From Cults to Care

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to ponder the motivation of our life as Christians in the context of how open we are to connection to communities outside our Church and Culture.

Care for Community

The Reading from the Prophet Hosea presents Destruction of Idolatrous Cultic Objects.

* [10:3] No king: the instability of the monarchy (7:3–7) and its vassalage to foreign kings (7:8–16) render the monarchy ineffective. The kings do the opposite of what they are supposed to do (10:4).

* [10:8] Aven: wickedness, first of all at Bethel (v. 5), but also at all the high places. (Hosea, CHAPTER 10 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 105 invites Israel to praise and seek the presence of God.

* [Psalm 105] A hymn to God who promised the land of Canaan to the holy people, cf. Ps 78; 106; 136. Israel is invited to praise and seek the presence of God (Ps 105:1–6), who is faithful to the promise of land to the ancestors (Ps 105:7–11). In every phase of the national story—the ancestors in the land of Canaan (Ps 105:12–15), Joseph in Egypt (Ps 105:16–22), Israel in Egypt (Ps 105:23–38), Israel in the desert on the way to Canaan (Ps 105:39–45)—God remained faithful, reiterating the promise of the land to successive servants. (Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus proclaims the Mission of the Twelve and their Commissioning. 

* [10:1–11:1] After an introductory narrative (Mt 10:1–4), the second of the discourses of the gospel. It deals with the mission now to be undertaken by the disciples (Mt 10:5–15), but the perspective broadens and includes the missionary activity of the church between the time of the resurrection and the parousia.

* [10:1] His twelve disciples: although, unlike Mark (Mk 3:13–14) and Luke (Lk 6:12–16), Matthew has no story of Jesus’ choosing the Twelve, he assumes that the group is known to the reader. The earliest New Testament text to speak of it is 1 Cor 15:5. The number probably is meant to recall the twelve tribes of Israel and implies Jesus’ authority to call all Israel into the kingdom. While Luke (Lk 6:13) and probably Mark (Mk 4:10, 34) distinguish between the Twelve and a larger group also termed disciples, Matthew tends to identify the disciples and the Twelve. Authority…every illness: activities the same as those of Jesus; see Mt 4:23; Mt 9:35; 10:8. The Twelve also share in his proclamation of the kingdom (Mt 10:7). But although he teaches (Mt 4:23; 7:28; 9:35), they do not. Their commission to teach comes only after Jesus’ resurrection, after they have been fully instructed by him (Mt 28:20).

* [10:2–4] Here, for the only time in Matthew, the Twelve are designated apostles. The word “apostle” means “one who is sent,” and therefore fits the situation here described. In the Pauline letters, the place where the term occurs most frequently in the New Testament, it means primarily one who has seen the risen Lord and has been commissioned to proclaim the resurrection. With slight variants in Luke and Acts, the names of those who belong to this group are the same in the four lists given in the New Testament (see note on Mt 9:9). Cananean: this represents an Aramaic word meaning “zealot.” The meaning of that designation is unclear (see note on Lk 6:15).

* [10:5–6] Like Jesus (Mt 15:24), the Twelve are sent only to Israel. This saying may reflect an original Jewish Christian refusal of the mission to the Gentiles, but for Matthew it expresses rather the limitation that Jesus himself observed during his ministry. (Matthew, CHAPTER 10 | USCCB, n.d.)

Vivian Amu comments that we have all been “lost sheep” at some point—wandering through seasons of doubt, loneliness, or numbness, carrying more questions than answers, wondering if anyone even notices our absence. But the call of Jesus is gentle and steady, “Come back home…..and as you come home, invite others.” 

 

Hosea chapter 10 reminds us that in order to do the outward work that Jesus is asking us to do, we need to start with an inward check. We need to check our “luxuriant vines”—our hearts. We do not need to have it all figured out to respond to this call. The apostles didn’t either. They went out tired, flawed, and unsure at times, but what mattered was their “yes.” The same is true for us. God is asking for availability. God is asking us to show up—imperfect, busy, tired—because it is God’s strength and love that makes the difference. God’s kingdom is breaking into the world through everyday people willing to reflect God’s love in simple, tangible ways. So, let us start where we are—being open, being kind. Let God use us, and as we step out, even in small ways, we will find that God’s kingdom is often closer than we think—it is already at work, through us.

 

Lord, keep our eyes and hearts open to find those who are lost, and remind us that You are always near. Amen. (Amu, 2026)

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus empowers his disciples to act in his name,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).

