puzzle pierces, each representing a piece of one’s life. As we live life, the puzzle fills in and we see the picture. Eventually there's only one piece left, the one that takes us home to God.”

The Book of Exodus takes us back to the people of Israel living in Egypt, who eventually are enslaved and later rescued by God through Moses. These are God’s people. They “kinda” know that they belong to God, but they don’t know what that means or why God has chosen them. Their escape from Egypt is filled with perils, most especially the full army of Pharaoh that is chasing them, trapping them by the Red Sea. God’s miracle of separating the waters and allowing the full assembly to walk to safety is astounding. God does care about us. Now they're at Mt Sinai, and God tells Moses His plan:

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 harken to My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all is mine. You shall be to Me, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” [Exodus 19:3-6]

God is inviting the people into a relationship with God Himself. This is the most sacred and solemn covenant. God will be their God, they will be God’s people. The same invitation each of us receives in our Baptism: God will be our God … always caring for us, leading us closer to Himself and our eternal goal: heaven. We have our part — listening to God through the Church and His Sacred Scriptures. If we live out God’s plan, Jesus’ mission will be complete: bringing all people to Himself to live forever in Heaven with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Paul continues explaining God’s plan to the Romans, using very strong words to say that Jesus died on the repugnant cross for each person while we were still powerless sinners — thus proving His love for each of us. Paul describes humans as helpless, ungodly sinners and as neither good nor just. We are or were God’s “enemies,” not knowing that love is caring in our lives who are reaching out to find out and live in love. Christ’s death has rectified our relationship with God. Three times Paul shows this has happened because of the ”reconciliation” God has worked through Jesus. We have been saved; our mission is to share by loving and caring.

Jesus starts His explanation of the role of His disciples and all who will follow — because “at the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart is moved with pity for them because they are troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” [Matthew 9:36] Jesus is saying that in this time of great need (trouble, abandonment, shepherd-less sheep, labor-less harvest), where can help come from? God’s followers proclaim and live with the hope that the kingdom of God is at hand. God wants all of His followers to offer healing of every sort, especially for the suffering and hopelessness each person encounters. Jesus explains that at the beginning there is no mission to the gentiles or Samaritans. By the end of the Gospel, the mission has become universal:  Disciples are to be made of all nations: Jesus says:

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, until the end of the age.” [Matthew 28:19-20]

So I reflect on:

• How have I treated people God has placed in my life? The defining mark of discipleship is my willingness and responsibility to bringing healing to the broken, support to the afflicted, and hope to the hopeless.
• Pope Francis expressed it this way: “Our proclamation of the Kingdom of God begins by seeing one another as sisters and brothers in Christ, daughters and sons of God and that all of us ‘belong’ to one another, every one of us. Here at the call of Jesus, we create the ‘the home of love …’”

Sacred Space 2023 states:

“This seems to be a really outgoing gospel: We are to look at the big harvest, the sick, the dead, the outcasts; all the needs of people are part of prayer. It is in care and compassion that the kingdom of heaven comes near.”

A Reflection:

When I put in the last puzzle piece of my life, will the resulting picture reflect my baptismal call to love all?