Stay Close and Remain Faithful
A Reflection for Sunday, June 14
Exodus 19:2–6; Psalm 100; Romans 5:6–11; Matthew 9:36—10:8
After reading today’s liturgy, I returned to a thought that has been growing in me:
Perhaps God is not asking most of us to do something extraordinary.
Perhaps he is asking us to remain loyal—to stay close to the Church, receive the sacraments, repent when we fall, fulfill the duties placed before us, and trust him.
We often speak as though coming to faith must immediately turn a person into a public preacher. Once saved, we imagine that we must announce it in every conversation, begin a ministry, open a building, create a movement, or perform some visible action before the world.
But today’s readings reveal a more ordered pattern.
In Exodus, God first gathers a people to himself:
“Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine.
You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”
Israel is called to belong to God. Before anything else, they are to hear his voice, keep his covenant, and live as his people. Their first mission is fidelity.
The psalm continues this movement:
“R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
The LORD is good:
his kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.”
Sheep are not asked to invent their own mission. They remain near the shepherd. They listen for his voice. They receive what he provides and follow where he leads.
Saint Paul then reminds us that our relationship with God did not begin with our own activity:
“Brothers and sisters:
Christ, while we were still helpless,
yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath.
Indeed, if, while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Christ did not wait for us to become useful. He did not save us because we had developed a ministry plan. He reconciled us while we were sinners. The Christian life begins not with what we accomplish for God, but with what God has accomplished for us.
Then, in the Gospel, Jesus looks upon the crowds with pity because they are troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. He tells his disciples to pray for laborers—and then he specifically calls and sends the Twelve.
“At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so, ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon from Cana, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation:
‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
Jesus does not tell the entire crowd to appoint themselves apostles.
He chooses particular people, gives them particular authority, and sends them on a particular mission at a particular moment. God appoints persons, places, duties, and seasons. The Twelve were called to go. Others were called to receive them. Still others served Christ by opening their homes, raising families, giving alms, praying, suffering faithfully, and remaining within the community of believers.
The whole body has a mission, but every member does not have the same function.
Saint Paul makes a similar distinction when correcting the Corinthians. He explains that he was not demanding that Christians completely separate themselves from every immoral person in the world, because to do that they would have to leave the world altogether. His concern was the disorder being tolerated among those who already bore the name of Christian.
“I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people, not at all referring to the immoral of this world or the greedy and robbers or idolaters; for you would then have to leave the world. But I now write to you not to associate with anyone named a brother, if he is immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a robber, not even to eat with such a person. For why should I be judging outsiders? Is it not your business to judge those within?”
In other words: do not begin by imagining that you have been appointed to purify the entire world. Begin by allowing Christ to purify his household—and begin with yourself.
Clean what has actually been entrusted to you.
Remain faithful within the Church.
Receive the sacraments.
Repent when you sin.
Teach your children.
Perform your work honestly.
Show patience in your home.
Pray for those who are far from God.
Speak when truth and charity require it.
Remain silent when speaking would merely serve your own zeal or pride.
This is not a lesser vocation. It is Christian fidelity.
Every baptized person is called to witness to Christ, but witness does not always mean preaching at strangers. A stable, repentant, sacramental life is itself a witness. A Christian who quietly remains faithful in an unstable world makes Christ present without constantly announcing himself.
There are apostles, pastors, teachers, missionaries, parents, workers, contemplatives, sufferers, and hidden saints. God chooses the laborers. God determines the field. God gives the increase.
Our task is not to appoint ourselves to every mission we can imagine.
Our task is to remain available to God.
The world is wounded by sin and influenced by powers opposed to Christ, but it has not escaped God’s providence. Christ has already entered it. His Church remains present within it. His people continue to receive his grace, offer worship, practice mercy, and bear quiet witness to another kingdom.
Sometimes the holiest response is not, “I must go and accomplish something great.”
Sometimes it is simply:
I will stay close. I will remain faithful. I will repent when I fall. I will do the duty God has actually placed before me today.