July 8, 2026
Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mt 10:1-7

Today is Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew presents us with the account of Jesus sending forth His twelve apostles to proclaim the Gospel, granting them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every kind of disease and infirmity. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections.

First: Saint Matthew tells us that Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every kind of disease and infirmity (cf. Mt 10:1).

We know that Israel had twelve tribes. In the same way, Jesus gathered twelve disciples and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel.

When Jesus sent them to drive out unclean spirits, what does “unclean spirits” refer to? It refers to those things that hinder us from knowing God and approaching Him—such as money, wealth, fame, social status, all forms of vanity, and the ideologies that imprison us. By sending them to drive out unclean spirits, Jesus was calling them to proclaim the word of God, using it as a weapon to courageously overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil. When Jesus sent them to heal every kind of disease, He intended not only the healing of physical illnesses but also the curing of the diseases inflicted upon the human soul by sin, so that through the grace given by Jesus Christ, the afflicted might find restoration.

Next, Matthew lists the names of the twelve apostles (cf. Mt 10:2-4). Among these apostles, some were fishermen who supported themselves by their own labor—such as Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John (cf. Mt 10:2). Others had received a good education, such as the tax collector Matthew (cf. Mt 10:3). Each had a different background, different relationships, and different temperaments. Yet, called by Christ, they came together to share in the mission of proclaiming the word of God. This very diversity reflects the Catholicity of the Church. Jesus did not demand uniformity from them; He embraced those with different personalities and backgrounds, so that each might fully employ their gifts in the fitting proclamation of the Gospel to the world.

In our Church today, there are many who, due to differing theological opinions or varying understandings of the Church’s hierarchy, have chosen to depart from us. Here, I invite all brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for them, asking the Lord to guide their thoughts and actions, and to lead them to imitate the apostolic community of the early Church—always in communion with the representative of Christ, Saint Peter and his successors—and, like the apostles of the early Church, to bear witness to the truth through their lives and concrete actions.

O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica