Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Proclaim The Good News
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. In the name of God, the prophet Hosea scolds the people of Israel, who have let prosperity lead them into a hypocritical religion. He calls them to conversion.
Gospel. Jesus sends out his apostles as healers of people’s ills so that the new era of the kingdom of God can begin. They, and we too, have to be healers in a world that is harsh and pitiless and much in need of healing. Let the forgiveness and compassionate love we receive from God renew this world and make it God’s world and kingdom.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
You let your Son Jesus entrust
His good news of healing and liberation
to simple and weak people.
Make us much more aware, Lord,
that the good news of the kingdom
is fundamentally human,
accessible and easy to understand.
Let this good news grow in us
and transform us deeply
and fill us with the healing love
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
First Reading
In the Land: A Leafy Vine
Israel was a flourishing vine, abundant in fruit. The more his fruit grew,the more altars he built; the more his land prospered, the more he decorated his sacred stones.
Their hearts are divided! They will pay for it. Their altars will be knocked down, and their sacred stones broken into pieces.
Now they say: “We have no king, because we have no fear of God and what good would a king do us?”
As for the king of Samaria, he has been carried off like foam on the water.
The idolatrous high places—the sin of Israel—will be destroyed. Thorn and thistle will overrun the altars. Then they will say to the mountains: “Cover us,” and to the hills: “Fall on us.”
Plow new ground, sow justice for yourselves, and reap a harvest of kindness. It is time to seek the Lord until he comes to rain salvation upon you.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (4b) Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Kingdom of God is at hand:
repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The Twelve
Jesus called his Twelve disciples to him and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.
These are the names of the Twelve apostles: first, Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray him.
Mission of the Twelve
Jesus sent these Twelve on a mission with the instructions: “Do not visit pagan territory and do not enter a Samaritan town.
Go, instead, to the lost sheep of the people of Israel.
Go and proclaim this message: The kingdom of heaven is near.
Prayers of the Faithful
– That our commitment to the work of justice and our sense of service may bear witness that the kingdom of God is alive among us, we pray:
– That the Lord may call many priests, religious and committed laypersons to announce the good news to the world, we pray:
– That in our Christian communities we may receive and live the word of God with open hearts and great zeal, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Our loving God,
you have given us without charge
this bread and wine.
Turn them by the power of the Holy Spirit
into your best free gift to us,
your Son Jesus Christ.
Dispose us to keep him not to ourselves
but to share him with all those around us
without any other preference than that of Jesus:
the poor, the needy, and the little people.
May this be the sign that we are your people,
that your kingdom is growing among us
and that you are our God now and forever.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
Again, we ask of you to make us more
Your people of the covenant.
Through Jesus, your Son-with-us, make us all one,
praying and working together
to build up your kingdom among people.
Let none of us be an uncommitted spectator
but make each of us fully aware
that, weak and fallible as we are,
You need us and want us to be a holy people,
The sign of all your lasting goodness.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Blessing
God sends us to be healers and to proclaim with our lives that the kingdom of heaven is here and growing in our world. May Almighty God bless you for this task, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Mt 10:1-7
In 1980, a statue of Jesus at Christ the King Catholic Church in San Diego was damaged by rioters, and the statue’s hands were broken off. When repairing the statue, the community decided not to reattach the hands and instead placed a plaque at the base of it. They engraved a quote from Saint Teresa of Avila on it: “I have no hands but yours.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus commissions the Twelve Apostles to go out and continue the ministry he has begun. He directs them to drive out unclean spirits, cure every disease, and announce the kingdom of heaven. Their mission is to expand his work worldwide. They will be his hands, feet, and voice. They were empowered to cast out “unclean spirits.”
What Matthew describes as unclean spirits could be understood in modern terms as everything that creates and multiplies violence, death, and chaos in our lives. How does Jesus equip them for this impossible mission?
He empowered them to turn the other cheek rather than seek vengeance against an enemy or opponent. He empowered them to live and work together; to share life, dreams, and mission, walk together, befriend, build bridges, and tear down walls together.
The Lord enabled them to love unconditionally without prejudices or conditions based on wealth, social status, ideologies, religions, or customs. He enabled them to be humble, austere, and poor, which are signs of God’s nature. Jesus empowered them to forgive and ask for forgiveness, the most effective tool for disarming and averting violence.
The disciples will do this regardless of their skills or their past. Many of them are fishermen with little training in preaching a Gospel message. One is a tax collector despised by his community. Yet they will be instruments of God’s work, just as Joseph, in today’s first reading, becomes an instrument of God’s saving power. Joseph, sold into slavery by his own brothers, went on to become the saviour of not only the children of Israel but for all the people in Egypt and the surrounding areas.
“I have no hands now but yours.” This is what Christ says to us as well. Like the Apostles, we are called to be his hands, his feet, and his voice in the world. Like the Apostles and Joseph, we may have little or no training, a troubled past, and have suffered at the hands of others. Nevertheless, God can use us to be his hands in the world.
COFFEE WITH GOD 9 July 2025 - Martyrs Who Speak Through Their Witness