Collaborators of Christ. 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Today we return to a Sunday in Ordinary Time. After more than three months marked by Lent and the Easter season, we return to the continuous reading of the Gospel of Matthew. Fortunately, this return is not only a liturgical transition; it is also an invitation to rediscover our identity and our call to be collaborators of Christ and to live the true soul of the apostolate.

Today's liturgy focuses on God's call. In the first reading, God calls Moses on Mount Sinai and entrusts him with a message for Israel: they are to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, a people set apart as God's personal possession. This call is about belonging entirely to God. 

In the Gospel, Jesus calls the Twelve Apostles. This choice is deeply symbolic. The Twelve represent the twelve tribes of Israel, rooted in the sons of Jacob. Thus, Jesus is reconstituting the people of God, forming a new Israel. These men are chosen to be close collaborators in his mission.

Significantly, however, they are not chosen because they are perfect. They are ordinary men, marked by weakness and sin. As they walk with Christ, their limitations become evident, but so does their growth. Their journey reminds us of an essential truth: Christ does not wait for us to be perfect before calling us. Rather, he calls us toward perfection. Holiness is not a prerequisite for the call; it is its goal. 

St. Paul expresses it beautifully in the second reading: “God demonstrated his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”. Christ loved us before we were worthy of being loved; He called us before we were worthy.

The Gospel also reveals what we can rightly call the soul of the apostolate: the compassion of Christ. Before calling the Twelve, Jesus looks at the crowds and is moved with compassion, because they were “..." (Mt. 5:15).“exhausted and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd".

This compassionate gaze is the source of the mission. Jesus calls the apostles because he has compassion for the people. He sends them out with that same compassion. Their mission-to the lost sheep, to the sick, to the lepers, and even to the dead-is shaped by the very heart of Christ.

As Dom Chautard teaches in The soul of the apostolate, The foundation of all apostolic work is the interior life. The effectiveness of our mission does not depend primarily on our activity, but on our union with Christ. Only when our interior life is anchored in Christ can our work bear lasting fruit. In today's Gospel we see, so to speak, the inner life of Christ. His inner disposition is marked by compassion.

Finally, the Gospel reminds us that this vocation is a gift. It is freely given, not earned. And because it is received gratuitously, it must be shared gratuitously: “It is not earned.“Freely you have received, freely give”. The logic of grace and gift is a fundamental dynamic of Christian life and mission.