SCRIPTURE READINGS 

Twelfth Sunday, June 21, 2026 

Biblical Readings Online Here 
(Year A in the three-year cycle of readings)  

Every human being knows what fear feels like. Our hold on life is not unshakeable. Fear is understandable, but sometimes it can immobilize us. Today’s lectionary looks at fear and illustrates two responses. 

One response is that of Jeremiah, who lived during the opening stages of the terrifying sixth-century national exile. He is remembered both for his conviction that his own life prefigured the nation’s drama of destruction and rebirth. In the sixth of his seven heartfelt petitions to God (Jeremiah 11:18-20:18, sometimes called “Confessions”), he begs God to redress the contempt and mockery heaped on him for preaching that the Lord was behind the nation’s present chastisement. What the mockers forgot was that Jeremiah also foretold the nation’s rebirth after the chastisement. Especially did Jeremiah resent the nickname his candor earned him, “terror on every side.” His prayer in response to mockery is sometimes misunderstood: “Let me witness the vengeance you take on them.” It is not a cry for bloody revenge, but rather a laudable desire to see the course of divine justice fully realized on earth, replacing the national delusion that “things will soon get back to normal.” Justice, according to Jeremiah, must not only be done, but it must also be seen to be done.  

How does Jeremiah know that rebirth will follow the destruction of evil structures? The last lines of his prayer tell us: because the rebirth has already taken place in himself, “Praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the evildoers!” Our own personal experience of rescue can teach us that the just Lord is also powerful.

In Matthew, Jesus uses language probably reflective of early missionary experience: “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed.” What “will be revealed” is the triumph of God over rejection and family divisions resulting from some family members rejecting and others accepting Christian preaching. Overcoming fear and discouragement is a central aim of Jesus’s Missionary Discourse (Matt 9:35-10:42). Today’s excerpt from that Discourse reassures the disciples that they are under the care of the Father who treasures them. Jesus tells preachers to see the evidence of God’s care. The common sparrow has no monetary value yet enjoys divine protection. If God will protect a bird, then God will protect a preacher of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Richard Clifford, S.J., has taught biblical studies for 55 years, most recently at the Clough School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College, and has written many scholarly and popular books and articles.