The lost sheep first

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 10:1-7), our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commissions the Twelve Apostles and tells them:

Do not go into pagan territory
or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

As you go, make this proclamation:
“The Kingdom of heaven is at hand."

This is not to exclude pagans and Samaritans, of course. At the end of the Gospel (28:16-20), after the Resurrection, our Lord commissions the Apostles again and orders them to “make disciples of all nations.”

Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel are a reminder that you and I must not neglect the lost sheep around us: those who had embraced the truth of Christ, but have wandered away.

Alas, even we have perhaps wandered.

Lord Jesus, good and gentle Shepherd, bring us all back.