9 July 2026 – Thursday of the 14th even-numbered week
Hosea 11:1–4, 8c–9; Matthew 10:7–15
H o m i l y
What Yahweh says about His people Israel in the beautiful passage from Hosea that we have just heard as the first reading can just as easily apply to each of us as individuals or to us as a community. ‘When Israel was a child, I loved him.’ God loved us first, showing us a love as tender as that of a mother for her son, or of a wet nurse for her infant.
This is an opportunity for us to realize once again all the signs of love we have received from God, and to give Him thanks for them. At the same time, we must realize that, just like Israel, we fall short of the love bestowed upon us. We have not always recognized how deeply God has cared for us and continues to do so. Recognizing both God’s love and the inadequacy of our response is the starting point for any movement towards conversion, whether individual or communal.
We have not been sent out onto the roads to heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons, as Jesus’ disciples were sent out onto the roads of Palestine. And yet each of our lives has an equally apostolic dimension. That is why we are called to the same radical detachment: to go to God, we need neither gold nor silver, nor a bag for the journey. Above all, we need none of the certainties we create for ourselves and to which we cling. We shall be, for those who welcome us – that is to say, for our brothers and sisters with whom we live, and all those we meet each day – agents of peace to the extent that we are truly free from all attachments.
Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to burn away all attachments to our false sources of security and to fill our hearts with his love, so that we may love one another with the same love with which he himself loves us.
Armand Veilleux