Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, C, Vigil

October 1, 2022

 

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

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The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when the apostles approach Jesus to ask him for something. They did not ask the Lord for money. They didn’t ask for fame. They didn’t ask, like Solomon, for worldly wisdom and prudence. They didn’t ask for health or a long life. They asked for something they had discovered was far more important than all of these things combined. They begged him, “Increase our faith!”

* Their petition for increased faith reveals their humble recognition that up until then — even though they were followers of Jesus, even though they were listening to his words, even though they had become in fact his friends — they were not living enough by faith and that they needed the Lord’s help to grow. This Sunday we’re urged to make the same prayer to the Lord.

* To ask for an increase in faith means to ask for three things, since faith means these three things.

* It means, first, to grow in an obedient trust in God. We see this type of trust in Abraham, our father in faith, and in Mary, our mother in faith. When God asked seventy-five year-old Abraham to leave everything he had behind and journey to a far-away land, Abraham trusted in God and did so (Gen 12:1 ff). He trusted in God when God promised that he and Sarah in their old age would finally conceive a son (Gen 15:5; Gen 18:1 ff). He trusted in God even when God had him wait almost 25 years — even after he was 75 — to fulfill that promise. He trusted in God when, 13 years later, God seemed to be asking him to sacrifice that son, Isaac, even though Isaac was the son God promised through whom he would make Abraham the father of many nations (Gen 22:1ff). Abraham trusted in the Lord so much that he would do anything God asked. Similarly, Mary trusted in God’s words through Gabriel that she would conceive a child without the help of a man and that child would be the Son of God (Gen 1:35). She trusted in God when Simeon prophesied that her Son the Messiah would be a “sign of contradiction” rather than a triumphant king and that her own soul would be pierced (Lk 2:34-35). She trusted when she saw her Son carry the wood of his sacrifice up the same mountain that Isaac ascended and no angel held back the hands of the Roman soldiers as they nailed him to the Cross. She trusted when she held her Son’s limp, bloodied body in her arms. She trusted that God would bring great good, in fact our salvation, out of all of this evil. Likewise for us to ask God to “increase our faith!” is to ask Him to increase our trust in Him, so that we might confidently obey him in everything, but especially in the most difficult times and circumstances. On Wednesday this week we will celebrate the feast of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish cloistered nun through whom Jesus revealed to us devotion to his Divine Mercy. Jesus had her paint an image of his blessing us with his mercy at the bottom of which he instructed her to write, “Jesus, I trust in you.” The first way we’re called to grow in faith is through trusting in God, trusting in his ways, trusting in how all things — even suffering, or death, or crucifixion — work out for the good for those who love him. When we pray, “Lord increase our faith,” God responds to infusing within us this gift,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Passages for Catholic Board Meeting, Bar Harbor, Maine

Friday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Jerome, Doctor

September 30, 2022

Job 38:1.12-21;40:3-5, Ps 139, Lk 10:13-16

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.30.22_Homily_Edited_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* “Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.” As we meet in order to organize better to bring Catholic university students to the Holy Land, we remember that their pilgrimages in the footsteps of Jesus are ultimately meant to guide them along the everlasting way, along the path not merely to the earthly but to the heavenly Jerusalem. Today the Lord responds to that prayer for guidance we repeated several times in the Responsorial Psalm, indicating to us not only the beginning of that path but how to persevere in following the Lord to eternal life. That way begins by recognizing who God is and how he acts, receiving his work, words and will, and responding to him with reverence, faith and perseverance. Today’s reading and feast drive home that point.

* In the Gospel, Jesus reproves Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum for their failure to respond profoundly to all that he did among them, saying that if what he did in those cities had been done in the debauched pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon — and, according to a similar passage in St. Matthew — in Sodom and Gomorrah, the inhabitants would all have repented. He didn’t find, however, profound conversion in the three cities of Galilee and threatened that they would go to Hell rather than be exalted. In St. Matthew’s Gospel, which is either a more detailed account of the same words or the description of a similar scene, Jesus said that the Queen of Sheba had come to hear Solomon’s wisdom, and the Ninevites had repented at the preaching of Jonah, but there was a greater than Solomon and Jonah among them, and they hadn’t received the wisdom and repented. They didn’t recognize who was among them.

