A Meditation for our eleventh week of Ordinary Time in 2026

As Jesus began His public ministry, He made the invitation to some people to follow Him and become His disciples. We know of the twelve, but there were many, many more. There were women who were not counted, and there was also the story of the 72 being sent out (a similar story to today’s passage in Matthew’s Gospel). The context of Jesus sending out his disciples without Him is striking to me. He was teaching, healing, and going from city to city. It is written for us, for me, that when He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them. I know His eyes of compassion because they also look upon me with love.

When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion for them.

This is why He sent His disciples out. It was from a place of loving compassion. They were sent to towns and cities. He knew there weren’t enough people to send to all those who needed to hear the good news. So, Jesus did what He could with those who were with Him. This is a hard reality for me to sit with. I was taught that our God could do anything and everything. That there were no limits on God. Yet, here we see Jesus moved to act with less than He needed to reach everyone He wanted to. We know this because the next thing spoken by Him is this well-known passage, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

One of the threads woven through Urban Monasticism is the belief that each of us has been sent by God into our cities. It shows up across our Way of Life that again and again connects and binds us to one another and to our neighbors. One of the things I love about monasticism is our vow of stability. This commitment in place and community is unique within the church. It is not a part of ordinations, commissionings, nor the vows of other kinds of religious orders/communities. I am committed to my city, Paris. When you become a monastic, you will be taking a vow to your city. If you move somewhere new, when you renew your vows, we will affirm that God has called you there too.

At the point in the Gospel where Jesus is sending the disciples, He tells them to proclaim the same good news that He had been teaching – that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. He also instructs them to do what he has been doing – curing the sick, raising the dead, cleaning lepers, and casting out demons. Each of these actions restores life. They are life-giving and life-affirming actions. Wherever Jesus went, life would overcome death in all its forms. Then, on and through the cross, He overcame death itself. Death itself could not contain Him. Still today darkness and death are losing ground to the resurrected life of Christ. A life I am invited into every day with the same compassion Jesus looked upon the masses all those years ago.

The proclamation that the Kingdom of Heaven is near in my city means that a restoring and flourishing of life is taking place. Freedom is here. It is loving compassion that continues to move our God into the depths of death that resurrection will take their place. His eyes of compassion gaze upon me with love, and He shares those compassionate eyes with me for all those around me. There is a light in His eyes. That light casts our darkness. The Kingdom is full of life, and it is coming to every part of myself, my life, my faith, and my city. The life that conquers death and loves all things and hopes all things.

May you see yourself and your city with the compassion of Jesus.

Readings for the 11^th Sunday of Ordinary Time · Year A

Sunday readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary.

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 1 April 2026 in Paris.