Help Wanted!

HELP WANTED!
This homily was presented at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Albany, NY
June 14, 2026, the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

    This Gospel passage (Matthew 9:36—10:8) is part of Jesus’s “Mission Discourse” and has a two fold message. It tells the story of Jesus sending the disciples as his ambassadors in Israel AND it speaks to Matthew’s Jewish community about its mission to the Gentiles. 
    After a tireless stretch of visits to different villages and cities, preaching in synagogues, healing people of every sickness, Jesus had pity on those he met because they were “harassed and helpless.” (NRSV) They needed a shepherd and he could not do it alone. Jesus needed help then as he does today.
    When Matthew names the twelve disciples he calls them apostles, messengers, ambassadors. This suggests that all those who are followers of Christ, along with others who share the same values, exist for the sake of the world and not just any one nation or race or culture.
    But first we have to ask: who exactly are we obliged to help? Are we to shepherd those who are immigrants, hungry, and homeless? Are we to console those who are abused or incarcerated? Are we to support those rejected and discriminated against by society? Just how present are we to people in their everyday lives?
    Members of this faith community are marching in this year’s Capital Pride Parade. They are giving public witness that all of God’s people matter … no matter who they are. Many in this parish are active in different ministries spreading good news and loving kindness to all.
    The first reading (Exodus 19:2-6a) is an indirect and unintended reference to our mission as ambassadors of Christ. Long before the time of Jesus, God tells Moses that if the Israelites want to be saved they have to keep the covenant that God has established. 
    In this passage the word Israelites is not a reference to Israel as it exists today. Nor are the terms “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” a predictive reference to Christianity as it exists today. We read texts from the Hebrew bible because we are part of a long history of salvation revealed in the Word of God; a narrative that continues in the Christian bible. 
    In this light we interpret this passage from Isaiah to mean all of God’s people, like creation, belong to God. In Psalm 110 we hear that God is good, that God’s kindness endures forever, and that God is faithful to all generations.
    We have a covenant with God. During the liturgy of the eucharist the words of institution remind us that Jesus the Christ is the new, eternal covenant. By identifying with Christ we are called to keep our part of the covenant sustained by God’s amazing grace. And, “how precious does that grace appear.”
    This is important today. For as the renowned German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner has argued, the liturgy is a reflection of God's presence in everyday life throughout the world. 
    So what about laboring or working  in the fields to keep our covenant with God? The term labor could trigger references to a variety of topics. Productivity. Poverty. Wealth. Inequality. Unemployment rates. Fair wages. Help wanted. 
     Kate Ward, who was once a young, active member of this parish, is now a professor of theological ethics at Marquette University. Her new book, released this year, deals with Catholic social teaching and the meaning of work. 
    She writes: “realizing that work is done by human workers is key to getting our economic and ethic understandings of work right.” Her book could be a key to how we work in the city of God.
    Ward continues by referencing the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. In her words, “Work is a human activity … [and] the norm for human activity is to harmonize with the authentic interests of the human race, in accordance with God’s will and design, and to enable people as individuals and as members of society to pursue and fulfill their total vocation.”
    In this context, Pope Leo admonishes that artificial intelligence and advanced technology can help us do our work in the world but it must never be used to exploit people. We must safeguard human dignity, the Pope writes.
    To keep our part of the covenant, Kate Ward’s words are helpful. “Through our work, paid or unpaid, she writes, we serve God by serving one another.” We heard these very words at the end of today's gospel. And as the composer Tony Alonso reminds us in our final song today: We have been sent forth by God to love and serve, to reflect God’s grace, and to embrace a world in need no matter how large or small our good deeds are.

Resources:

Ward, Kate. Making A Life Living: Catholic Social Teaching and the Meaning of Work. (New York: T&T Clark) 2026

 https://sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary-old/exodus-192-8a-commentary/

 https://sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary-old/matthew-935-1023/

Gaudium et Spes. https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html

Magnifica Humanitas. https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

Alonso, Tony. God Sends Us Forth. (GIA Publications, Inc), 2009.