Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – June 14, 2026
Sr. Marie Prefontaine, SNDdeN
Matthew 9: 36- 10:8
In today’s Gospel, we hear something very tender about the heart of Jesus:
“He saw the crowds and had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Before Jesus teaches, before he sends, before he performs any miracle—he looks and he feels. He sees peoples’ weariness, their longing, their searching. And he is moved to compassion. It is a deep, divine tenderness that refuses to remain distant. Jesus’ compassion always becomes mission. His mission begins with a heart that is moved with compassion.
Jesus turns then to the disciples and says something surprising “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.” It is striking that Jesus begins not with action, but with prayer. Before we go out in mission, we must go inward into the heart of God. The mission of the Church is rooted not in our own strategies or strengths or even our work, but in knowing God’s desire to gather his people and heal their wounds.
Next, Jesus does something even more surprising: the very ones he told to pray for laborers become the laborers themselves. Jesus entrusts them with his own authority:
- Cure the sick — heal those whose hearts are aching.
- Cleanse the lepers — restore those whom society pushes to the margins.
- Cast out demons — free people from fear, loneliness, shame, rejection.
- Raise the dead — bring hope to someone who has lost it.
Every act of compassion is a small resurrection. Every moment of mercy and goodness brings light. In other words: restore life where life has been diminished, restore dignity where it has been denied, restore hope where it has grown faint, be goodness in action. The disciples went in mission because Jesus’ heart had already transformed their hearts. They simply gave away what they had received from Him: love, mercy, patience, forgiveness.
Today Jesus still looks upon our world with compassion and desires goodness. He sees the crowds, he sees us —exhausted by division, burdened by fear, scattered by injustice, searching for meaning and belonging. And once again he sends all of us as disciples. Like Jesus, we live surrounded by people who feel harassed, vulnerable, and marginalized. The question is: Do we allow our hearts to be moved as Jesus’ was moved and then sent to bring compassion and goodness? Jesus sends us not with fear, not with a sense of obligation, but with the same compassion that moved his own heart, to bring goodness. The Gospel invites us today to let compassion interrupt our schedules, soften our judgments, and shape our mission. To pray for laborers—and to be ready for the possibility that we are the ones God will send. Because the harvest is still plentiful. And we, the laborers, are still called— called to pray and to love.
Matthew 9: 36- 10:8
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
Meet Sister Marie Prefontaine, SNDdeN
