Walking with Jesus: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Sunday, July 6, 2025

Isaiah 66:10-14; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

Am I having a grateful day? Think on this! Do I take time each day, or once a week, or once a month, just to make a list of things, people, places and love God has placed in my life and say, “Thanks — I love You for being with me and loving me?” Why not? It would be good to write His answer down too. One can never thank God enough for His presence in our lives and His overlooking love, kindness and forgiveness. This is a great reflection … resolution … change ... to add to our busy schedules: to be thankful to God, even adding it to our daily lives. Is it there? What has happened that this has been absent? Another great reflection!

I’m sitting here remembering a great Broadway play and movie I saw years and years ago, Fiddler on the Roof. At one point the main character, Tevya, asks his wife Golda: “Do you love me?” Her unique response: “For 25 years I washed your clothes, cooked for you, consoled you, bore your children. Do I love you?” Tevya keeps on asking, “Golda, do you love me?” Tevya just needs words of affection, and Golda’s response is the “proof in the pudding.” Words are important, but sometimes — maybe more often than we think — we have to DO for others to PROVE our actions by what we are saying. Do I do this all the time? When I want? When it's convenient? Or do I love only those I want to love and some are never on my list?

The opening words of Isaiah — “Thus says the Lord” [Isaiah 66:10] — remind us that this is an oracle of salvation. The reason for rejoicing is the future restoration of Jerusalem (v 10). Previously the people have mourned for the city. The author uses the metaphor of motherhood to symbolize the relationship between the city and its inhabitants. Like a nursing mother, Jerusalem will give of herself, feeding all from the fullness of her own body. We hear the word “comfort” repeatedly: This comes from the Hebrew word for repent … to be sorry. It implies that the people will be sorry and repentant and the city will then hold them close to her bosom and comfort them. God promises lavish, abundant blessings, showing tenderness, protection, care and ever-presence. These are the qualities of God. Reflect on how these attributes of God have been present in your past and recent life. Have I expressed gratitude?

Psalm 66’s refrain, “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy,” is a beautiful expression of giving praise and it ends with individual expressions of thanksgiving. This is another beautiful psalm to sit and contemplate and add my own expressions of love and gratitude.

Paul looks at the power of the cross and how it affects a new creation. Paul shows how Jesus shows God’s love and proves it in His own horrible death and crucifixion, and carries it over to his own life in receiving the privilege of the stigmata — the sacred wounds of Jesus — as have Padre Pio and a few others down through the history of the Church. Jesus died a convicted felon and it is in the sign of His death that Paul boasts because of his commitment in living God’s life and totally offering his all.

Today the disciples are sent out, symbolizing of the ultimate mission for all Jesus’ disciples to all the nations of the world. Jesus uses two metaphors to represent this mission: harvest and lambs. Harvest connotes the readiness of the world. Just think of the people in our lives who have touched us with their love of Jesus and showed us in living examples and have been church to us. Showing what a living, loving community needs and spreading this to others is utmost in their lives. How grateful we have been to them — for them. Have we expressed this gratitude and thanked the Lord too? The second metaphor, lambs, adds a sobering tone. Although the harvest is ready, harvesting carries with it many dangers. The fields are threatening and the missionaries are vulnerable. This is a message for each of us. We go with only the basics — our minds, eyes, ears and mouths, carrying care, compassion, love and forgiveness — our bare essentials. We do what we are called to be: God’s people of love.

So I reflect on:

• I think back on my faith sharing: I look at what I’ve experienced and the rejections, all the while realizing it’s a mission from God. He sent me.
• I’ve been part of peaceful overtures with non-peaceful responses. To what degree is it important for me to be right? Does this desire to be right affect my relationship with others? With God?

Sacred Space 2025 states:

“By instructing His disciples not to carry spare tunics or money or sandals He is telling them to focus not on themselves but rather on their mission to preach and to heal. God will provide all that they need through the people to whom they bring the message of the kingdom of God, ‘for the laborer deserves to be paid.’

“Pope Francis has said we are all called to be missionaries. In whatever walk of life we choose we can witness to our faith by how we live, but there is also a need for those who are called to dedicate their lives to preaching the Good News of the kingdom of God. Let us pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.”