Today at Our Lady & St Sebastian's

Tuesday 14 July 2026 (other days)

Tuesday of week 15 in Ordinary Time

or Saint Camillus of Lellis, Priest

The Lord is a great king: come, let us adore him.

Year: A(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: Green.

Saint Camillus of Lellis (1550 - 1614)

He was born in Italy of a noble family. He became a soldier but his taste for gambling and riotous living eventually lost him everything. At the age of 25 he converted as the result of hearing a sermon. He twice tried to join the Capuchin friars but was rejected because of his poor health. Having had experience of hospitals from the inside, he determined to improve them, and he devoted the rest of his life to the care of the sick. He offered himself to the hospital of San Giacomo in Rome and eventually became its bursar. Hospitals were as filthy, and hospital staff as brutal and inadequate, then as they are in many places today. He introduced many reforms and founded a congregation of priests and lay brothers, the Servants of the Sick (later known as the Camillians) to serve the sick both spiritually and physically. He was ordained priest in 1584. He resigned as head of his congregation in 1607 but continued to look after and visit the sick almost until the day of his death.

See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.

Other saints: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (1656 - 1680)

United States: 14 Jul

Canada: 17 Apr

Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks” and the “Geneviève of New France,” she was born in the Mohawk fortress of Ossemenon in what is now New York State, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior and a Catholic Algonquin woman whom he had saved from captivity at the hands of the Iroquois. When she was about four, smallpox killed her parents and her brother and left her scarred and with impaired eyesight. She was adopted by her uncle, the chief of the Turtle clan, and had many offers of marriage. She received some knowledge of Christianity from Jesuit missionaries when she was 11, and she determined to live the life not only of a Christian but of a Christian virgin: a heroic determination at the time. She was baptized when she was 20 and eventually, to escape persecution and death threats, she fled to an established Christian community at Kahnawake in what is now Québec. She advanced in union with God, with bodily mortification and intense prayer, and died at the age of 24. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 June 1980 and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 21 October 2012.

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Today's gospel reading

Jesus began to denounce the cities

Matthew 11:20-24

At that time: Jesus began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgement for the land of Sodom than for you.’

Reflection on the painting

We all know what it is like to look back on a moment and realise that we could have responded better. Perhaps, after sharing a meal with friends, we recognise that we should have listened more carefully to someone’s struggles or shown greater compassion. At other times, we may regret speaking too quickly, failing to encourage someone who needed support, or missing an opportunity to be patient and understanding. Yet these moments can become valuable if we are willing to learn from them.

God speaks to us not only through our successes and virtues, but also through our shortcomings and mistakes. In today’s Gospel, Jesus laments the towns of Galilee that remained unmoved despite witnessing so many of His mighty deeds. They didn't respond well to all they had been given. Capernaum, in particular, had been the setting for much of Jesus' preaching and many acts of healing, yet so many hearts remained indifferent.

Indifference is not always a dramatic rejection of God or of other people; more often, it is just a failure to care. It is the attitude that says, “This does not concern me,” or “Someone else will deal with it.” The people of Capernaum were not condemned because they openly opposed Jesus, but because they became accustomed to His presence and remained unchanged by all that they had seen and heard. We can fall into the same trap, growing so familiar with the gifts of faith, the beauty of the Mass, or the needs of those around us that we cease to respond. I guess the remedy to indifference is attentiveness: taking time each day to notice where God is at work, listening deeply to others, and deliberately choosing to do small acts of kindness and service.

L’Indifférent by Antoine Watteau is a small, charming painting, depicting a young man, elegantly dressed and poised as if in mid-dance. He appears entirely carefree. His almost floating stance suggests someone moving through life without any great concerns or responsibilities. He seems detached from whatever might be happening around him, content simply to drift along, untroubled. The Christian life though is not a leisurely dance through the world as detached spectators. It is an invitation to engage with the world, and to respond with gratitude, compassion, and love. Jesus wants our Hearst to eb aware to the world around us.

L'Indifférent (The Indifferent),

Painting by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721),

Painted circa 1710,

Oil on canvas