Overview:

Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

Find today’s readings here. 

My first reaction to this saying from Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel is always, “Does God really know what I need?” 

It reminds me of a line from the off-Broadway production, “Frankenstein—A New Musical”, where Dr. Frankenstein’s younger brother, William Frankenstein (a role I got to play in my hometown’s own take on the production) asks his nanny, Justine: 

Why does God even care? Why does he listen to our prayers? Doesn’t he already know what we’re praying for?

The young, inquisitive William, who, throughout the rest of the song, is asking questions to Justine (honestly, for the sole purpose of asking questions), hits upon something rather poignant: Does God even care? If God does care, doesn’t he already know our needs before we ask? What’s the point of trusting in God? Maybe I should only trust my own means of care. 

This question has, undoubtedly, been raised in our minds from one time to another, and it is exactly the question that Jesus addresses in our Gospel today. 

However, Jesus doesn’t simply say “trust in God, and that’s all you need.” Jesus instead invites all to look at our surroundings and say “look at the beauty of God’s creation.” If God, our heavenly Father, can so care with delicacy and intricacy the things of this earth, what more does that mean for us as God’s own children? “See these things,” Jesus seems to say, “and seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. Know that God will and must provide.” 

But even still, this God is not one far off and unrelatable. In case we find ourselves asking this question too, the church, through the lectionary, has appointed for the Gospel antiphon a phrase that doesn’t come from the Gospel appointed but from Corinthians: “Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

The God whose kingdom we seek and whose righteousness we pursue is one who knows intimately our own needs and desires, precisely because he had them too. It is this God we follow, who became like us in all things but sin, so that we, like him, might live on this earth knowing to whom we belong and from whom all good things come (James 1:17). 

When this reflection is published, I’ll be with around 450 L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics, allies and those who minister to them at Outreach 2026, the biennial conference for Outreach, the L.G.B.T.Q. ministry of America Media, of which I have the privilege of serving as assistant director. 

At this conference, so many people will be gathered together to pray, to dialogue and to come to know that they are deeply loved and cared for by the God who created them. However, for a few, this is the first time that they are walking back into a church, let alone a Catholic parish, in years. I am continually amazed by the trust given by these individuals that their stories and experiences will both be treated with care and come to know through them, even if others in the church say otherwise, that our heavenly Father knows and provides all that we need. 

May it be so for us too, trusting in the words of Jesus, our friend and our brother: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you” (Matthew 6:33).

John Consolie is the assistant director of Outreach.