06/16/2026
🕊️June 14, 2026
by Father Karl Daigle
🥖Bread for the Journey
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle A-2026
In our reading from the book of Exodus, God wants Moses to proclaim to the Israelites that their deliverance from slavery to the Egyptians was proof of His faithful love for them. This provides us with the opportunity to reflect on how God has proved His love for us. It may have been through extraordinary or ordinary experiences. On a universal level, God has proved His love for us through the act of our creation, sharing in our humanity, and taking our sins on Himself on the cross. He has also done so through rising from the dead so that we can live forever with Him and allowing us to be personally united with Him and His living body, the Church.
The next question becomes, “How has God proved His love for us on a personal, individual level?” What comes to mind for you? As I reflect on my own life, some examples come to mind. Jesus Christ has delivered me from the slavery of certain deeply rooted thought patterns and personal habits. He protected me from various personal and spiritual dangers. Some I recognized in the moment while others came to me with the graced perspective of hindsight. He brought certain people into my life and ministry when I needed them the most. Finally, he gave me the desire and capacity to grow and evolve in ways that made me a more fruitful and life-giving person and priest.
These “prove it” moments are a tangible revelation of God’s faithful love that is always present and active in our lives. It is a blessing to remember them fairly often as they provide nutritious food for the soul. This is especially true when we are going through painful and stressful periods in our lives. Please remember, God proving His love does not mean we will be exempt from the cross. He even proves His love by how He helps us to both carry and move beyond our crosses. We do so in a spirit of faith, hope, and love. We do so with the humility to learn and grow personally and spiritually through these adverse moments.
In our lives, we all have foundational roles that bring us a sense of worth, identity, and mission. It may be the role of spouse, parent, grandparent, friend, or vocation/career. In our reading from the Book of Exodus, we discover that the ultimate role that God calls us to is that of being a “kingdom of priests.” As a kingdom of priests, our role is to make the loving presence of Jesus Christ flesh wherever we go and with whomever we encounter. We are able to do this in a myriad of ways. We can do this through our attitudes, words, and actions. We are also faithful to this calling through our lifestyle and conscious attempts to share the love and truth of Jesus Christ and His church.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus says to the disciples: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the Master of the harvest to send out laborers for His harvest.” Historically, there has been the tendency to reduce the laborers of the harvest to the clergy and religious. Without a doubt, they play an important and unique role within the church and God’s plan of salvation. At the same time, it is not realistic to place it all on their shoulders because they make up a very small percentage of the laborers within the church. If it was all dependent upon them, not as much would get done and the overall quality would suffer. We all need each other in the church with the blessed diversity of our gifts, personality, expertise, and life experience.
Through our Baptism, we are baptized into the ministry of Jesus, so together as the laity, religious, and clergy, we can bring the person and message of Jesus to our slice of the world. I am aware that precisely because I am a priest, I am able to more easily reach certain people with the message of the Gospel. I am equally aware that there are some people I will never reach as a priest because of their lack interest in, or their aversion to, God, the church, and priests. When it comes to all of us, there are certain people we will reach and certain people we will not. The ability or inability for us to reach certain people often comes down to similarities or differences in faith perspective, worldview, personality, and common interests. We will not be able to reach everyone, but we can pray for all people and strive to provide them with a Christian example.
In our Gospel reading, we see that Jesus gives us a share in His authority. We are more vibrant Christians when we realize and accept this God given authority and use it in discerning and proactive ways. We use that authority to speak words that bring healing, encouragement, deliverance, and hope. We use that authority to perform actions that show the love, care, and faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We use that authority to give a joyful, generous, and devoted witness to our love for Jesus Christ, and our deep conviction that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” We use that authority to “speak the truth in love” in the hopes that it unites someone more fully to God and His will.
Our Gospel reading reveals that Jesus saw the Israelites as the focus of His earthly ministry. After His Ascension into heaven and the giving of the Holy Spirit, the focus has now become the entire human family. That is where we come in. We become Jesus’s hands, mouth, heart, and feet. As laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, our focus is not just self, family and friends, or fellow Catholic Christians. The focus becomes every person we encounter regardless of denomination, religion, or a lack thereof.
Do you realize and appreciate that along with our personal communion with Jesus Christ, being a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord is the highest calling we can receive in this life? As Uncle Ben was fond of telling Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.” May we generously and faithfully use the authority and responsibility we have been given by Jesus Christ, for the greater glory of God, by the building up of His kingdom on earth. It can be hard and sometimes thankless work, but the benefits are out of this world. God cannot be outdone in generosity.
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