11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 14 June 2026
14th June 2026
“Good example is the most efficacious apostolate. You must be as lighted lanterns and shine like brilliant chandeliers among men. By your good example and your words, animate others to know and love God.” - St Mary Joseph Rossello
A reflection on the theme of today's Gospel by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
There are two things Love can do. Love by its very nature tends to an Incarnation, and every Incarnation tends to a Crucifixion. Does not all true love tend toward an Incarnation? In the order of human love, does not the affection of husband for wife create from their mutual loves the incarnation of their confluent love in the form of a child? Once they have begotten their child, do not they make sacrifices for it, even to the point of death? And thus their love tends to a crucifixion.
But this is just a reflection of the divine order, where the love of God for man was so deep and intense that it ended in an Incarnation, which found God in the form and habit of man, whom He loved. But our Lord’s love for man did not stop with the Incarnation. Unlike everyone else who was ever born, our Lord came into this world to redeem it. Death was the supreme goal He was seeking. Death interrupted the careers of great men, but it was no interruption to our Lord; it was His crowning glory; it was the unique goal He was seeking.
His Incarnation thus tended to the Crucifixion, for “greater love than this no man has, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Now that Love had run its course in the Redemption of man, Divine Love could say: “I have done all for my vineyard that I can do.” Love can do no more than die. It is finished: “Ite, missa est.”
His work is finished. But is ours? When He said, “it is finished,” He did not mean that the opportunities of His life had ended; He meant that His work was done so perfectly that nothing could be added to it to make it more perfect - but with us, how seldom that is true. Too many of us end our lives, but few of us see them finished. A sinful life may end, but a sinful life is never a finished life.
If our lives just “end,” our friends will ask: “How much did he leave?” But if our life is “finished” our friends will ask: “How much did he take with him?” A finished life is not measured by years but by deeds; not by the time spent in the vineyard, but by the work done. In a short time a man may fulfil many years; even those who come at the eleventh hour may finish their lives; even those who come to God like the thief at the last breath, may finish their lives in the Kingdom of God. Not for them the sad word of regret: “Too late, O ancient Beauty, have I loved Thee.”
Our Lord finished His work, but we have not finished ours. He pointed the way we must follow. He laid down the Cross at the finish, but we must take it up. He finished Redemption in His physical Body, but we have not finished it in His Mystical Body. He has finished salvation, we have not yet applied it to our souls. He has finished the Temple, but we must live in it. He has finished the model Cross, we must fashion ours to its pattern. He has finished sowing the seed, we must reap the harvest. He has finished filling the chalice, but we have not finished drinking its refreshing draughts.
He has planted the wheat field; we must gather it into our barns. He has finished the Sacrifice of Calvary; we must finish the Mass.
The Crucifixion was not meant to be an inspirational drama, but a pattern act on which to model our lives. We are not meant to sit and watch the Cross as something done and ended like the life of Socrates. What was done on Calvary avails for us only in the degree that we repeat it in our own lives.
The Mass makes this possible, for at the renewal of Calvary on our altars we are not on-lookers but sharers in Redemption, and there it is that we “finish” our work. He has told us: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.” He finished His work when He was lifted up on the Cross; we finish ours when we permit Him to draw us unto Himself in the Mass.
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So we must stay with the Cross until our lives are finished. Christ on the Cross is the pattern and model of a finished life. Our human nature is the raw material; our will is the chisel; God’s grace is the energy and the inspiration.
(Calvary and the Mass)
Prayer for Vocations
Heavenly Father, We ask you to bless our diocese with selfless hearts that are willing to serve You, by serving Your Church. Lord Jesus raise up from our homes those called by the Father: courageous and humble men to the priesthood, faithful people to Consecrated Life and holy men and women to the sacrament of Marriage. Holy Spirit, help us to live our universal vocation to holiness, by listening to the Father’s voice and responding with a sacrificial love. Holy Mary, Model of Vocations, teach us to hear and follow your Son. Holy Mary, Queen of Priests, sanctify our priests and obtain for us many more. Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for our families and intercede for our children. Amen.