11th Sunday Ordinary Time June 14, 2026

Readings: Exodus 19:2-6a Romans 5:6-11 Matthew 9:36—10:8

The more that we pray over these readings, the more they can affect us. When we list to the first reading, from the Book of Exodus, we must wonder what was in the minds of God’s “chosen people” when God says, “I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself.” When these chosen people fled from Egypt, it was a miraculous event in their lives. They never really believed that they could be free.

This is surely a part of the lesson of this Sunday that we are celebrating. We must begin to look at the deeper meanings of history, both the history of salvation and our own personal history of walking with God. So often we get caught up only in our present sufferings and don’t keep an awareness of where God is leading us. Always God is leading us to encounter His divine presence.

In Matthew’s Gospel today, Jesus generally means that the Kingdom is the presence of God in the world. The Kingdom is truly present in you and in me when we are following God and trying to be faithful to God’s word. The Kingdom is present within us. And when we join with others who are also faithful to the Word of God, then the Kingdom becomes present within the believing community. So when Jesus sees that lots of people are looking for God and want to follow God, Jesus tells us that the harvest is abundant.

What about our own times? Are people looking for God? Are you looking for God? Am I looking for God. That is the challenge. That is the invitation. God invites us to seek the Kingdom. And as we seek, then we discover that the Kingdom is right here in our midst. Like the chosen people in Exodus, we shall suffer on the way to discover the Kingdom, even though it is right here.

Let us pray this Sunday for a deeper awareness of God’s divine presence in our personal lives and in the life of our Christian communities. Let us ask that the Holy Spirit will give us the vision to see how God is present in our world. May we have the power to ask for God’s healing, for the life of those who are dying, for freedom from demons. Let us ask for the gift to see how we have been born up on eagle wings.