Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection June 20, 2026

20th June 2026 (Saturday)

Psalter: Week 3

Here are the Catholic Mass readings and a daily reflection for Saturday, June 20, 2026, an ordinary weekday with the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today’s readings hold a king’s ingratitude beside the Gospel command to stop worrying and seek first the kingdom of God.

Readings of the Day

First Reading: 2 Chronicles 24:17-25

After the death of Jehoiada the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord. These testified against them, but they would not pay attention.Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’” But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!” At the end of the year the army of the Syrians came up against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army, because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash. When they had departed from him, leaving him severely wounded, his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

Psalm 89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34 (R. 29a)

R/. I will keep my faithful love for him always.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. Though Jesus Christ was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich

R/. Alleluia

Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Saturday – 11th Week in Ordinary Time

Main Point: Worry is not harmless. It is a quiet confession that we trust our own grip more than our Father’s care. Jesus calls us to choose one master and to seek one kingdom first.

1. We like to think we can keep a foot in two camps. Serve God, yes, but keep money close as a backup, just in case He does not come through. Jesus shuts that door firmly today. There are two masters on offer, and we have to pick one.

2. “No one can serve two masters. You will hate the one and love the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Notice He does not say it is unwise to try. He says it is impossible. The heart was built to bow to one throne, and whichever we choose, the other becomes our rival.

3. Then He moves from money to its faithful shadow, worry. “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will put on.” He knows our fear runs straight to the basics, to survival, to keeping ourselves afloat. And He meets that fear head on.

4. Look at the birds, He says. They do not plant or harvest or fill barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Consider the lilies. They do not labour, yet not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of them. If God clothes the grass that is here today and burned tomorrow, will He not care for you?

5. Then the gentle sting. “O you of little faith.” That is what worry really is, when we hold it up to the light. Not a personality quirk, not just stress, but a small failure of trust. Every anxious knot is a quiet doubt that our Father is paying attention.

6. “Do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat?” He says the pagans chase after all these things, the people who do not know they have a Father. But we do. We are not orphans scrambling to provide for ourselves. We are children of a God who already knows every need before we name it.

7. Then the line that reorders everything. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Here is the cure for worry. Not to care about nothing, but to put the right thing first. Chase God, and the rest finds its proper place behind Him.

8. Now the first reading shows us the bitter cost of forgetting that. King Joash, the very child rescued and raised in God’s temple, turns away once his protector Jehoiada dies. He abandons the Lord, and even orders the murder of Jehoiada’s son, the priest Zechariah, who dared to call him back.

9. Here is a man who owed God his very life, his rescue from Athaliah, his throne, his every breath, and still he chose other masters once the pressure came. His story is a warning aimed straight at us. We forget the God who carried us the moment we feel we can manage on our own.

My Practice: Name the worry that has been sitting on your chest this week. The money, the health, the future you keep turning over at night. Now hold it honestly against today’s Gospel and call it what Jesus calls it, a thin patch of little faith. Then do one concrete thing to put God first today, before you tend to that fear, a prayer, a Mass, an act of trust, and watch which master you are actually serving. Joash forgot the God who saved him. Do not wait for comfort to make you forget yours.