for July 7
Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

It’s important to know where today’s gospel fits in Matthew’s narrative in order to fully understand what it has to say to us. These verses come at a moment of transition, marked by the words: Jesus went around. . . teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. These are the very same words that Matthew used to begin the long section of his gospel that presented Jesus as a unique and powerful teacher in the Sermon on the Mount, and then as a powerful healer who could calm storms, cast out demons, cure illness and raise the dead. The last of these miracles comes in the first verses of today’s gospel. Jesus restores the voice of a man possessed by muteness, to the marvel of the crowds and the suspicion of religious authorities, the Pharisees. But that conflict will play out later on in Matthew’s gospel. Something else is going on in today’s reading.

In the next major section of his gospel, which begins with tomorrow’s reading, Matthew will recount the sending out of the twelve disciples. Jesus will give them the same authority that he has demonstrated, sending them to cast out evil and heal every disease and infirmity.

So today’s gospel is the moment of transition between Jesus’s ministry and his disciples’. As Matthew leads us through this moment, he draws our attention to three things: the harvest, some sheep and the heart of Jesus. Let’s consider each:

First, the harvest: in that one word we are reminded of every scriptural image of seeds sown, of gardens and vineyards cultivated, and of weeds growing among the wheat. In this passage, an abundant harvest also looks forward to a final judgment. It is a promise to the disciples that their long and patient labors will bear fruit.

Next, the sheep: for most of us in the 21st century United States, all that we know about sheep is that they are useful to us: they make good clothes and nice dinners. But this gospel is not concerned about their utility so much as their experience in this moment. The sheep are said to be troubled and abandoned or, if you prefer the alliteration of the Revised Standard Version translation, harassed and helpless. It is not the sheep’s social status that Jesus responds to, but their distress. His heart is moved with pity, or turning again to the language of the Revised Standard Version, he has compassion on them. 

This is, of course, a blessed promise of relief for each of us, harassed and harried by our contemporary struggles with disease, economic inequality and justice before the law. But today’s gospel is pointing us toward something more; it is not just about us. Jesus is sending out the Twelve disciples, and by implication, all who hear Matthew’s gospel, ourselves included. It is our hearts that are to be moved with compassion; we are the ones commissioned to heal every illness and disease of the people that we find in distress, harassed and helpless. The harvest can be abundant, we are told. Let us bring whoever we can with us into the fields to share the work of bringing it home.
—BJ Brown

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.