" If the Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified, how then did the disciples cast out the unclean spirits? They did this by his own command, by the Son's authority.2 Note the careful timing of their mission. They were not sent out at the beginning of their walk with him. They were not sent out until they had sufficiently benefited by following him daily. It was only after they had seen the dead raised, the sea rebuked, devils expelled, the legs of a paralytic brought to life, sins remitted, lepers cleansed, and had received a sufficient proof of his power both by deeds and words - only then did he send them out. And he did not send them out unprepared to do dangerous deeds, for as yet there was no danger in Palestine. They had only to stand against verbal abuse. However, Jesus still warned them of larger perils to come, preparing them for what was future." (excerpt from THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 32.3) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that Hosea was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom before it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.. Hosea asserts that their worship of other gods brought on the invasion. Their shrines are sometimes referred both to Baal and Yahweh, often called by the title “Adonai” or Lord. This may have caused confusion with social justice and reform to the treatment of the poor. The twelve Apostles are commissioned in the Gospel of Matthew. Friar comments that the final editor of Matthew’s Gospel was likely a converted Pharisee and used the phrase “The Kingdom of Heaven” to avoid the name of God when the time of Love and Law are fully lived.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 10:1-7 comments that the disciples did as Jesus had commanded them. They preached the gospel. They cured the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons. People’s lives were changed, and the kingdom began to spread.

Don’t ever think you’re insignificant. Every one of us is a part of God’s plan! So seek to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading today. Just by doing what the Lord asks of you, even the smallest thing, you are bringing the kingdom closer.

“Lord, let your heavenly kingdom reign in me and through me today!” (Meditation on Matthew 10:1-7, n.d.)

Father Richard Rohr, OFM, explains why the third beatitude would have been simultaneously shocking and comforting to Jesus’s listeners. Author Micha Boyett considers how Jesus’s listeners would have understood the paradox of the meek “inheriting the land”:  

“Makarioi [Greek for “happy”] are the powerless ones,” Jesus says. “They shall have the earth as an inheritance.” They will recognize that the earth has always been theirs. He is getting at something essential to the spiritual life: our ownership is temporal. According to the psalmist, human beings are like the leaves of grass, here for a moment and then, poof, gone. We’re all stewards here, and the land remains long after we’ve become the dust we came from. Only the divine one possesses it. In God’s dream for the world, possession is an illusion. When we humble ourselves, when we release our hands from all that we have tried to control and cling to, we discover that those who possess the land are the ones living under the illusion. But the ones who release their power and the ones who never had power to begin with inherit the really real…. (Rohr, n.d.)

We continue to need the help of the Spirit to focus on the mission we have been anointed by our Baptism to be priest, prophet, and leader in the journey to the “Kingdom of Heaven” that Jesus intends us to begin here and now for all people.

References

Amu, V. (2026, July 8). Daily Reflection July 8, 2026 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved July 8, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-july-8-2026 

Hosea, CHAPTER 10 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings, Audio and Video Every Morning | USCCB. Retrieved July 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hosea/10?1 

Matthew, CHAPTER 10 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/10? 

Meditation on Matthew 10:1-7. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved July 8, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/07/08/1610528/ 

Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/105? 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Land for the Humble. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved July 8, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/land-for-the-humble/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Jesus Gives His Disciples Authority to Heal and Set Free. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved July 8, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Healing Presence

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Wednesday of the Easter Octave, challenge us to review our walk in life with openness to the events which may have brought us close to the Presence of Christ as we assess our impatience with the Way God is revealing His Love to us.

Healing People

The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles presents the Healing of a lame beggar as Peter approaches the Temple.

* [3:1–4:31] This section presents a series of related events: the dramatic cure of a lame beggar (Acts 3:1–10) produces a large audience for the kerygmatic discourse of Peter (Acts 3:11–26).…

* [3:1] For the three o’clock hour of prayer: literally, “at the ninth hour of prayer.” With the day beginning at 6 A.M., the ninth hour would be 3 P.M.

* [3:6–10] The miracle has a dramatic cast; it symbolizes the saving power of Christ and leads the beggar to enter the temple, where he hears Peter’s proclamation of salvation through Jesus. (Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 105 invites us to praise and seek the presence of God.

* [Psalm 105] A hymn to God who promised the land of Canaan to the holy people, cf. Ps 78; 106; 136. Israel is invited to praise and seek the presence of God (Ps 105:1–6), who is faithful to the promise of land to the ancestors (Ps 105:7–11). (Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel, Luke presents the Appearance of Resurrected Jesus on the Road to Emmaus.

* [24:13–35] This episode focuses on the interpretation of scripture by the risen Jesus and the recognition of him in the breaking of the bread. The references to the quotations of scripture and explanation of it (Lk 24:25–27), the kerygmatic proclamation (Lk 24:34), and the liturgical gesture (Lk 24:30) suggest that the episode is primarily catechetical and liturgical rather than apologetic.

* [24:13] Seven miles: literally, “sixty stades.” A stade was 607 feet. Some manuscripts read “160 stades” or more than eighteen miles. The exact location of Emmaus is disputed.

