11TH SUNDAY HOMILY OF ORDINARY TIME (14TH JUNE 2026) — YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: “THE HARVEST IS RICH BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW…”
BY: Bishop Anthony Ewherido
Ex 19: 2 – 6, Rom 5: 6 – 11, Matt 9: 36 – 10: 8.
The compassion of Jesus at the sight of a people who were totally disenfranchised, without direction, wallowing in abject physical, social, economic and spiritual poverty, and despairing for lack of leadership, guidance and orientation, moved him to utter the above statement. Indeed, God, who in today’s first reading, chose Israel as His special people, was always the shepherd of Israel. The vicious cycle of rebellion, punishment and forgiveness characterized that relationship because of the people’s infidelity to God and disregard for the covenant that God made with them.
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Once God was out of the picture as a result of sin and rebellion, they wallowed in search of truth and life like sheep without a shepherd. In Christ, our Good Shepherd, God reconstitutes His new people, whose life flow from the passion, death and resurrection of Christ; their ransom from sin and death. The election (special choice) of the “Twelve” in today’s gospel reminds us once more of the fact that Christians are the chosen people of God, the new Israel. In the choice of the Twelve, Jesus includes us all in his mission to the world while sending them out to preach, heal, convert, console, and liberate. With them, we are sent into the Lord’s vast vineyard as laborers of the good news and actualizers of God’s abiding presence. Everyone has a role to play in that regard and there is something for everyone to do in the vineyard until the Lord’s work is done. While taking our respective responsibilities to ensure that we spend our lives doing the Lord’s work, let us always remember that the Lord of the work is the source of all that we employ in the work that we do and all the credit goes to God. All of this we must do without counting the cost or cultivating any sense of entitlement because we have received (especially the gift of life) without charge, and we must give without charge. After all, God chose us out of his love and mercy and not out of any special qualities of ours.
Lord, provide laborers for your vineyard and bless the work of our hands. Amen.
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