Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Advent Day of Recollection for Columbia Students and the Leonine Forum Fellows

December 3, 2022

 

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Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, A, Vigil

December 3, 2022

 

To listen to an audio recording of the brief homily, please click below:

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The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation God wants to have with us this Sunday, as the Church leads us on pilgrimage to the Jordan River, as she does every Second Sunday of Advent, so that we might enroll in the school of St. John the Baptist, hear his message and put it into action in our lives. At first glance, it seems like a strange choice to meet him at the Jordan, 30 years after Christ’s birth, millennia before his Second Coming. But the reason why the Church always visits John at the Jordan is because he was the one chosen by God the Father from all eternity to get his people ready to receive His Son, who was already walking toward the Jordan River to inaugurate his public ministry. Advent literally means “coming toward,” and in it we ourselves are called to prepare for God’s coming toward us — in the past, 2000 years ago in Bethlehem; in the future, with power and great glory on the clouds of heaven; and in the present, in his Word, in the Eucharist, and in grace. The preparatory work announced by John is the way we’re called to get ourselves ready to receive the Lord who is coming. What is that work?

* When we meet him at the Jordan, John blares, “I am the voice of One crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” In the ancient world, the roads were a mess. Every time there was a battle, the roads would be attacked and bridges destroyed, to try to stop the advance of the enemy. The weather took its toll as well, leading to all types of serious potholes and other obstacles. Any time a dignitary would be coming, they would have either to fix the roads or build new ones so that the rolling caravan accompanying him could arrive without delay and without hassle. John the Baptist is telling us that to get ready for the Lord who is coming this Advent, we, too, need to prepare a way for him. We, too, need to make straight the paths. In the ancient world, preparing such a path meant a great deal of manual work, making crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth, and even charting paths through the mountains and valleys. For us, that pathway will not be traced on the ground, but on the sometimes hardened terrain of our hearts. It will not be made in the wilderness, but in our day-to-day environs. The work is not something that will make our hands dirty, but our souls clean. What John the Baptist is calling us to is conversion.

* To preach conversion is the mission of the Baptist, which is why we encounter him every Advent, because in Advent this message must be preached and conversion must be practiced. The reason is because Jesus has come into the world to save us from our sins and from what our sins lead to, death. That’s why John the Baptist’s message is such a gift. His whole vocation, his whole mission, was to deliver that message. Before he was even conceived, the Archangel Gabriel said to his dad, Zechariah, “He will turn the hearts of many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before the Lord, to turn … the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Lk 1:16-17).  Nine months later at his birth, Zechariah exclaimed, “You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Friday of the First Week of Advent

December 2, 2022

Is 29:17-24, Ps 27, Mt 9:27-31

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

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The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* We encounter again today the double-dynamism of Advent: Christ’s coming in the past, present and future — history, mystery and majesty — and the way the Church has been teaching us how we’re called to go out to meet him in each of these three moments and be so transformed by him that we will follow and walk with him thereafter.

* Today Christ was passing by two blind men who had gone out to meet him, crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” But then Jesus had them journey to encounter him physically. It would have been easy for Jesus just to go to them where they were — like he stopped for the woman with the hemorrhage elsewhere in the Gospel — and work the miracle there. But he went into the city to make them make the effort to follow him. When they do, that’s when Jesus approaches and asks them the question of faith, “Do you believe that I can do this for you?” When they express their faith, Jesus helps them to see. This is a pattern we see throughout the Gospel. Jesus could have been born right next to the Shepherds, but instead he comes down from heaven to Bethlehem and has them move some distance to run by faith. In the Gospel the Church would have heard this Wednesday if we didn’t have the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, when Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish, the scene began with his having all of the people bringing him the lame, the blind and those with illnesses climb a mountain before they received their miraculous cures. He comes, but he still makes us get up and go to meet him, to stoke our faith and our desire. This is a very important spiritual lesson both for Advent and for life. Jesus with his mercy comes to us in history, mystery and majesty but we have to recognize our need for it and be willing to make the effort to come to receive it. Like St. John the Baptist will announce this Sunday, we need to make straight the paths for his coming and our going.