* [24:16] A consistent feature of the resurrection stories is that the risen Jesus was different and initially unrecognizable (Lk 24:37; Mk 16:12; Jn 20:14; 21:4).

* [24:26] That the Messiah should suffer…: Luke is the only New Testament writer to speak explicitly of a suffering Messiah (Lk 24:26, 46; Acts 3:18; 17:3; 26:23). The idea of a suffering Messiah is not found in the Old Testament or in other Jewish literature prior to the New Testament period, although the idea is hinted at in Mk 8:31–33. See notes on Mt 26:63 and 26:67–68. (Luke, CHAPTER 24 | USCCB, n.d.)

Rev. Larry Gillick, SJ, tells of a walk with a close person that was kind of a sweet/sour relating of all the bumps and bruises encountered, endured in our recent days. Sweet, because we enjoy self-righteous sufferings and judgments. Sour, because we cannot do anything in retribution in reality except pout.

Well, of course, Jesus came alongside and butted in on our conversation and began untangling the threads of our self-centered prayer or whatever it was.

He went with me and started to talk about worthy/unworthy. He reminded me that He was my worthiness. When I allowed Him to embrace my real, true poverty which accompanies my acceptance of my humanity, my poverty. Unworthiness is the destructive invitation of the Corruptor. “I am in a constant battle between His Creative Spirit and my own subtle seduction of my creating my richness, my own image, my own worthiness, my little self-kingdom.”

With this little shot across my floundering deck, He went on His way, leaving me worthy to be myself more gratefully and less occupied with, hmm, I forgot. Omaha never looked so welcoming as my home. (Gillick, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The Easter Alleluia,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbor, "Praise the Lord!" and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions." (excerpt from commentary on Psalm 148) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10 comments how appropriate that we hear this passage during the Octave of Easter! Jesus’ resurrection is the perfect example of how God not only honors the physical world but is committed to working in it and through it. God didn’t simply send an angel to tell us that his Son had overcome death. He raised Jesus’ body from the dead to demonstrate that his kingdom is a place where brokenness of any kind can be transformed into wholeness. Similarly, by grasping the beggar’s hand while healing him, Peter reveals that Jesus has transformed our world—and that he will continue to transform it.

So this Easter week, praise the Lord who heals and restores. And find ways to demonstrate his healing love. Reach out to those close to you and offer them the grace of Jesus’ healing touch. You never know what might happen! 

“Jesus, make me an instrument of your healing!” (Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments the reading from Acts when Peter and John enter the Temple area indicates they are still attending the Temple worship as Jews. This healing marks the continuation of Jesus' ministry that His disciples have taken over. Luke presents this  in Acts as Jesus ministry through the Apostles. In the Gospel, Luke presents the second resurrection narrative, a walk where Jesus is not recognized as He joins two disciples consumed with their thought. This is the second of three times, in the Gospel of Luke, where the Resurrected Jesus is not immediately recognized. The third appearance occurs when the apostles are fishing on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus teaches them, on the walk, about Scripture and how His mission is foretold. Friar Jude notes Jesus is recognized and remembered at the breaking of the bread and, as they recall, His Presence on the walk, in the sharing of the Word.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces womanist theologian Yolanda Pierce who reminds us that the resurrection and its promise of new life doesn’t erase the pain of what has been lost. Pierce notes that to Thomas, Jesus speaks the words, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side” (John 20:27)….

There is an intimacy to Jesus’s command to Thomas, a closeness that we cannot overlook. Christ invites him to touch the unhealed wounds—to feel the places where nails and spear had pierced his body. It is a proclamation that the physical body still matters…. Wounds, too, are a part of the divine story. By sharing his wounds, Jesus reveals that our wounds are places for God’s healing presence and love.

This is a theology for the wounded, for those who are still healing, and even for those who aren’t quite ready for healing. The risen Savior insistently welcomes the doubting, the uncertain, and the grieving to touch and see that he is real and present and here with us. The risen Savior, who had been abandoned, denied, betrayed, and crucified, doesn’t hide his wounds or rush their healing. As wounded people encased in the frailties of human flesh, can we, too, summon enough grace and kindness to acknowledge that our own very human wounds need time to heal?…

This is an embodied theology. In these stories, the physical body and the tangible world are consistently presented as ways of intimately knowing God. Some saw and believed; others have not seen and still believed. At the center of both experiences is God-in-flesh, loving us in our own wounded places. (Rohr, n.d.)

We invite the Spirit to come on our journey and reveal to us the connection we have to Jesus walking with us transforming the wounds and hurts that life inflects.

References

Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/3?1 

Gillick, L. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-april-8-2026 

Luke, CHAPTER 24 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/24?13 

Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/04/07/1539149/ 

Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/105?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Hope for the Wounded. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/hope-for-the-wounded/  

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Did Not Our Hearts Burn While He Opened to Us the Scriptures. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/