* This is something God taught Job in today’s first reading. After Job finally succumbed to his grief and to his physical suffering and began to question God’s wisdom and goodness, God spoke to him reminding him that he was the commander of the morning, who holds the ends of the earth, who has entered the sources of the sea and knows the breadth of the earth. God almost seems to joke with Job asking how old he is compared to God. Job, having heard God speak, responded with humility, putting his hand over his mouth and listening to what God had said verbally and through his works, rather than seeking to lecture God.

* This brings us to the Alleluia verse and the end of today’s Gospel. “If today you hear [God’s] voice,” we sang, “harden not your hearts” (Ps 95). Jesus described the spiritual hardening of the arteries at the end of today’s Gospel in terms of what happens to him and what will likewise happen to us. Either God’s word will be received or rejected.  “Whoever listens to you listens to me,” Jesus says. “Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” Jesus is calling all of us to ponder whether we really listen to him or reject him, especially as he speaks to us through his emissaries, the apostles, their successors and others, and as he speaks to us through the evangelists and apostles who have been the Holy Spirit’s instruments to give us God’s word.

* It’s very fitting today to be celebrating the Feast of St. Jerome  not only with pilgrimages to the Holy Land in mind but with these words about how we listen to God through the means with which he speaks to us, particularly Sacred Scripture and the saints. St.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan, NY

Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

September 29, 2022

Rev 12:7-12, Ps 138, Jn 1:47-51

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.29.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* On this Feast of the Holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Jesus describes for us in the Gospel the two-fold activity of angels: “ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” They “ascend” in order to serve the Lord and “descend” in order to serve us on behalf of God. This double service is also alluded to in the Opening Prayer as we turn to God and ask that he “graciously grant that our life on earth may be defended by those who watch over us [descending] as they minister perpetually to you in heaven [ascending].” As we ponder today their double work, we are also called to let them help us to learn how to ascend and descend with them in praise of God and service of others.

* The Archangel’s first and most important activity is to praise God. “Praise him, all you angels,” the Psalms say (e.g., Ps 148:2). They want to help us to learn how to praise God with them. We prayed together in today’s Responsorial Psalm, “In the sight of the angels, I will sing your praises, Lord!” With a watchful gaze, they want to help us to be able to say, both in this world and forever, “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth; in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise; I will worship at your holy temple and give thanks to your name.” They help us to do that obviously in the Mass, which features two great angelic hymns, the one that that derives from what the angels chanted on Christmas morning, the “Glory to God in the Highest,” and the one that comes from what the Prophet Isaiah saw in an angelic vision, the “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Today is a day in which we recognize that we’re not praying alone, but that the angels are helping us to praise and thank God with all our being.

* Their second activity is to descend upon us to bring us God’s assistance. The Archangel Gabriel brought both Zechariah in the temple and Mary in Nazareth God’s word, Raphael brought Tobias God’s accompaniment, Michael brings the Church protection. Their names say a lot about how they seek to serve us. Gabriel means God’s strength and he seeks to strengthen us, like he strengthened the sinless Virgin Mary, not to be afraid to respond to God’s call. Raphael means “God’s medicine” and he strives to heal us not of physical cataracts like he did Tobit/Raguel but rather everything that hinders our seeing God and growing in his image. Michael means “He is who like God” and he strives to defends us from all evil that renders us dissimilar to God who is holy, holy, holy. By our baptism we are united to Christ in his three-fold identity as prophet, priest and king, and the Archangels help us in this triple munera: Gabriel helps us to become prophets like Christ, Raphael helps us to bring God’s medicine especially through the Sacraments, and Michael helps us to reign by serving, protecting us from the way the evil one seeks to help us to serve him rather than God and others.

* Their presence accompanies us in a particular way here at daily Mass. We invoke Gabriel before every Mass as we pray the Angelus at noon and ponder the Good News of the Incarnation that never becomes old news. We invoke St. Michael at the end of Mass asking us to defend us together with Jesus whom we now bear inside. And St. Raphael seeks to help us to live the Mass, the medicine of God, the medicine of immortality, through each day into eternity.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Wednesday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs

September 28, 2022

Job 9:1-12.14-16, Ps 88, Lk 9:57-62

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.28.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Yesterday, Jesus “fixed his face toward Jerusalem,” toward Golgotha, toward the fulfillment of his Messianic mission. Everything for the rest of St. Luke’s Gospel needs to be interpreted within that context. And as he was heading there, he met three different people, two of whom volunteered to follow him and one whom Jesus directly called. But to all of them, Jesus described what it would mean to follow him. What he taught them is crucial for young people on a college campus to discern their vocations in life well and for all of Christ’s disciples to follow Christ faithfully and help others to become true disciples.

* In the first vocation story, a man runs up to Jesus and says, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus had come into the world to make disciples. Because many would refuse to follow him, we would have expected for him to respond with joy. Instead he replied, “Foxes have dens and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus wanted him to know the cost of discipleship, especially at a time in which messianic expectations had hyped the Jews to think that the Messiah would kick out the Romans and set up a political administration in which there would be plenty of patronage. Jesus wanted him to know that to follow him wherever he went meant to follow someone who was basically homeless, to value him more than one’s own home and one’s own bed, to have not even what foxes and birds take for granted. We, too, need to ponder the radical nature of God’s call. Are we willing to follow Jesus wherever he goes? If he asks us, like God asked Abraham, to leave our own native place at 75 — or our temporary place at 20 — and go to a place he would eventually show us, would we follow him, or would we value our bed, our old habits more than we do the Lord?

* The second scene involves a man to him Jesus said, “Follow me!” But this man replied, “Lord, let me go first to bury my father.” When we hear this, we can presume that the person’s dad had just died and he just wanted to go home for the funeral and then return immediately. The text doesn’t say that, however. What’s much more likely was that the man’s father was very much alive and might live for decades still. What the man was likely communicating was, “Jesus, I’d like to follow you, but my father comes first. As soon as I’ve fulfilled all of my obligations to him, then I’ll be free to come and follow.” Jesus’ reply was strong: “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” As Jesus would say a little later at the raising of Lazarus, he is the Resurrection and the Life and everyone who lives and believes in him will never die, even if he dies (Jn 11:25-26). For us to become alive in the most important sense of all, we need to be in a living relationship to him. If we’re not following him, if we’re not allowing his life to reign within us, we’re dead, even if all our corporeal vital signs are healthy. He was calling this man to come fully alive and seeking to give him a participation in the Resurrection. He was presenting him a choice between life and death, living and dying even while breathing, and encouraging him to let those who are “dead,” who don’t have this relationship, bury their confrères. Most often Jesus doesn’t call us to make a strict break between him and our family membe...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul

September 27, 2022

Job 3:1-3.11-17.20-23, Ps 88, Lk 9:51-56

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.27.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the email: 

 

* Yesterday in the Gospel Jesus spoke to us about the path to greatness in receiving little children — those who can’t repay — in his name and in so doing receive him and God the Father who sent him. Today we confront the reality that Jesus is often rejected, not just in the person of children not received, but straight out, something that sheds light not just on our relationship with him but on the fact that often we, too, will be and feel rejected.

* St. Luke tells us that Jesus had “resolutely determined” or literally “fixed his face” on Jerusalem to complete his salvific mission, but before he would do that, he was going to try to include the Samaritans more intimately in that saving mission. He had already been to Samaria before, where he met the woman at the well. The end of that scene had the Samaritans all exclaiming in Sychar around the well of Jacob, “We have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” But because Jesus was planning to head on to Jerusalem, with whom the Samaritans had been in a theological war for centuries, “they would not welcome him.” They put their disagreement with the Jews above their receiving their Savior! Many times people can put their own grievances, their own petty scores to settle, above God and the work of salvation he wants to accomplish. People put conditions on God’s saving work: “We’ll allow you, the Savior of the World, to enter our village provided that you promise that you won’t go to Jerusalem!” Even though all of us recognize how silly it is when the Samaritans of yesteryear do it, we need to become more conscious of the way we likewise refuse welcoming Jesus. This is important for us to grasp because Jesus tells us, for example, in St. Matthew’s Gospel that whenever we refuse to give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, care to the sick, welcome to the stranger, clothing to the naked and visits to the imprisoned, we fail to welcome him in need (Mt 25:31-46). What happened in Samaria in today’s Gospel is simply one more illustration of what St. John described in the prologue to his Gospel, that Jesus “came to his own and his own received him not.”

* Sometimes we and others can feel rejected, abandoned, all alone in misery. That’s what Job felt in today’s first reading. It was tough enough when he lost his cattle, sheep, camels, children, and house, but now he was covered with boils and in such misery and pain that he wished he had never been born. It was a little foretaste of what Jesus himself would experience in his fourth word on the Cross when he cried out, in the words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” But as we see at the end of the Psalm, Jesus continued to trust, and we know how the story ends, which provides hope for us when we are in difficult circumstances. And just like the story of Job has become a sign of hope to so many in suffering, so God sometimes permits us to feel abandoned, rejected, so that we may like Job because signs of more credible hope to others as we seek to welcome them as Christ calls us to welcome him.

* This mystery of welcoming versus rejecting Jesus directly and indirectly in others played itself out very powerfully in its various dimensions in the life of the one whom the whole Church fêtes today, one of the greatest saints of all time, St.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs

September 26, 2022

Job 1:6-22, Ps 17, Lk 9:46-50

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.26.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* One of the things that impacts the living of the faith, especially among the young at a great university, is ambition. The Lord doesn’t seek to eliminate human ambition — he’s instilled within us a desire for greatness — but to purify it. Today in the Gospel, he overhears the disciples speaking of which of them was the greatest and he describes an essential condition for it. He says, “The one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” And he illustrated the means to be the least. He took a child, placed the child by his side, and said, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” We become the least — and therefore grow in Christian greatness — by receiving children and in receiving them Christ and God the Father. The reason why this is the case is because children, especially at Jesus’ time, couldn’t repay anyone. To care for them was to care for someone culturally insignificant who would probably never remember to thank one later not to mention not be capable of a quid pro quo now. In highlighting such a child, Jesus was saying, as he did elsewhere, that the greatest would be the one who serves the rest, the one who would care for a child not expecting anything in return. Greatness is shown in our care for others not our status.

* That latter point is illustrated in the second half of the Gospel. Worldly forms of greatest want to be exalted over others. And when St. John saw someone else casting out demons in Jesus’ name, rather than rejoicing that there was an exorcism and someone freed from the devil’s clutches, he tried to prevent him. Jesus reminded him and the others that whoever is not against them is with them and they should be focused on the service of others rather than who’s doing the serving.

* To receive God and whom he sends is the secret of greatness. We similarly see it with Job in the first reading. Job was like no one on earth, God said. After Job lost oxen, asses, sheep, shepherds, camels, sons and daughters and his house, rather than curse or blame God, he replied, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” It’s incredible. He came naked, deserving nothing. Everything was a gift. He received God when God gave as well as when God took back. He didn’t consider himself the owner of anything. We all have so much to learn from him. Sometimes when we lose things that we hold dear, we complain as if we’ve done something to earn God’s disfavor, but he blessed us with favor unearned, too.

* The saints we celebrate today show us how to receive others in God’s name and to be grateful for everything we have. Saints Cosmas and Damian were twins, doctors and eventually martyrs under Diocletian. They were called anargyroi, “penniless ones,” or “non-mercenaries,” because they never charged for their medical services at a time when many doctors were charlatans taking people’s entire savings on one invented “remedy” after another. Cosmas’ and Damian’s goodness was renowned and it was an opportunity for them to explain why they were so generous, because of the generosity they received. We should all have a similar ambition to give and to serve out of love rather ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Parish, Manhattan

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

September 25, 2022

Amos 6:1.4-7, Ps 146, 1 Tim 6:11-16, Lk 16:19-31

 

To listen to an audio recording please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.25.22_Homily_CCM_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* Today Jesus gives us all a parable that begins with a rich man who was adorned in royal purple clothes and exquisite priestly linen who dined sumptuously each day. In the first reading, the prophet Amos describes people in Jerusalem who slept on beds of ivory — just think about what that cost! — eating lambs and calves, having jam sessions on harps, drinking wine not from glasses but from bowls, and anointing themselves with the best oils, the ancient version of the best skin care products, perfumes and colognes. These figures are those whom many in our culture are trained to aspire to emulate, to be rich and care free, woofing down lamb, veal, filets and caviar, guzzling down precious aged wine and liqueurs, having private concerts of the finest musicians, dressing to the nines like royalty and sleeping on beds made out of the trunks of elephants. Today we’d add garages full of fancy automobiles, private jets, stables full of horses, marble floors, and perhaps golden toilet seats. It all sounds pretty good. If you work hard at a great Ivy League school, work the networks, score on the appropriate investments, some say, that could be you. But in a huge wake up call, God through Amos proclaims “woe” to those who live this way and Jesus in the parable describes how the rich man ended up going to hell, across an unpassable chasm from eternal happiness, in torment because of flames and tortured over the fate of family members living the same vain lifestyle. By today’s readings, especially by the Gospel parable, God communicates to us quite clearly that he wants us to live differently. He does not want any of us to remain unmoved when we hear the story of Lazarus, covered with sores, being licked and consoled by the compassion of stray dogs, longing to eat just the crumbs from the rich man’s table. He does not want any of us to remain unstirred, either, by the desperation of the rich man after he dies. What Jesus wants us to realize is not simply the state each of them is in, but the fact that each predicament was totally avoidable.

* In the Parable, the rich man goes to Hell not because he was rich, not because he had earned his money in an immoral way, not because he had been asked by Lazarus for help and refused, not because he had sent dogs to lick Lazarus’ wounds or had done anything at all evil to him. He went to Hell because when there was a poor man at his gate he simply did nothing. He was condemned not because of anything he had done, but precisely because of what he hadn’t done: he was so caught up in himself that he didn’t make any effort at all to help out a man who was struggling and dying in his midst. He simply ignored him.

* In St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25:31-46), Jesus made clear that when he judges us, he will separate us into two groups on the basis of how we have treated the poor and needy among us. To those on his right who will be saved, he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world, for I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, ill or imprisoned and you cared for me.” But to those on his left, he will declare with infinite sadness, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, because I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, naked and you gave me no clothes, a stranger and you gave me no welcome,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

September 25, 2022

Amos 6:1,4-7, Ps 146, 1 Tim 6:11-16, Lk 16:19-31

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.25.22_Homily_MCs_1.mp3

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

* Today Jesus gives us one of his most moving and unforgettable parables of a poor man dying at a rich man’s gate and the rich man’s subsequent torment in hell. None of us can remain unmoved when we hear the story of Lazarus, covered with sores, being licked and consoled by dogs, longing to eat just the crumbs from the rich man’s table. No one can remain unstirred by the desperation of the rich man after he dies, tormented by thirst and worried about his brothers. What moves us all the more is not simply the state each of them is in, but the fact that each was avoidable.

* In the Parable, the rich man goes to Hell not because he was rich, not because he had earned his money in an immoral way, not because he had been asked by Lazarus for help and refused, not because he had sent dogs to lick Lazarus’ wounds or had done anything at all evil to him. He went to Hell because when there was a poor man at his gate he simply did nothing. He was condemned not because of anything he had done, but precisely because of what he hadn’t done: he was so caught up in himself that he didn’t make any effort at all to help out a man who was struggling and dying in his midst. He simply ignored him.

* In St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25:31-46), Jesus made clear that when he judges us, he will separate us into two groups on the basis of how we have treated the poor and needy among us. To those on his right who will be saved, he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world, for I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, ill or imprisoned and you cared for me.” But to those on his left, he will declare with great sadness, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, because I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, naked and you gave me no clothes, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, ill and in prison and you didn’t care for me.” The condemned will poignantly ask, “Lord when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, ill, a stranger or a prisoner and not minister to your needs?” Jesus will then reply, “As often as you failed to do this to the least of my brothers and sisters, you failed to do it to me.” The rich man went to Hell because in neglecting the dying poor man at his doorstep, he was neglecting God himself. In failing to love his neighbor, he was failing to love God and in fact failing to love himself properly, too.

* So many Catholics are accustomed to thinking about how God wants us to change simply in terms of the bad behavior we know he wants us to excise from our life. We think about sin just in terms of commissions, the bad thoughts we have, the malicious or mendacious words we say, the wayward deeds we commit. But, as we note at the beginning of each Mass, these are not all the sins we commit. We confess to Almighty God and to each other that we have sinned not just in our thoughts, words, and deeds, but “what I have failed to do.” Few of us spend much time, however, examining ourselves on these failures. We omit the omissions, the acts of love we should have done but didn’t do. The lesson Jesus teaches us in the Gospel is that it’s not enough for us not to do evil, but we also have to do good, to sacrifice ourselves for those who are needy, to look past ourselves, identify their needs,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, C, Vigil

September 24, 2022

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.24.22_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when he gives us one of his most moving and powerful parables of a poor man dying at a rich man’s gate and the rich man’s subsequent torment in hell. None of us can remain unmoved when we hear the story of Lazarus, covered with sores, being licked and consoled by dogs, longing to eat just the crumbs from the rich man’s table. No one can remain unstirred by the desperation of the rich man after he dies, tormented by thirst and worried about his brothers. What moves us all the more is not simply the state each of them is in, but the fact that each was avoidable.