* Jesus’ messianic work can be summarized by healing our blindness. The Season of Advent can be encapsulated by God’s desire to give us the vision to walk by the light of faith. In the first reading, Isaiah tells us, “On that day … out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see,” and we need to see ourselves among the blind whom the Savior comes to heal. I remember one talk at the UN several years ago during conversations on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A former Ambassador, now disabled, spoke about how when we think about the disabled, we ought to be thinking not just about “others” but also about ourselves. He said that if we live long enough, we’re going to start to have eye problems, need hearing aids, end up using canes and handicapped ramps and wheelchairs, and may likewise be dependent on so many things that today we take for granted. He said we need to remember that all of us will one day be handicapped. What is true at a physical level is certainly true spiritually. We’re all to some degree spiritually blind, incapable of seeing God where we ought. We’re deaf to his frequency with regard to many of the things he’s trying to say to us. Even though we can walk, fear cripples us from walking in certain directions. Jesus wants to address all of those as he comes, but we need to learn from the blind men how to cry out for mercy and long to see with the eyes of faith Jesus whenever, wherever and however he comes.

* The Lord to whom we need to look,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Thursday of the First Week of Advent

December 1, 2022

Is 26:1-6, Ps 118, Mt 7:21.24-27

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

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The following points were attempted in the homily:

* At the beginning of the Advent Season, as we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” “O Come, Divine Messiah!,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” the Church selects Gospel passages to help us learn the proper dispositions to enter into the meaning of this season and get off to a good start in this new liturgical year. But it’s not enough to get us to cry out with hunger and longing to bid the Lord to come. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us very clearly, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” We need to build our life on him as he comes. “The Lord is an eternal Rock,” Isaiah tells us today. The Psalm adds, “The Lord is God and he has given us light.” The Lord is the solid, stable, unchanging foundation for life, the God who not only is “Light from Light,” but shares that light with us so that we may walk as children of light. Isaiah will tell us on Christmas night that the “people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” and that light is the Lord. Our Advent construction project is to build our life on that rock who gives us that light.

* Jesus uses an image today, taken from his conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, about how we’re supposed to live what he teaches. “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.” That’s what our response is supposed to be to Jesus’ triple coming: to build our life on his taking on our humanity so that we may share in his divinity; to construct our existence on Him in the present, in his Word and in especially in the Word-made-flesh as the source and summit, the root and center of Christian life; and to ground our hopes, aspirations and daily choices in the guarantee of his second coming and to live, as we’re reminded to live each Advent, vigilant and alert each day for his return. Not everyone lives this way. Many are foolish: we hear his Word, we may even be able to cite chapter and verse, but we don’t act on it. Jesus says, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” The true Advent response is Mary’s, which, as we will hear on the Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception a week from today, in response to the Archangel Gabriel’s words, said, “Behold I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be done to me according to your Word!”

* To build our whole existence on Jesus requires great trust, because Jesus’ words are different than the world’s. It’s challenging to build our life on the word of forgiving seventy time seven times, to love our enemies, to love others as God infinitely loves us. It’s hard to build our life on the commandments, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and especially the Beatitudes. But hard does not mean impossible. And God gives us himself to make the difficulty lighter and sweeter. God encourages us to do so today. “Trust in the Lord forever!,” God tells us through Isaiah. “A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.” The Psalm adds, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle

November 30, 2022

Rom 10:9-18, Ps 19, Mt 4:18-22

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click here: 

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The following points were attempted in this homily: 

* There’s a particular fittingness to focusing on St. Andrew at the beginning of Advent, because his life illustrates for us very well the fundamental response of Advent, to run out to meet, embrace and follow Christ the Lord when he comes and to see to bring others from the north and the south, the east and the west to meet him, too. When Christ came into St. Andrew’s life, he not only went out to meet Christ but brought many others to encounter him as well. And so today we can ponder the fundamental Advent dynamism as seen in his life as a disciple and an apostle.

* St. Andrew was someone who hungered for the Messiah, which is the attitude that marked the first Advent of the Jews for the Messiah and should mark every Advent. St. Andrew longed for Christ. He was a disciple of St. John the Baptist, who was preparing the way for the Messiah, and as soon as the Precursor pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, he who takes away the sins of the world!,” Andrew immediately sought to follow Jesus, along with another disciple of the Baptist who was almost certainly the man who would become St. John the Evangelist, the one who would write down the details of the encounter for us (Jn 1:35-42). They would have been terrible private investigators, because even though they were tailing Jesus at a distance, he heard them, turned and said, “What do you seek?” In their nervousness they blurted out, “Where are you staying?” Jesus, inviting them into a dialogue and a relationship, said, “Come and see.” Because it was approaching sundown on the Sabbath — so great was the first impression of that first encounter with Jesus that St. John noted the precise time, “about 4 pm” — they needed to spend about the next 26 hours with him. What a life changing day that was. And that led to what we see in the Gospel today, when, shortly thereafter, Jesus approached Andrew at the Sea of Galilee to call him to be a “fisher of men,” he left everything to follow Jesus. This illustrates for us a very important point about Advent, that when Christ comes for us in history, mystery and majesty, he comes to call us. Advent has a deeply vocational component. It’s a time for us not just to look to “history,” meaning both not merely to Bethlehem and to our own initial calling, but to mystery and majesty, how the Lord comes each day to us and will come on the clouds at the end, to call us, and we need to be as ready and responsive as Andrew was that first time.

* The second thing we learn from Andrew is about how the Lord wants to use us as new John the Baptists to facilitate the call of others. As soon as Andrew and John were able to travel again after the completion of the Sabbath, Andrew ran to his brother Simon and announced, “We have found the Messiah!” His fulfilled desire led him to try to bring others to have their same desires filled. And he brought his brother to Jesus because he wanted his brother to experience the same joy. When Simon came with Andrew to meet Jesus, Jesus said something extraordinary, “You are Simon, son of Jonah. You will be called Cephas” (Peter, from the word for Rock). Little did Andrew know what Jesus’ plans would have been for his brother, that he would become the rock on whom Jesus would build his Church, the one to whom he would give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. All he did was bring Simon to Jesus and Jesus did the rest. Likewise,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

November 29, 2022

Is 11:1-10, Ps 72, Lk 10:21-24

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

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The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today in the readings, we continue to focus, as we do each Advent, on the qualities of our response in preparing to run out to meet Christ who comes to us in history (Bethlehem), mystery (prayer, the Sacraments, his word, and other) and majesty (on the clouds of heaven at the end of time).

* Today the Church wants us to focus, first, on childlike trust. In the Gospel, Jesus praised his Father for his “gracious will” to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to the “childlike,” to those who trust in him as beloved children, to those who are docile, uncomplicated, simple and pure in vision, and unrebelliously dependent on his providential care and love. These mysteries are hidden from the “wise and the clever” of the world, not because God doesn’t want them to receive the revelation and come to salvation but because they obscure their own perception of revelation through their own complications. The fullness of that revelation, Jesus says, is the knowledge of the Father and the mystery of his love. The fullness of that revelation is seen in the image of the Father, Christ himself, who incarnated that wisdom. The plenitude of that revelation happens when we enter into Christ’s own relationship with the Father by the work of the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus says that unless we convert and become like little children, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. Unless we learn to trust in him, unless we see things with simple pure faith, unless we learn to depend on him and recognize that we’re never going to be “self-sufficient,” we won’t be able to understand his kingdom and receive it. Jesus says these words in the Gospel right after he castigates those in Chorazin and Bethsaida for not converting after all his miracles. They witnessed him and his works, but it didn’t lead them to conversion and faith because they sought “adult” explanations that were, in fact, erroneous. The Church wants us to recover the pure vision, the wonder, the trust that should characterize everything we do as Christians. Jesus says that when we do recover that vision, we will be filled with joy. At the beginning of the Gospel, St. Luke tells us, “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” He was full of joy at the reality that it was God the Father’s “gracious will” to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to the “childlike.” And at the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus turned to his disciples and told them, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” The great heroes of Old Testament times all hungered to receive “all the things” that had been handed over to Christ by the Father. They longed to see and hear the fulfillment of all the prophecies in the Messiah who would be Son of God and Savior in a way far greater than they had imagined. Jesus rejoiced at the disciples’ good fortune. If that’s true, how much greater is Jesus’ joy that we not only behold him in his Real Presence, hear his words in the Gospel, but have a chance to touch him and be touched by him in a way far more profound than even his disciples when he was proclaiming these words for the first time! This is why St. John, in his first letter, overflowing with joy, wrote, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the Word of...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the First Week of Advent

November 28, 2022

Is 4:2-6, Ps 122, Mt 8:5-11

 

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below: 

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The following points were attempted in this homily: 

In Advent, we focus first and foremost on the Lord’s coming. The word Advent itself means “coming” and points to the fact that during this season we renew our awareness that Christ is coming to us in history, mystery and majesty: history in Bethlehem; mystery in the Sacraments, prayer and in those made in his image and likeness; and in majesty at the end of time and the end of our lives. But we don’t wait passively. Christ’s coming is not the only action in this season. As we prayed yesterday in the collect to begin the Mass, we beg the Father for the grace of “resolve to run forth to meet” his Son “with righteous deeds at his coming.” Like the wise bridesmaids in Jesus’ parable (Mt 25), we head out to meet him not merely at times that are convenient but in the middle of the night with lighted lamps. For us to run forth, we need to train, like sprinters in track-and-field, and train not just our physical muscles but our heart and spirit. “Running” to meet Christ who is coming is not principally something external, but interior. Today’s readings, especially the figure of the Roman Centurion in the Gospel, models for us those interior virtues we need this Advent and beyond to run out to encounter the Lord. In the Gospel, the centurion hears that Jesus is on his way to Capernaum, but he’s not content just to wait for him to show up. He goes out to meet him along the way and meets him at the edge of the city. And he went out with various essential Advent attributes.

First, he went out to meet him with faith. Jesus is amazed that he, a non-Jew, has so much faith and exclaims, “In no one in Israel have I found such faith.” The Centurion had a confident assurance that God could give him the miracle that he sought, even if he didn’t see it done. At the beginning of Advent, we can assess whether we go out to meet the Lord in history, mystery and majesty with this type of faith.

The second Advent disposition we see in the Centurion is what is at the root of that faith, a sense of obedience that makes him trust in the Lord’s authority. “I too am a man subject to authority,” he said, “with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” The Lord Jesus was amazed at that confident faith, something that came from regular obedience of those in authority and grasping with what authority Christ himself must be acting. To be obedient is to act on what one hears. In Hebrew to “hear” and to “obey” are the same word when it comes to hearing God. That’s why St. Paul in his letter to the Romans talked about the goal of the Christian life as the “obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5, 16:26). Faith leads to obedience and obedience similarly strengthens our faith, since we know that the Lord acts with the authority of the one who created the heavens and the earth. Advent is a time to run forth in faith-filled obedience to God and his commands.

The third Advent virtue also strengthens our faith. It’s humility. When Jesus, having encountered the Centurion who had “run” out to him, says that he will come to the his home to heal his servant, the Centurion replies that he is not worthy to have Jesus enter his home. Even though he was a powerful leader in the Roman army with many men subject to his beck and call, he was still humble and recognized before Jesus that he did not merit even a visit.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

First Sunday of Advent, Year A

November 27, 2022

Is 2:1-5, Ps 122, Rom 13:11-14, Mt 24:37-44

 

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below: 

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The following text guided the homily: 

* We begin today, on this first Sunday of Advent, a new liturgical year, which is meant to give us a new spiritual start. The attitude God wants us to have as we begin with this season of Advent the new liturgical year is given to us by St. Paul in today’s second reading. “What time is it?,” we can ask, and St. Paul replies today: “You know the time. It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

* Advent is a time of spiritual reawakening, as we return to what should be the proper foundation of our life — Christ himself — and build our life on him, recognizing that his coming for us at the end of our life is drawing nearer. We began Mass today singing a classic hymn about this spirituality of Advent awakening, famously set to music by Bach himself. Let’s ponder the words: “Wake, O wake, and sleep no longer, for he who calls you is no stranger: awake, God’s own Jerusalem! Hear, the midnight bells are chiming the signal for his royal coming: let voice to voice announce his name! We feel his footstep near, the Bridegroom at the door. Alleluia! The lamps will shine with light divine as Christ the savior comes to reign. … Zion hears the sound of singing; her heart is thrilled with sudden longing: she stirs, and wakes, and stands prepared. Christ her friend, and lord, and lover, her star and sun and strong redeemer, at last his mighty voice is heard. The Son of God has come to make with us his home: sing Hosanna! The fight is won, the feast begun; we fix our eyes on Christ alone.” In Advent we enter into the centuries long waiting of the Jews for Jesus’ first coming so that we might learn that hunger for Jesus’ second coming. Rather than sleep through the gift of life, we go out to meet Christ the Bridegroom like the five wise bridesmaids in Jesus’ parable, to enter into his victory feast and fix our eyes on him. Sometimes many of us spiritually are like slumbering teenage boys for whom you need a bucket of ice water to get them out of bed! We hit the snooze button on the Lord’s calling us to become fully alive. We know ways we should make God more and more our priority, but we put it off to later. Advent is like a set of spiritual defibrillating pads meant to jolt us out of the spiritual comas into which out of weakness we can fall. So Advent is first a time to wake up.

* Second, it’s a time of excitement. Salvation, St. Paul says, is nearer to us that when we became believers. It’s nearer to us because we’re a full-year closer to meeting Christ face-to-face at the end of our life. Advent is a time when we not only look to the past, to Jesus’ coming in Bethlehem. It’s not merely a time when we look toward Jesus in the present, as he comes to us to teach us by his Word, feed us with his body and blood, forgive us in the Sacrament of Penance, and guide us each day through prayer. It’s also a time when we look ahead, not with anti-Christian dread, but with truly Christian joy, hope and eagerness, to Christ’s second coming. Salvation is nearer to us now than last first Sunday of Advent, than the day of our confirmation and first communion, than the day of our baptism! That’s something that should get us more excited than the most energetic sports fan for a World Cup, or Super Bowl or World Series championship. We get excited by stoking our love for God, for his promises, for heaven, for holiness, for happiness.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, A, Vigil

November 26, 2022

 

To listen to an audio recording of the brief homily, please click below:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.26.22_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry. I hope that you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We give thanks today to have the chance to get ready together for the consequential conversation Jesus wants to have with us this Sunday.

* This Sunday, as you know, is Catholic New Year’s Day, when we begin a new liturgical year, which is meant to provide us a new spiritual start. The liturgical year — in which we retrace all of the events of salvation history from the long wait for a Messiah to the crowning of that crucified and risen long-awaited One as the King of the Universe — is not meant to be a liturgical cycle but a liturgical spiral, not a “same old, same old,” but something that helps us to enter into the mysteries we celebrate far more profoundly than the last time. Like re-reading a great book or watching anew a classic movie, each pass along the liturgical spiral that begins this Sunday is supposed to reveal to us elements we haven’t seen before and remind us of important things that we once knew but have forgotten about the mystery of God, his love for us, and his hopes and plans for us. The beginning of the new year is a time to make resolutions to grow in our spiritual life, because every year that passes means we’re 365 days closer to the coming of the Lord for us at the end of our life or at the end of time, and we never know if the year that we’re commencing might be our last. So we approach this fresh spiritual start with gratitude but also a sense of urgency.

