Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Sunday of the Word of God

January 22, 2023

Is 8:23-9:3, Ps 27, 1Cor 1:10-13.17, Mt 4:12-23

 

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

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The following text guided the homily: 

* Today we celebrate a special feast in the Church’s liturgical calendar, one that Pope Francis decreed in 2019 would take place each year on the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. It’s the Sunday of the Word of God. While every Mass is focused on the Word of God and every day should be an opportunity for us to thank God for revealing himself to us, Pope Francis said that he wanted to establish it to give special emphasis to the Word of God in Catholic life and to help believers “grow in religious and intimate familiarity with the sacred Scriptures,” “appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people,” “experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world,” and “marked by this decisive relationship with the living word…, grow in love and faithful witness.” And so we approach the gift of God’s word in today’s readings with those papal hopes in mind!

* In the Gospel, we see various dimensions of the gift and power of the Word of God. St. Matthew tells us that Jesus left his native Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. He did so to fulfill the prophecy Isaiah had announced 700 years before, which we encounter in today’s first reading: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” By that point in history, Zebulun and Napthali, regions named respectively after two of the 12 sons of Jacob, had been annihilated by the invading Assyrians. Those who survived were still in the darkness not only of collective trauma but of subjugation. Isaiah’s words were those of hope, that God, their light and their salvation, would eventually illumine their existential gloom and bring redemption to their slavery and abjection. God’s word remained a lifeline in their darkest times and served as a lamp for their feet and light for their path (Ps 119:105). In the Gospel, we see the fulfillment of Isaiah’s inspiring prophecy. Jesus, the Light of the World, the long-awaited Messiah, the Word of God made flesh, came to them and by his teaching, by his miracles, by his presence, and eventually by his passion, death and resurrection led them on an exodus from darkness into great light. God himself came to help them see the light, live in the light, and walk as children of the light. That’s why, as St. Matthew recounts for us, Jesus’ first words were “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is another way of saying, “Leave the darkness behind; come, believe in, and live in, the light!”

* Then Jesus made the fulfillment of the Word of God, the pilgrimage from darkness into light God had announced through Isaiah, even more specific. He saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, fishing. He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Even though St. Peter’s first words to the Lord, recounted in St. Luke’s version of this encounter, were “Depart from me, O Lord, because I am a sinful man,” even though he was a man vexed by a life at least partially mired in darkness, Christ called him. And Peter left the darkness of sin behind, as well as his boats,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Chapel of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Sunday of the Word of God

January 22, 2023

Is 8:23-9:3, Ps 27, 1Cor 1:10-13.17, Mt 4:12-23

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.22.23_MCs_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* Today the Church marks for the fourth time the Sunday of the Word of God, which Pope Francis decreed in 2019 would take place each year on the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. He established it, he said, in the hope that it would help believers “grow in religious and intimate familiarity with the sacred Scriptures,” “appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people,” “experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world,” and “marked by this decisive relationship with the living word…, grow in love and faithful witness.” And so we approach the gift of God’s word in today’s readings with those hopes in mind.

* In the Gospel, St. Matthew tells us that Jesus left his native Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, in the territory of Zebulun and Napthali. The reason he did so was not just because his fellow Nazarenes had tried to kill him by tossing him off the cliff on which Nazareth had been built, but to fulfill a prophecy, the prophecy that Isaiah announced 700 years before in today’s first reading: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” By that point in history, Zebulun and Napthali, regions named respectively after two of the 12 sons of Jacob, had been annihilated by the invading Assyrians. Those who survived were still in the darkness not only of collective trauma but of subjugation. Isaiah’s words were those of hope, that God, their light and their salvation, would eventually illumine their existential gloom and bring redemption to their slavery and abjection. In the Gospel, we see the fulfillment of that inspiring prophecy. Jesus, the Light of the World, the long-awaited Messiah, came to them in order — by his teaching, by his miracles, by his presence, and eventually by his passion, death and resurrection — to lead them on an exodus from darkness into great light. He was going to help them see the light, live in the light, and walk as children of the light. That’s why, as St. Matthew recounts for us, Jesus’ first words were “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is another way of saying, “Leave the darkness; come, believe in, and live in, the light!”

* Then Jesus made that pilgrimage from darkness into light even more specific. He saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, fishing. He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Even though St. Peter’s first words to the Lord, recounted in St. Luke’s version of this encounter, were “Depart from me, O Lord, because I am a sinful man,” even though he was a man vexed by a life at least partially in darkness, Christ called him. And he left the darkness of sin behind, as well as his boats, the biggest catch of fish in his life, and everything else immediately to follow Christ into the light. As did his brother Andrew. As did James and John moments later. Such was the power of Christ, of his personality, of the way he emitted the luminous presence of God, that ordinary, hard-working men would leave everything on an instant to follow him.

