Saturday, July 11, 2026
Saturday of the Fourteenth week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 10:24-33
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory!” The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 93:1,1-2,5
The Lord reigns! He is clothed with majesty! The Lord is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved. The Lord reigns! He is clothed with majesty! The Lord is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved. Your throne is established from long ago. You are from everlasting. Your statutes stand firm. Holiness adorns your house, the Lord, forever more.
Gospel
Matthew 10:24-33
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! Therefore don’t be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed; and hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. “Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin? Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father’s will, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Lectio
There is a curious sequence in Isaiah's vision that we might overlook. Before the prophet can say "Here I am, send me," he must first say "Woe is me." The encounter with holiness does not flatter him; it undoes him. He sees himself truly for the first time — his unclean lips, his ordinary belonging to an ordinary, sinful people. And it is precisely there, in that honest unraveling, that the burning coal comes. God does not wait for Isaiah to clean himself up. The cleansing is gift, and only after the gift comes the call. We so often reverse this order in our own hearts, believing we must become worthy before we can be sent.
Notice, too, what the Lord asks once Isaiah's lips are healed: that he speak. The mouth that confessed its uncleanness becomes the mouth that proclaims. And in the Gospel, Jesus presses this same point with disarming tenderness. Three times He says, "Do not be afraid." Speak in the light what you heard in the dark. Proclaim from the housetops. The fear that silences us — fear of being mocked, of being called Beelzebul as the Master was, fear even of those who can harm the body — is met not with a command to be brave but with an assurance of being seen. Every sparrow's fall is noticed. The very hairs of your head are numbered.
This is the quiet thread joining the readings: the God before whom the seraphim cover their faces is the same God who counts your hairs. The throne that shakes the temple's foundations belongs to the Father who knows you intimately enough to send you exactly as you are. To confess Him before others is not first an act of courage but an overflow of having been touched, forgiven, and named beloved.
Where in your life are you waiting until you feel worthy or clean enough before you answer a call you already sense God placing before you — and what would it mean to let the coal touch your lips first?
What is the truth you have heard in the dark, in prayer or in your own conscience, that you are afraid to speak in the light because of who might call you a fool for it?
Saint of the day
St. Benedict, Abbot and Patron of Europe (c. 480-547)
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora