Day: June 26, 2022

June 26, 2022
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21
Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Luke 9:51-62

The Gospel finds Jesus resolutely turning toward Jerusalem where He knows that He will face His death. Luke makes it clear that Jesus is fully aware of the mission His Father had set for Him and what that mission will entail. This mission is not ultimately about Jesus’ death but about the Father’s mercy and forgiveness offered through Jesus for our salvation. On the way to Jerusalem, the Sons of Thunder become enraged at being mistreated and want a Samaritan town destroyed for its lack of hospitality, but Jesus corrects this desire of James and John. In so doing He draws them more deeply into His mission of love and compassionate mercy. One admirer of Jesus eagerly promises to follow him, and Jesus reminds him that this decision will result in his being without a home. To be without a home means that our ultimate sense of belonging cannot be met here in this world. A second individual is invited to follow Jesus, and a third volunteers to do so, but they cannot let go of their previous commitments and prior lives and they remain admirers of Jesus but decide not to belong to Him or His mission.