13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: June 27/28, 2026

One day, a golden retriever, known to be an easily distracted dog, stretched in the sun and began his day on the farm.  He caught sight of a deer chomping away at the hostas in the side yard and immediately began to chase it.  As they ran by the garden, he noticed a rabbit having its breakfast on the lettuce. Quickly forgetting the deer, he began to chase away the rabbit.

Running near the pond, he saw a flock of geese grazing, and forgetting about the rabbit, quickly began to chase the geese until they took flight.

Then he caught sight of the old barn cat who was chasing a mouse, chased the cat away, and took up the pursuit of the mouse, until it ran down a hole in the ground. And thus began the day for the golden retriever, first chasing after a great deer, and ending up looking down a hole in the ground where he had pursued the small mouse.

Distractions, the golden retriever had them, and so do we. Distractions are those things that can easily pull our minds, our hearts, our energy, and our attention away from pursuing the things of heaven, which build the kingdom of God in our midst, as we end up pursuing the things of this earth. 

As we sang last week:  where your treasure is, there your heart shall be. . .  So where is our treasure??

If we were to base Jesus’ understanding of family life solely on today’s gospel, we might get the wrong idea.  Jesus isn’t telling us to reject our family.  Rather, Jesus uses this to illustrate a point:  even loyalty to our family, or listening to their opinions, can be a distraction in following after Jesus with all our minds and hearts.

Case in point, if I had listened to what my father wanted me to do in life, I would not be here, but in a dentist's office somewhere, and I might be retired by now. I would not be leading a faith community, or two, at the present moment.

And my mother thought I would not be a good priest because I “lacked the gift of gab,” as she put it.  Even though I pointed out to her, Mom, we’re German,  we’re stoic, we don’t talk a lot like the Irish and the Italians!  And perhaps that works to your advantage with shorter homilies – who knows??

Pursuit of wealth, worrying about what other people think of us and our status within a community, the need to surround ourselves with flashy cars, stylish clothes, the best vacations we can or cannot afford,  living in certain neighborhoods, or hanging out with the right people, all can distract us from the pursuit of the kingdom of God.

And again, as we heard last week, fear, too, can be a distraction:  fear of what others might think, fear of failure, fear of suffering,  fear of the cost of discipleship can all be distractions.

Accepting Jesus means accepting the cross.  Suffering is an unavoidable part of discipleship:  “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

St. Paul reminds us in the letter to the Romans that the choice to accept Jesus and what, then, we should pursue in life, was made at our Baptism:  “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we, too, might live in newness of life.”

Part of our life in Christ requires following the example Christ gave us.  We are to feed the hungry and thirsty.  We are to welcome those who are excluded.  We are to share the love of God.  We are to turn the other cheek when wronged and be the first to offer forgiveness.  These are all essential things when choosing discipleship. And they are all important things.  So don’t get distracted!  Stay focused.  Don’t begin your day pursuing the great values of the kingdom – only to get distracted by the smaller things of the world.