Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s first reading from the Book of Hosea, we find one of the many predictions of the downfall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The North and South had split, and the 10 tribes of Israel in the North, being cut off from the Temple in Jerusalem, worshipped false gods on altars in multiple different places. God predicted their downfall, and that is exactly what happened. The Assyrians came in and wiped out the northern tribes, displacing them. It began in Samaria and what became known as Galilee. Approximately 200 years later, the Southern Kingdom of Judah was taken into exile by the Babylonians. In today’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is in this northern region. In fact, Jesus is one of the descendants of the Southern Kingdom of Judah; He is actually the heir to the throne. He dwelt, however, among the descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. We see how His ministry in the Gospels begins with the restoration of these Northern tribes, and spreads among Judaeans, and only later among Samaritans and even Gentiles. But He starts where the division began, where the first exile began, in the North, which Hosea described in today’s first reading. Notice that the Pharisees, descendants of the Southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, present in today’s Gospel reading do not understand Jesus’ actions. They even attribute His power to demonic forces. The Northerners, in contrast, do understand His actions. Jesus begins with them, near His own home, and will move outward, including greater and greater numbers of people.

Jesus’ ministry continues in us today. We are called to continue Jesus’ mission of regathering the scattered family of God spread out through the world. All are called into God’s family. God desires unity among all of humanity. This is no easy task. If there’s one thing I think we should take from these readings it’s that it starts at home, with us. Just as Jesus began His ministry among the Northern tribes and spread outward to the rest of Israel and even to the Gentiles, so too, we must begin at home.

We must allow God to form us. We must be spiritually fed by the Eucharist and by Scripture. The sending forth after Mass occurs quite naturally at the end. It is only after we have praised, prayed to, and worshipped God, and only after we have been nourished by the Eucharist, the divine gift of God’s own life, that we are able to go forth and bring Jesus to others. Let us allow Jesus to begin His great work on us, and then let’s go out and share that work with others.

- Jeff Morrow