* But that was just the beginning for the apostles.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, A, Vigil

January 21, 2023

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.21.23_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

 

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 the Lord wants to have with us this Sunday, when the Church will mark for the fourth time the Sunday of the Word of God, which Pope Francis decreed in 2019 would take place on the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. He established it, he said, to help believers, to assist you and me, to grow in our knowledge of Sacred Scripture, to mine its inexhaustible riches and help us better to proclaim that treasure to the world. Scripture, he added, is a “constant dialogue between the Lord and his people.” When approached in a spirit of prayer, it allows us to enter into the most consequential conversation of all. That’s why when Conversations with Consequences was begun back in 2019, the Catholic Association asked me to contribute a reflection each week on the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, so that we might better respond to the invitation Christ gives us eek to enter into a prayerful discussion that overflows into a dialogue of life. As we mark this weekend the Sunday of the Word of God, we give thanks to the Lord for entering into colloquy with us and ask his help so that we might be able to bring many others into that life-changing, heart-to-heart exchange.

* Let’s turn to the consequential conversation the Lord wants to have with us in our parishes this Sunday. Matthew tells us that Jesus left his native Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, in the territory of Zebulun and Napthali. The reason he did so was not just that his fellow Nazarenes had tried to kill him by tossing him off the cliff on which Nazareth had been built, but to fulfill a prophecy, the prophecy that Isaiah announced 700 years before in Sunday’s first reading: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” By that point in history, Zebulun and Napthali, two regions named after two of the 12 sons of Jacob, had been annihilated by the invading Assyrians. Those who survived were still in the darkness not only of collective trauma but of subjugation. Isaiah’s words were those of hope, that when the Messiah would come, he would bring great light to illumine their existential gloom, that he would bring redemption to their slavery and abjection. In the Gospel, we see the fulfillment of that prophecy. Jesus, the Light of the World, the long-awaited Messiah, came to them in order — by his teaching, by his miracles, by his presence, and eventually by his passion, death and resurrection — to lead them on an exodus from darkness into great light. He was going to help them see the light, live in the light, and walk as children of the light. That’s why, as St. Matthew recounts for us, Jesus’ first words were “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is another way of saying, “Leave the Darkness. Come, believe in, and live in, the Light!”

* Then Jesus made that pilgrimage from darkness into light even more specific. He saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, fishing. He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Even though St. Peter’s first words to the Lord, recounted in St. Luke’s version of this encounter, were “Depart from me,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

January 21, 2023

Heb 7:25-8:6, Ps 40, Mk 3:7-12

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.19.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today in the Gospel we see something on which we can never focus enough: the great attractiveness of the Lord Jesus. St. Mark tells us that such a large crowd of people was following Jesus that he needed to have a boat ready to push a little bit away from the shore so that the people wouldn’t crush him. They were coming from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the Transjordan, Tyre and Sidon. For those who don’t know the geography of the Holy Land very well, those locations might just be names. But Galilee was in the north and Judea in the south of the Holy Land. Idumea was even further to the South. The Transjordan was the pagan inhabited region on the eastern side of the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee. Tyre and Sidon were pagan cities way to the north along the Mediterranean. To get a sense of the message St. Mark was communicating it would be as if Jesus were here in Manhattan and that people were walking to see him from Maine, Connecticut and as far away as Washington, North Carolina, and Montauk, Long Island, and it wasn’t just Catholics coming but also atheists, secularists, and those of other religions. They were all pressing upon Jesus, who was curing and teaching. Even the demons couldn’t resist. When they saw him, they fell down before him — in other words, in begrudging adoration — and shouted, “You are the Son of God.”

* We need constantly to ask whether Jesus maintains this attraction for us and others. There are many today for whom Jesus has become a little like Abraham Lincoln, a revered figure of the past but not someone with whom one has a personal relationship. Just like many won’t make the sacrifice to go to Springfield, Illinois, or to the Lincoln Memorial in DC, so many won’t even make the effort to go to Church to spend an hour with him in adoration or, sometimes, even go to meet him at Mass. Many say they believe in him, but what they likely mean is that they believe he existed, lived, died, and even rose; they don’t, however, really live by faith, committing themselves to him and being drawn fundamentally not by duty but by fascination, by love, by attraction. Those who are fascinated by Jesus will hunger for his word and become men and women whose lives are drenched by the daily dew of the Gospel. Those who are attracted by Jesus will come to him in adoration and say, as the young Samuel did, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Those who truly believe in what Jesus has said and done and who love him will seek to come to meet him at Mass every day they can and in confession to say sorry as often as they sin. Those who take Jesus seriously will, in union with him, go out as Good Samaritans to care for a wounded world. Jesus has never lost his attractiveness. He’s as attractive today as ever. But many times our lives, our hearts, our minds, are so saturated with worldly cares and anxieties, with lesser hopes, with false gods that we place first in our lives, that the type of wonder, fascination, love and attraction we’re supposed to have toward Jesus is extinguished partially or fully. Today is a great day to ponder anew the real person of Jesus who is alive in the Sacraments, who speaks to us in his Word and in prayer, who is present in his image in others, especially in the needy, and to make the effort — even the crazy effort of walking from our own Tyre or Idumea to the Sea of Galilee — to draw close to him.

* When we do,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

Beginning of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity

January 18, 2023

Heb 7:1-3.15-17, Ps 110, Mk 3:1-6

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.18.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today we make a shift in our three-week study of the beautiful Letter to the Hebrews. Until now, it’s introduced us to Christ’s priesthood as God the Father’s ultimate word, who through compassionate obedience in suffering and death, seeks to lead us through our suffering and death to perfection, if only we respond with eagerness and allow his living and effective word to profit us as it ought. Today we begin to look more deeply at Jesus’ high priesthood and its characteristics, a priesthood in which he offers himself as the Victim and seeks to transform us to make of our lives a loving sacrifice for God and others. The Letter to the Hebrews does so by focusing on the figure of Melchizedek, but before we get to him, it is important for us first to focus on the context of the priesthood in God’s plans in general. The priesthood, both in the Old Testament and in the New,  has a specific purpose: to offer sacrifices to God specifically for the forgiveness of sins. God had given his people the gift of the Law, the gift of the Covenant, the gift of the Commandments to help them to keep the Covenant, but just like we see with Adam and Eve in the beginning, people abused their freedom by failing to live their end of the Covenant. They chose against God, against the Law he gave to form them to love Him and to love others. Hence the priesthood was established out of God’s mercy to make sacrifices of expiation for the forgiveness of the sins against love of God and others, against the Law. But the Old Covenant Aaronic priesthood wasn’t sufficient to do this. Holocausts of various types of animals and other forms of sacrifice were not sufficient. Jesus came as the Eternal High Priest to make an expiatory sacrifice as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He did this through his own suffering and death. He did this by offering himself.

* That brings us to Melchizedek. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us — a sentence of striking importance! —  that he was “made to resemble the Son of God.” When we say of Jesus, as we did at the end of the first reading and during today’s Responsorial Psalm, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” we need to understand that, yes, Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek and not like the Aaronic Cohens, but that Melchizedek was made to be a particular type of priest in anticipation of Jesus. And so what are the qualities of Melchizedek’s priesthood that were made to resemble the priesthood of the Son of God? The first is in his name, which means “King of Righteousness.” Righteousness means being right with God and with others. The second is “King of Salem,” which means “King of Peace.” When we are right with God and others, peace comes as a fruit; when we’re not right with God and others, there will be no real, lasting peace. The third is that he is a “priest of God Most High,” who finds his lineage in God, since he is “without father, mother, ancestry.” This is in contrast to the Jewish priesthood that is based on blood descent from Aaron. Fourth, he was superior to Abraham, shown in the fact that Abraham tithed to him and he blessed Abraham. Christ would say later, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58). Fifth, he was “without beginning of days or end of life,” meaning that his priesthood, resembling that of Christ, was eternal. Based on all of these criteria,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

Memorial of St. Anthony of the Desert

January 17, 2023

Heb 6:10-20, Ps 111, Mk 2:23-28

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.17.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today the Letter to the Hebrews has us focus on the reasons for perseverance in our faith. Up until now, the Letter has been helping us to ponder how we’re called to hear with obedient rather than hardened hearts God the Father’s Definitive Word (Jesus) as he communicates to us in word and witness how God wishes to lead us through suffering and death to perfection and glory. At a time of persecution in which the early Christians would have been reading and hearing the Letter, the author calls them to soldier on: “We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.” Those who have inherited the promises through faith and patience would have been the martyrs, the confessors, the perseveringly faithful apostles, disciples, men, women, boys and girls of that apostolic age, and we’re called to be as eager as they were for the fulfillment of all the hopes Christ himself has announced. There’s a temptation to become sluggish, to get weighed down by the concerns of this world and to begin to downplay the enthusiasm we should have for what God is promising to those who persevere.

* The motivation for that hope is the commitment Jesus has made to us in the New and Eternal Covenant. The Letter to the Hebrews makes an analogy to the Covenant God made with Abraham, saying that “after patient waiting, Abraham obtained the promise.” Abraham needed to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of the land that God was giving him. He needed to wait 25 years for the promise that he would become a father. He’d need to wait even longer until he would become the father of many nations. But he waited patiently. He waited eagerly. And God fulfilled his promise. To help Abraham believe, God made a Covenant with him. Abraham had faith in the Covenant. The Letter to the Hebrews also alludes to the Covenant God made with Moses to help all the Jews as well as to the Covenant Jesus made with us to help all of us. “When God wanted to give the heirs of his promise an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose, he intervened with an oath, so that … we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.” That oath was the new and eternal Covenant in Jesus’ blood. Jesus’ Resurrection in a sense verified that Covenant and Jesus has entered into the Holy of Holies in Heaven praying for us to receive the fulfillment of that promise.

* In a striking and unforgettable image, the Letter says that in the Covenant sealed in Jesus, “we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil, where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” We know how important anchors are for boats in stormy harbors. It’s what keep them from being overturned, from being dashed against the rocks or from drifting out to sea. Jesus, the new and eternal Covenant, is like that Anchor for us. Our hope in Jesus and his promises are like that Anchor, cast beyond the clouds, moored in the Holy of Holies of Heaven, preventing not only our spiritual capsizing but keeping us tethered to the promise. Jesus’ covenantal promise is what helps us not to become slug...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

January 16, 2023

Heb 5:1-10, Ps 110, Mk 2:18-22

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.16.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in today’s homily: 

* At the beginning of Ordinary Time, the Church today helps us to relate to what God is seeking to do with renewed, fresh receptivity. The Church has us focus four times a year at daily Mass on Jesus’ words about feasting and fasting and the parables of the patch and of the wineskins (the 2nd Monday of Ordinary Time, the Friday after Ash Wednesday, the 13th Saturday, and the 22nd Friday). It is one of the most common themes we have, because it’s central to our life as believers. But today we can focus on the fresh receptivity we’re called to give. Jesus, with regard to fasting, said that his disciples needed to learn how to fast differently than the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees, who fasted in reparation, petition and for self-discipline. Jesus wanted his disciples to fast for union with God, to hunger for what God hungers, and to feast when they are in union like “sons of the wedding chamber” do when the Bridegroom is with them and the wedding reception is on-going. Jesus uses two homespun images to illustrate the point. He says he’s not trying to place a small patch on the Old Covenant garments, to improve it in a slight way; rather he’s giving a totally new garment. Similarly the “new wine” he is pouring out cannot be received by tough, un-expansive old wineskins but they need to be received with fresh wineskins that can expand as the new wine expands.

* Ultimately, Jesus says we will fast when the “Bridegroom is taken away from them.” The verb “taken away” in Greek actually means “ripped away.” It’s the same verb that’s used when Jesus was taken out of the Garden of Gethsemane at his arrest by the soldiers of the high priest. This is an indication that we’re called too fast to be united with his passion. That’s what leads us to today’s very important passage from the Letter to the Hebrews. Throughout the Letter until now, we have learned that God the Father’s definitive Word, his Son, has come to lead us to perfection, to eternal salvation, through his suffering and through helping us suffer with him. The Letter has urged us not to harden our hearts to this message but to let the Word profit us by approaching God’s throne to receive mercy and grace whenever we need it. Today the Letter continues to show us the type of high priest we have, the one who is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, because he himself has been tested in every way we have been and passed those tests. Like the old covenant high priests, Jesus has been chosen from among men — hence the incarnation, where God the Father said “You are my Son” and made him a priest not according to the order of Levi but the order of Melchizedek — to represent us before God and to offer sacrifices not of bulls and goats and other animals but to offer himself. He is able to deal patiently with others because he has his own human physical weaknesses. Hence he prayed with “loud cries and tears” and “learned obedience from what he suffered” and was perfected by what he suffered. Jesus wants us, through our baptismal and — in my case — ministerial priesthood to receive the gift of his priesthood with freshness and through our fasting seek to unite ourselves totally to that work, recognizing that we too have been chosen in him to offer ourselves as the holy and acceptable sacrifice, our spiritual worship (Rom 12:1-2), so that we might receive salvation and in Christ be a minister of eternal salvation to...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

