11th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026

Sacred Heart New Town 8.30am and St Mary’s Cathedral 10.30am

Welcome to everyone who has come to pray. (At New Town, welcome to this Mass of your patronage, the Sacred Heart, by chance the Sunday readings reveal a marvellous picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the heart of his heavenly Father).

There is a line in today’s First Reading that has echoed through the centuries and still has the power to take our breath away:

“I have carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”

Before God gives Israel commandments, before there is a covenant, before there are any obligations, there is love.

God reminds his people of what he has already done for them. He rescued them from slavery. He carried them when they could not carry themselves. Like an eagle lifting its young from danger, God brought them to safety and, more importantly, he brought them to himself.

Note that phrase: “I brought you to myself.”

The goal was never simply freedom from Egypt. The goal was relationship. God wanted his people to know him, to belong to him, to live in his presence.

The same is true for us.

Many of us can look back over our lives and see moments when God carried us. There were times when we could not see the way forward. Times of grief, disappointment, illness, confusion, or failure. Yet, looking back, we can see the hand of God when at the time we saw only darkness.

We are here today because, in one way or another, God has carried us.

Saint Paul takes us even deeper into that mystery in the Second Reading.

“We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for the sinful.”

Paul reminds us that God’s love is not a reward for our goodness. Christ did not die because we deserved it. He died for us whilst collectively we humans were still sinners.

The Cross is the ultimate proof that God never waits for us to become perfect before he loves us.

The world often says: “Prove yourself first.” God says: “I love you first.”

The world says: “Earn your place.” Jesus says: “I have prepared a place for you.”

At the heart of Christianity is not what we do for God, but what God has done for us.

That same theme reaches its climax in today’s Gospel.

Jesus looks upon the crowds and sees people who are “harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.”

The people who are exhausted, beaten down, worn out by life. We know such people. At times we have been such people.

Matthew tells us that Jesus was moved with compassion. His Sacred Heart reached out to them.

Whenever we imagine God as distant or indifferent, today’s Gospel corrects us. God sees the confusion of humanity. He sees loneliness, anxiety, grief, division, addictions, poverty, suffering, and fear. He sees every hidden burden. And his response is compassion.

And then something remarkable happens. Jesus does not simply feel compassion. He acts.

He turns to his disciples and says: “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few.”

And he sends them out.

The God who carries people now calls others to help carry them.

The God who rescues now sends rescuers. The God who brings people home now sends messengers to invite yet more home.

The Twelve are given authority. They are sent to heal, to restore, to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.

What began with the Twelve continues in the Church today.

We often hear this Gospel as a call to pray for vocations—and it certainly is. The Lord’s words are as urgent today as they have ever been.

“Ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.”

We need priests, deacons, religious sisters, and brothers. We need young men and women courageous enough to give their lives completely to Christ.

The Church cannot fulfil her mission without labourers in the harvest.

So today we should pray earnestly for vocations, especially here in Tasmania, that the Lord will raise up generous hearts willing to follow wherever he leads.

But the Gospel is not only about those called to ordained or religious life.

Every baptised person is sent, and every disciple receives a mission.

Parents are sent to their children, teachers are sent to their students, and parishioners are sent to their communities.

(At 10:30am: The opening hymn reminded us that the Church’s foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. Because he has loved us, rescued us, and reconciled us, we cannot keep that gift to ourselves.)

We are sent with the authority and grace of the Lord who has carried us on eagles’ wings, who died for us while we were still sinners, and who looks upon every human person with compassion.

The simplest way to understand today’s readings is this:

God’s first movement is towards us: He seeks, he rescues, he carries, he forgives and he brings us to himself.

And then, being the recipients of such love, we are sent into the world so that others may discover and experience his divine love for them.

Most Rev. Anthony J. Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
14 June 2026