Top photo: The Gospel for July 5, 2026 reflects how the Lord carries the Cross for all of his people. Magnific photo
By Father Garry Koch
Gospel reflection for July 5, 2026, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
When we hear Jesus speak of the “little ones” our minds turn immediately to the innocence of children, yet that is not what the Gospel seems to intend. Rather, Jesus refers to those who humbly and authentically live out faithful discipleship.
Jesus knows well the burdens and challenges that the ordinary Christian will experience through the course of life and promises to carry that burden with them. These are not just the ordinary struggles of life, but the challenges we have in living faithfully in a hostile world. He also takes the burden of our sins, our weaknesses and shortcomings and lifts them from our shoulders.
Last week we heard the challenge to take-up our cross and now we hear Jesus say something that seems, at least on the surface, to contrast with that.
We are reminded that while we carry our cross, it is Jesus who carried the cross for us. It is his Passion, Death and Resurrection that are the source of our hope and our salvation. We do not have the ability to save ourselves. We do not forgive our own sins. We do not walk alone blindly from this life to eternal life.
Jesus has accomplished all of that for us.
Yet, this also does not just automatically happen to us or for us. While the Paschal Mystery affects universal salvation it does not happen without our knowledge or participation. The journey to salvation, the walk to eternal life, the very forgiveness of our sins, occurs within a dialogue of encounter.
The words that Jesus speaks to us today are those of mercy, compassion and a genuine sense of the daily experience of ordinary people. Jesus may have bantered with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and often encountered the weakest and most vulnerable, but we can overlook that the vast majority of his audience – the thousands who sat on near the seashore – were the ordinary every day people, striving to make their way in the world. They were not lofty or well-educated, and while they had their struggles, were able to meet their daily needs and enjoyed relatively good health.
These are the “little ones.” These are the people that Jesus went to meet; these are the people who sought to follow Jesus.
As disciples in the 21st century, then, we are not much different. Most of us are not theological scholars or canon lawyers; most of us are living lives where we are comfortable, and in reasonably good health. We have our struggles, but we are able to meet our daily responsibilities.
We all carry our sins – either burdened by the past or afflicted in the present – and we seek forgiveness and healing. We all have those moments when we question God’s will in our lives or those of our loved ones. We look at the world and see more hatred, suffering and violence than we do love, security and peace. All of these experiences lead us to ponder our faith and our place in the world.
Jesus invites us to cast those concerns on him in confidence. Jesus, too, looks at a world where there is more hatred than love; suffering instead of security; violence instead of peace, and asks why his disciples have not transformed the world through the message of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit.
We take all of our cares and we put them on the cross, but we do not carry that cross alone. Nor does Jesus carry his cross alone.
We walk together. Our cares, our concerns, are his cares and his concerns.
But we also need to see the bigger picture. The view from the cross is a perspective of the world, and not just my world. The more we encounter the Lord and walk with him, sharing his yolk and carrying the cross with him, the more we begin to understand the world from his perspective. This perspective should lead us to become more merciful, compassionate and generous than the view of the world solely from our own small corner.
We are the little ones, and Jesus invites us to walk next to him, carrying our burdens together.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.