January 15, 2023

Is 49:3.5-6, Ps 40, 1 Cor 1:1-3, Jn 1:29-34

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.15.23_Homily_CCM_1.mp3

 

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This past Monday, we concluded the Christmas season with the celebration of the Feast of the Lord’s baptism. With the help of St. Matthew, we pondered the objective details of the baptism of Jesus that began his public ministry: John the Baptist’s protest that he wasn’t worthy to baptize the Lord; Jesus’ insisting that it had to occur to fulfill all righteousness; the Holy Spirit’s coming down on Jesus visibly like a dove; and God the Father’s voice thundering from heaven, “This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” Today we revisit the same scene, but look at it from the perspective, more or less, of St. John the Baptist, whom St. John the Evangelist seemed to be following up until that point. And we see something surprising if not shocking: the Baptist says that that the whole reason for his mission, the point of his life, the purpose for which he was baptizing with water at the Jordan, was so that he would be able to indicate the one who was coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit: and when that long-awaited person came, the Baptist didn’t cry out, “Behold the Lord!,” “There’s the Messiah!,” “Look!, The Son of God!,” “Here is the Savior, the King of the Jews and King of Kings, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Light of the World, the Resurrection and the Life,” — or any of the other fitting titles that would have filled his listeners with awe at the incredible majesty of the One whose sandal strap John declared he wasn’t worthy to untie. Instead, he used an expression that was not majestic at all: “Behold the Lamb of God!”

* Catholics can grow so accustomed to the phrase “Lamb of God” — which we use in the Gloria, sing three times in the Agnus Dei, and hear the priest say when, echoing the very words of John the Baptist, he holds Jesus in his elevated hands and tells us to behold him — that many of us no longer sense what the Jews would have felt when the Baptist referred to Jesus in this way. Imagine, however, a young child just hitting the age of reason, or an indigenous from a remote village of the Amazon or Papua New Guinea totally unaware of Christianity, were here today and I said about Jesus, “Look! There is the pigeon of heaven!,” or “Behold the squirrel of the Almighty!,” or “Welcome the poodle of the Lord!” Their immediate reaction would likely be similar to that of many Jews to Jesus when they heard Jesus referred to by the term lamb. Lambs aren’t high on our list of beloved and admired animals. They’re not noted for their strength or looks. They’re not impressive like elephants or tigers, stallions, bears or eagles. Yet John the Baptist said the whole reason he was alive was to point the Messiah out using that very expression. Why? What does it mean? Why does God call us to relate to Jesus in that way? How is it supposed to influence our faith and day-to-day life?

* For a Jew, even though a lamb was not a particularly impressive beast, it did have a very important purpose in Jewish life. More than any other animal, it was the one traditionally chosen to sacrifice to God. And Jesus absolutely identified with this means of oblation and expiation. He identified with the lamb sacrificed by Abel that was pleasing to God; with the lamb that God provided for Abraham’s sacrifice so that Isaac his son wouldn’t die; with the lambs whose blood was placed on the lintels of the Jews during the Passover so that their first-born sons would...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

January 15, 2023

Is 49:3.5-6, Ps 40, 1 Cor 1:1-3, Jn 1:29-34

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.15.23_Homily_MCs_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This past Monday, the Church concluded the Christmas season with the celebration of the Feast of the Lord’s baptism. With the help of St. Matthew, we pondered the objective details of the baptism of Jesus that began his public ministry: John the Baptist’s protest that he wasn’t worthy to baptize the Lord; Jesus’ insisting that it had to occur to fulfill all righteousness; the Holy Spirit’s coming down on Jesus visibly like a dove; and God the Father’s voice thundering from heaven, “This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” Today we revisit the same scene, but look at it from the perspective, more or less, of St. John the Baptist, whom St. John the Evangelist seemed to be following up until that point. And we see something surprising if not shocking: the Baptist says that that the whole reason for his mission, the point of his life, the purpose for which he was baptizing with water at the Jordan, was so that he would be able to indicate the one who was coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit: and when that long-awaited person came, the Baptist didn’t cry out, “Behold the Lord!,” “There’s the Messiah!,” “Look!, The Son of God!,” “Here is the Savior, the King of Jews and King of Kings, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Light of the World, the Resurrection and the Life,” — or any of the other fitting titles that would have filled his listeners with awe at the incredible majesty of the One whose sandal strap John declared he wasn’t worthy to untie. Instead, he used an expression that was not majestic at all: “Behold the Lamb of God!”

