Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection June 24, 2026

Wednesday – 12th Week in Ordinary Time

24th June 2026 (Wednesday)

Psalter: Proper

Here are the Catholic Mass readings and a daily reflection for Wednesday, June 24, 2026, the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Today the Church celebrates a man called by name before his birth, whose whole life was spent pointing away from himself and toward Christ.

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Isaiah 49:1-6

Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.” And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him for I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Psalm 139:1-3, 13-14, 15 (R. 14a)

R/. I thank you who wonderfully made me.

Second Reading: Acts 13:22-26

In those days: Paul said, “God raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.”

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.

Gospel: Luke 1:57-66, 80

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And a fear came on all their neighbours. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Wednesday – 12th Week in Ordinary Time

Main Point: God knew John, named his mission, and set him apart before he drew a single breath. The same is true of you. Today’s feast is a window into how personally God calls each life into being.

1. The Church does something unusual today. We almost always mark the day a saint died, the day they were born into heaven. Only three births are celebrated in the whole year: Jesus, His mother Mary, and John the Baptist. That alone should make us lean in and ask why this man matters so much.

2. Look first at how the Gospel scene unfolds. The neighbours have already decided the baby will be named after his father, Zechariah. But Elizabeth says no, “he shall be called John.” They argue. They turn to the father, who has been unable to speak for months, and he writes four words that settle it. “His name is John.”

3. That name was not chosen by the family. It was given by God through the angel before the child was even conceived. And the moment Zechariah obeys and writes it, his voice comes back and he bursts into praise. Obedience opened the mouth that doubt had closed. The whole hill country is left wondering, “What then will this child be?”

4. The first reading reaches back centuries and answers as if it were written for John himself. “The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.” Before John could do anything, before he was strong or useful or impressive, God had already called him and given him a purpose. The calling came first. The work came later.

5. And the Psalm presses this truth onto every one of us. “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” This is not poetry about John alone. It is about you. You were not an accident or an afterthought. God was at work in the hidden dark before anyone knew you existed, shaping a life He had already called by name.

6. Notice, too, where John spent most of that life. The Gospel ends by telling us simply that “the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness” until the day he appeared in public. Years of hidden preparation. No crowds, no fame, just God quietly forming him in the silence. Most of a holy life is built where no one is watching.

7. Then we meet the heart of who John was. In the second reading, Paul recalls how John, at the end of his road, kept pointing past himself. “I am not he. After me comes one the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.” Here is the greatness of John. He had a crowd, he had influence, and he spent all of it directing people away from himself and toward Christ.

8. Saint Augustine drew out something beautiful about this. John, he said, is the voice, but Christ is the Word. A voice exists only to carry a word to the listener, and once the word has landed in the heart, the sound fades away. John never confused himself with the message. He was content to be the voice that announces and then quietly steps aside.

9. That is the hardest holiness of all. Not to die for the faith, though John did that too, but to decrease so that someone greater can increase. We live in a world that teaches us to build our own name, to be seen, to take the credit. John shows the opposite path. A life is great not by how much attention it gathers, but by how clearly it points to God.

10. So this feast turns into a quiet examination for us. John knew exactly who he was and who he was not. He knew his purpose and he served it without trying to steal the spotlight. Do we know what we were made for? Or do we spend our lives trying to be noticed, when our deepest calling is to point others toward Christ?

11. And the comfort runs just as deep as the challenge. The God who called John by name from the womb knows your name too. He has known you longer than you have known yourself. Whatever you feel you have wasted or missed, the call He placed in you before your birth has not been cancelled. It is still there, waiting to be lived.

My Practice: Today, sit for a moment with the truth that you were known and named by God before you ever took a breath. You are not here by accident, and your life carries a purpose you did not invent. So ask the question the neighbours asked over John’s cradle, and ask it of yourself. What did God make me for? Then live this day like John lived his, pointing less at yourself and more at Christ. Let one thing you do today quietly turn someone’s eyes toward God instead of toward you.