Homily – June 14, 2026 – 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Matthew 9:36—10:8
How is Christ asking you to be him in this world entrusted to our care?
Jesus summons his twelve Apostles. They were ordinary people, such as fishermen, tax collectors, and everyday workers. They were not scholars or experts or the spiritually elite. They were people with imperfections, doubts, and as we know, even turned away from Jesus. But Jesus gave them his gifts to heal, to restore, to cast out what destroys life. They were the laborers in his vineyard. Just as Jesus is calling you and I to be his laborers in his vineyard today.
Every one of us here are called to be sent into the vineyard proclaiming the Gospel with our lives and making disciples. Every one of our homes is a mission field for the Lord. Every community, whether it be the workplace, school or the local city in which we live, is his vineyard. And every conversation is our chance to bring Christ’s compassion to others.
The Gospel today is asking us to see the world with Christ’s compassion, not cynicism. Asking us to hear Christ’s calling addressed personally to each one of us. Asking us to give Christ’s love generously, without counting the cost. The Church grows because of ordinary people, like you and me, allowing Jesus to work through us.
Jesus told his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” You and I are called to be laborers for the Lord, and we are called to go forth from here and proclaim “The kingdom of God is at hand” in whatever mission, whatever vocation, our Lord is asking of each of us.
Pope Francis said, “A life without vocation is a life without meaning. The Lord calls us, not to do what we are good at, but to become what we are called to be. Vocation is not a career, but a path.”
Next Saturday is our archdiocesan priesthood ordination. The newly ordained priests will be given their mission, their vocation, their specific call as a priest to go proclaim the Gospel and go and make disciples. I ask you to reflect upon what is your mission, what is your vocation that God is asking of you? What path is God asking you to walk for Him?
I share one of my favorite prayers from Saint Teresa of Avela that speaks to us in who we are called to be. “Christ has no body but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands. Yours are the feet. Yours are the eyes.
You are His body.”
How is Christ asking you to be him in this world entrusted to our care? In the priesthood ordination rite, these words the bishop says also speaks to each one of us in our call to a vocation from the moment of our Baptism, “May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment.” Amen.