* We have grown so accustomed to the phrase “Lamb of God” — which we use in the Gloria, sing three times in the Agnus Dei, and hear the priest say when, echoing the very words of John the Baptist, he holds Jesus in his elevated hands and tells us to behold him — that many of us no longer sense what the Jews would have felt when the Baptist referred to Jesus in this way. Imagine, however, a young child just hitting the age of reason, or an adult from a remote village and culture totally unaware of Christian theology, were here today and I said about Jesus, “Look! There is the pigeon of heaven!,” or “Behold the squirrel of the Almighty!,” or “Welcome the poodle of the Lord!” Their immediate reaction would likely be similar to that of many Jews to Jesus when they heard Jesus referred to by the term lamb. Lambs aren’t high on our list of beloved and admired animals. They’re not noted for their strength or looks. They’re not impressive like elephants or tigers, stallions, bears or eagles. Yet John the Baptist said the whole reason he was alive was to point the Messiah out using that very expression. Why? What does it mean? Why does God call us to relate to Jesus in that way? How is it supposed to influence our faith and day-to-day life?

* For a Jew, even though a lamb was not a particularly impressive animal, it did have a very important purpose in Jewish life. More than any other animal, it was the one traditionally chosen to sacrifice to God. And Jesus absolutely identified with this means of oblation and expiation. He identified with the lamb sacrificed by Abel that was pleasing to God; with the lamb that God provided for Abraham’s sacrifice so that Isaac his son wouldn’t die; with the lambs whose blood was placed on the lintels of the Jews during the Passover so that their first-born sons would be spared; with the lambs that were offered each d...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

January 14, 2023

Heb 4:12-16, Ps 19, Mk 2:13-17

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/1.14.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* During this first week in Ordinary Time, we’ve been hearing all week long about the power of the Word of God with the help of the Letter to the Hebrews and the beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel. We’ve stressed up until this point that Jesus is the definitive Word of the Father who has said all that the Father wanted to communicate. He’s taken on our human nature in order to speak to us in humanly intelligible ways, with human words and with human actions. And the message he has come to deliver is one of salvation and liberation, leading us through suffering and death to perfection and glory.

* Today we come to the climax of this first week in the two parts of today’s first reading. The Letter to the Hebrews summarizes all we’ve heard, saying, “The word of God,” by which it means both Jesus, the incarnate Word and the words he says and God inspires others to say for him, “is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” The Word of God is first alive and capable of raising us from the dead. It’s not a word from the past but one very much from the present. The Word of God is, second, effective, its performative, it has real power. We’ve seen the power of his word in the Gospel scenes of this week, how Jesus has called us to repent, believe, follow him and fish for others and how Peter, Andrew, James, John and today Matthew have indeed left everything to follow him, how at a word Jesus has cast out demons, forgiven sins, made a paralyzed man walk, and healed countless sick people. That is the power of the word that at the beginning said, “Let there be light” and there was light. Third, the word of God is “sharper than any two edged sword,” the sharpest of all ancient tools and weapons. We would say today it is sharper than any surgeon’s scalpel or the finest razor blade. Fourth, that scalpel penetrates, it is able to cut through the finest of all articulations, separating “soul and spirit, joints and marrow,” and even excising from us our sins. Jesus the incarnate Word is so living, effective, sharp and penetrating that he can “discern reflections and thoughts of the heart” because “everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.” He is able to do this not only by his divine omniscience but also by his human experience. He has entered into our human reflections and thoughts, he has shared our transparency before God and looks at our reality not just with divine but human eyes.

* A few years ago I had the privilege to accompany the Board of Directors of the American Bible Society to Rome. When we met Pope Francis, he spoke to us about this passage “on the power of God’s word.” He said, “That word is living and active. At the very beginning of creation, God spoke and the world came to be (cf. Gen 1:6-7). In the fullness of time, Jesus gave us words that are ‘spirit and life’ (Jn 6:63). By his word, he restored broken hearts, as in the case of Zacchaeus and the tax collector Matthew, to whom ‘he said, ‘Follow me’. And he got up and followed him’ (Mt 9:9). … God’s word is sharp… for it penetrates to the depths and brings to light the dark recesses of the soul. As it penetrates, it purifies. The double edge of this ‘sword’ may at first wound, but it proves beneficial, for it cuts away everything that distances us ...