* That urgency is front and center in Jesus’ conversation with us this Sunday in the Gospel. He tells us directly, “You must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Advent is principally about preparing for Christ’s second coming through retracing the way God prepared the Jews for his first coming. Jesus wants us to be ready, awake, alert, hopeful, excited, and looking forward. He doesn’t want the end of time to be like an ambush but a longed-desired reunion, not a pop quiz but a scheduled exam that we’ve studied for and are ready to ace. But he makes clear that some will be ready, some not. He says that at the time of flood, Noah had built the ark and was ready, but most were not and the flood carried them away. He says something similar will happen with his Advent. He says two will be in the field and one will be taken and the other left. There will be two working in the kitchen; one will be taken, the other left. In St. Luke’s account, Jesus adds, “There will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.” Jesus describes that two people doing the same thing at the same time will have two totally different outcomes. This doesn’t mean that the decision is somehow going to be arbitrary, as if God is just going to flip a coin and determine who gets taken by him to eternal happiness and who gets left alienated from him forever. The ones who will be taken to be with the Lord will be those who are ready, who are awake, who are excited for the things of God, who are seeking him, striving to grow spiritually, who are journeying, making the effort to come to meet him, and who even when they’re working the fields, or grinding meal in the kitchen, or resting in bed are seeking to unite their whole life to God. He says if the owner of a house knew the hour when a burglar was planning to arrive, he would not be asleep but ready. So much more, he says,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Wednesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Blessed Miguel Pro, Martyr

November 23, 2022

Rev 15:1-4, Ps 98, Lk 21:12-19

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.23.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today Jesus continues to describe in the Gospel what will happen at his second coming. Yesterday he mentioned some of the physical, international, meteorological and geological events, from the destruction of the temple, to wars and insurrections, to earthquakes, famines, plagues and mighty signs from the sky. Today he turns to what will happen to his followers. It may make the events he described yesterday seem appealing by comparison: he describes how we will be seized and persecuted, handed over to religious and civil authorities, put into prisons, betrayed by parents, siblings, relatives, and friends, hated by all because of his name, and some of us killed.

* Yet Jesus doesn’t preach this as bad news. He says that there is a two-fold purpose for all of this, one to strengthen us as devout disciples and the other as ardent apostles. First, it’s meant to help us to secure our salvation: Jesus says “by your perseverance you will secure your lives.” This means not that salvation will be given to us as a reward for “objective perseverance,” but that to be saved we need the subjective virtue of perseverance and he wants to train us in it. Second, he says it will lead to our effectively carrying out our apostolate: all of this “will lead to your giving testimony.” With regard to the latter point, he assures us that “I myself will give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” He also promises that even though we will be hated, suffer, and some of us will be put to death, “not a hair on your head will be destroyed,” since every follicle is under God’s providential care, he’s numbered each one and we’ll get back every strand at the resurrection of the body. In order to grasp this passage, however, it’s key for us candidly to acknowledge two things that occasionally make us and other Christians uncomfortable.

* First, Jesus never promised that being a Christian would be easy. He said, in fact, the opposite. He told us that to be his disciple we’d need to deny ourselves, pick up our Cross each day and follow him whose footsteps eventually became bloody and whose feet were eventually nailed to a Cross. We need to face squarely what Jesus says about the Christian life, because unless we grasp it, we will not persevere and save our souls. If we don’t grasp, for example, that we will be hated by many people, that we will be betrayed by family members and friends, that we may have to suffer from civil and religious believers on account of our fidelity to Jesus, then when those things happen, we might lose heart and abandon Jesus. If the martyrs never grasped that Jesus was saying that as Christians they might be martyred, they might never have remained faithful when they were being arrested and tortured for Christ. If a wife didn’t realize she might suffer from her husband if she seeks to love Jesus with all her mind, heart, soul and strength, she might not persevere in fidelity. I don’t know how some priests and religious would survive the barrage of criticism we normally get for faithfully preaching and teaching the Gospel of life and love or about treating immigrants as we would treat Christ unless we knew that, like Jesus, we would be hated, even by some good people, for doing so, even sometimes from our own families. Jesus is telling all of us clearly about the “cost” of being his disciple...