From the responsorial psalm: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He tells the number of the stars; he calls each by name. Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 9:27-31)
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
Jesus sends out the Twelve to do what he has been doing around all the towns and villages: teaching, proclaiming the Gospel, and curing all manner of disease and illness. Moved to pity at the sight of the crowds, Jesus sees the need to give authority to the Twelve “to cure every disease and illness” and to drive out unclean spirits. This is the same Lord, responsive to every one of our needs, that Isaiah tells us about in the first reading: “The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst.”
God, help me today see in others what Jesus saw in the crowds. His reason for compassion was because “they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” Help me be obedient to Jesus’ command to go to the lost sheep without counting the cost. Jesus models Christian discipleship not only for the apostles but for all who hear his call to remain faithful to the Church in proclaiming the kingdom. With your authority, Lord, through baptism and the sacraments, give me the grace to proclaim in my words and actions that your kingdom is now at hand. Saint Ambrose, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.