Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR
Homily for the Eleventh in Ordinary Time, Year A
Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Over a thousand years ago, the Roman Empire controlled the entire Mediterranean world. All power and wealth were held by the Roman elites and their cronies. Below them were vast numbers of poor, landless peasants burdened by heavy taxes. Anyone who opposed the regime was severely punished, often by crucifixion. This was the world in which Jesus lived. As a child, he saw hundreds of people crucified along the road between Capernaum and Nazareth. Jesus knew how desperate, exhausted, and frustrated the people were. He knew of man’s inhumanity to man and understood poverty, injustice, resentment, and rage.
During his public ministry, Jesus saw the same anguished faces come to him. What did he do? Complain about it? Shout about it? Offer empty apologies with no action, as many of us do? In today’s Gospel (Matthew 9:36-38, 10:1-8), the evangelist writes, “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” Sheep are not wise animals. Without help, without shepherds, they will always wander away, get lost, die, and become easy prey for wolves or other wild animals. Who are these sheep? Look in the mirror. But the good news is that the Lord did not scorn the sheep, nor was he satisfied with their condition. Instead, his heart was moved with pity toward them, and he acted. It’s not enough to merely feel pity; it must lead to action.
What does Jesus do? He makes three moves. One, he recognizes the pastoral problem of the day: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.” Two, he enjoins his disciples to pray: “So ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Before you embark on any project—big, medium, or small—pray first. Prayer must always come first, not be a last resort. Please do not see prayer as a backup plan when all your resources are exhausted and plans fail. In any situation, prayer should be the first thing we do. In this case, we are invited to pray and ask the master of the harvest to send more laborers into his harvest. Every Wednesday at Mass here at St. Bridget, we fulfill Jesus’ desire. We pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. But prayer is never a substitute for action. Prayer does not merely pass the buck to God to exonerate oneself from responsibility. After Jesus prayed and asked his disciples to pray, he made the third move. He acted by answering the very prayer he had told them to pray. Sometimes, we are the answer to the prayers we make. Jesus summons twelve of his sheep, twelve of his disciples, and turns them into shepherds. This is the turning point of this Gospel. He calls the twelve, commissions them, and authorizes them to go out and do the following: proclaim the gospel, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out demons.
The Church is essentially missionary. In a September 19, 2013, interview with America magazine, Pope Francis said, “I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” Every member of the Church is in this hospital. I am there; you are there as well. In various degrees, we are all sick. What was the first assignment Jesus gave to the Twelve? He said, “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Why is preaching the gospel the first assignment? It is because the most serious sickness is a lack of knowledge of God. If you go around today and ask people what they think is the worst sickness, you would hear things like cancer, mental health issues, dementia, stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes, etc. As deeply harmful as those diseases are, none is the worst. The worst disease is not knowing, loving, and serving God. Period! So, preachers of Verbum Dei are to confront this disease head-on by speaking about God, who is the ground of all reality. We all preach either the Gospel or the anti-Gospel, either by words or, more powerfully, by our deeds. Let’s not forget that the Gospel that converted the hardhearted Roman Empire was not only beautiful words but also amazing deeds of love. You can argue with words, but not with good deeds. The lives of the saints provide the most powerful and irrefutable arguments.
The other four deeds Jesus instructs his disciples to do are: cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out demons. These are supernatural deeds that most of us lack the power or authority to perform. In the Bible, Jesus cured the sick, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, and drove out demons. Throughout the Church’s history, many of the saints did the same. Today, we still have charismatic people in the Church who do the same. But in the spirit of St. Augustine, permit me to offer a meditation on these four assignments Jesus gives the Church. Jesus said, “Cure the sick.” Who are they? All of us. We are sick physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We have a few churchmen and women who have the gift of miraculously healing the sick. Doctors and nurses do it professionally. But again, the deepest and most important miracle happens at the spiritual level. It happens when our sins are forgiven by God after going to confession. It happens when, after many years of refusing to forgive someone, we realize, by the preaching of the gospel, that we have been drinking poison, expecting it to kill someone else. You are cured of your spiritual sickness after many years of wanting to control your life, make your own laws (autonomy), and live by your own rules, you finally allow God to take over and do with you whatever he wills. You are healed of your sickness when your habitual sin, which doesn’t allow you to have a steady relationship with God, is conquered. You are healed spiritually when, after many years of suffering addiction to food, licit and illicit drugs, alcohol, pornography, masturbation, sex, watching television, and playing video games, you finally scream, “I am free.”
Jesus also said, “Raise the dead.” He raised the dead physically—the twelve-year-old girl, the only son of the widow of Nain, and his friend Lazarus. Who is being raised from the dead today? All of us! In Christian theology, being raised from the dead spiritually refers to spiritual rebirth. To Nicodemus, Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” So baptism is the beginning of our being raised from death, the death of sin and separation from God. Jesus also said, “Cleanse lepers.” Who are these lepers? All of us! In the Bible, leprosy is always a symbol of sin. It compromises us, weakens us, and eventually kills us. But with our sins forgiven, we are cleansed spiritually just as a leper is cleansed physically. Finally, Jesus also said, “Drive out demons.” Some people are genuinely possessed by demonic spirits. Every diocese has exorcists, priests trained to go into the battlefield with Satan, defeat him by prayer and the use of the Church’s sacraments and sacramentals, and set captives free. But there are other subtle demons that hold many people captive—the demon of spiritual blindness, the demon that promotes naturalism and secularism. We also have the demons of pride, greed, lust, and envy. We have demons of spreading gossip and lies, and of causing division in society and within the Church. To accomplish the task given to us, the Lord enjoins us to do two things: pray and preach. Ask the Master of the harvest and proclaim the arrival of God’s Kingdom. Since the sick are all of us, since the dead are all of us, since the lepers are all of us, since we are in some degree possessed of something, we must stay within this Church, this field hospital, just to stand a chance of being ready to be ushered into the Kingdom of heaven that is at hand.
God bless you!
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