* In the Parable, the rich man goes to Hell not because he was rich, not because he had earned his money in an immoral way, not because he had been asked by Lazarus for help and refused, not because he had sent dogs to lick Lazarus’ wounds or had done anything at all evil to him. He went to Hell because when there was a poor man at his gate he simply did nothing. He was condemned not because of anything he had done, but precisely because of what he hadn’t done: he was so caught up in himself that he didn’t make any effort at all to help out a man who was struggling and dying in his midst. He simply ignored him.

* In St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25:31-46), Jesus made clear that when he judges us, he will separate us into two groups on the basis of how we have treated the poor and needy among us. To those on his right who will be saved, he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world, for I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, ill or imprisoned and you cared for me.” But to those on his left, he will declare with great sadness, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, because I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, naked and you gave me no clothes, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, ill and in prison and you didn’t care for me.” The condemned will poignantly ask, “Lord when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, ill, a stranger or a prisoner and not minister to your needs?” Jesus will then reply, “As often as you failed to do this to the least of my brothers and sisters, you failed to do it to me.” The rich man went to Hell because in neglecting the dying poor man at his doorstep, he was neglecting God himself. In failing to love his neighbor, he was failing to love God and in fact failing to love himself properly, too.

* So many Catholics are accustomed to thinking about how God wants us to change simply in terms of the bad behavior we know he wants us to excise from our life. We think about sin just in terms of commissions, the bad thoughts we have, the malicious or mendacious words we say, the wayward deeds we commit. But, as we note at the beginning of each Mass, these are not all the sins we commit. We confess to Almighty God and to each other that we have sinned not just in our thoughts, words, and deeds, but “what I have failed to do.” Few of us spend much time, however, examining ourselves on these failures. We omit the omissions, the acts of love we should have done but didn’t do. The lesson Jesus teaches us in the Gospel is that it’...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, C, Vigil

September 17, 2022

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.17.22_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday when he will give us what is probably the most confusing story in any part of the Gospel, what’s popularly called the Parable of the Dishonest Steward. This story can make people wonder whether Truth incarnate is praising a crooked business manager for deception, whether he who gave us the commandment “Thou shalt not steal” is himself praising someone for violating it. But Jesus is doing no such thing. In order to grasp what Jesus was and was not saying, however, and what the crucial lesson is for us, we first need to understand something about the way loans were done in the ancient world.

* In the Parable, a manager is about to get sacked because he was squandering the property of his business owner. His boss gave him his pink slip and told him to do an audit of the books prior to his dismissal. So the man called in the tenant farmers who owed his employer money or items and reduced their debts considerably. At first glance, this seems like dishonesty, like he was allowing these debtors to steal from his boss, but it wasn’t. In the ancient world, the way loans were conducted was that the manager or broker would be paid by adding on something to what was borrowed, rather than a percentage taken out of the master’s proceeds. For example, if someone borrowed 50 barrels of oil, he would have to pay back the 50 to the master and another 10 — or 30 or 50 — to the broker, whatever the broker thought he could get. This dishonest steward was probably tacking on way too big of a commission, and, in order to maximize his profits, was probably, like Fannie and Freddie in our own times, lending out the master’s property to very bad risks, allowing people on the Master’s fields who were going to waste it rather than produce. Hence, when the manager called in those who owed, for example, 100 containers of wheat, and reduced the amount to 80, what he was almost assuredly doing was eliminating most or all of his commission. Therefore, he wasn’t really allowing them to steal from the owner; he was eliminating his own take. Faced with the decision of saving his life by making friends who would take care of him after he was fired or trying to hold out to the end onto the possibility of making money via these commissions, he chose to save his life. His master — and Jesus through the master in the Parable — calls this prudent and wise.

* What’s the application to us? Jesus wants us to learn good stewardship from this dishonest steward! God has given each of us tremendous gifts on the basis of which we have made “profits” by doing good and well in the world. He has given us our hands, which we use to work. He has given us our brains, which we use to think. He has given us our families and friends, our education, our lives, and so many other blessings. With these gifts, we have profited and made a manifold commission. But have we been using those gifts fundamentally to build up our kingdom or to build up the Master’s? If we have been living selfishly until now, if we’ve been squandering his gifts on the things of this world, Jesus gives us this parable in order to help us to see that our time is coming to an end and that we need to prepare an accounting. He wants us,