Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 15, 2026

The following message by Sister Marie Prefontaine, SNDdeN was provided by the SNDdeN Congregational Mission Office:

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.