Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

All Saints Day 2022

November 1, 2022

Rev 7:2-4.9-14, Ps 24, 1 Jn 3:1-3, Mt 5:1-12

 

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

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The text that guided the homily was: 

* This is a feast about the whole point of human life. We’re made for heaven, to spend eternity with God in His kingdom of love. Jesus came from heaven to earth to show us the way from earth to heaven. Today we celebrate those people who followed Jesus all the way there, the great and famous saints we know about, and the countless quiet saints, probably many of those who passed on to us the faith, who died in the love of the Lord and now live in His love. These are the multitude who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” as we heard in today’s first reading, and brought those white baptismal garments “unstained into the everlasting life of heaven,” like they were instructed to do on the day of their baptism. These are the “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,” who have not just been called “children of God” through baptism, as St. John told us in today’s second reading, but have lived as children of God throughout their lives. These are the ones who as we prayed in the Psalm have longed to see God’s face, whose hands were sinless, whose heart was pure, whose desires were not for vain things but for the things of God. These are the ones who have ascended “the mountain of the Lord,” the eternal Jerusalem, and who “stand in his holy place.” These are the ones who are singing today in that holy place the beautiful endless song glimpsed in the passage from Revelation, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

* “Salvation belongs to our God.” Yes, heaven and holiness are always a gift of God beyond anything we can merit, but God out of love has made heaven the result of our choice, the result of our acting on that longing. To get to heaven, as St. Thomas Aquinas said, we need to will it, we need to desire it, we need to choose it. All who get to heaven choose it and all our choices here are earth are forks leading toward or away from God, in which we set our feet on or away from the path to heaven, to God, to eternity. It is a choice between true, lasting happiness and momentary pleasure, between light and darkness, between good and evil, ultimately between life and death. Jesus came down to show us the way to choose well, and to help us to choose well, but there are many competing voices that tell us to choose against what God wants. The saints are those who have chosen well. They are the multitude of men and women, just like us, from every nation and language, who have responded to God’s grace and chosen true happiness, holiness and heaven. Today we recall their example and invoke their intercession so that we might follow their good example.

* In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to us about how to follow him on the path that will help make us holy as he is holy, to love as he loves, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. The path that he shows us stands in stark contrast to the path that most of the people in the world believe will lead to human happiness and fulfillment. Jesus’ words present us with the choice on which our lives hinge.

* The world tells us that to be happy, we have to be rich. Jesus says, rather, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven.”

* The world tells us we’re happy when we don’t have a concern in the world. Jesus says, on the other hand, “Blessed are those” who are so concerned with others that “they mourn” over their own and others’ m...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

October 31, 2022

Phil 2:1-4, Ps 131, Lk 14:12-14

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.31.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today on this All Hallow’s Eve, Jesus and St. Paul speak to us about the path to holiness. As we prepare not just to celebrate the Feast of All Saints but to make resolutions so that one day we may be in that number when the saints come marching in, let’s pay special attention to what the Holy Spirit gives us today in the epistle and Gospel.

* On Friday, we began hearing St. Paul’s beautiful letter to the Philippians, which we will have throughout the week except for All Saints and All Souls Days. Philippi was the first place in Europe to hear the Gospel. It was the place where, after St. Paul had had a dream of a Macedonian asking him to come over, he left Troas and went on a boat to Neapolis, eventually coming to Philippi, a Roman colony with lots of disunity. It was there he met Lydia and stayed in her house. It was there he cured the possessed girl whom others were using to divine by the power of the devil. It was there he was thrown in jail and liberated by the earthquake. St. Paul had a special relationship with Philippi. It was the only place from which he accepted charity for himself, probably to give its people a chance to repair for the sufferings he endured there. He had a great desire for its unity and sanctity, and this letter was meant to help everyone come to unity. The real climax and center of the letter we would normally hear tomorrow, on Tuesday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time, but because of All Saints Day, we will have the readings of the Solemnity instead. For that reason, I’d like to incorporate it today, because it flows immediately from this morning’s first reading. St. Paul says “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus.” He calls us to put on Christ’s mind, to adapt ourselves to the Lord, to respond to his grace to think as Christ thinks, to will as Christ wills, to act as Christ acts. That’s his fundamental prayer for the Christians in Philippi and for the Christians in New York. That’s the path to holiness. That’s the proper context to understand what he says in today’s first reading: “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.” Their unity will come about by their all attuning their minds and hearts to Christ’s. Once that happens then the rest of his prayer will come about: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory,” because Christ did everything out of selflessness and for the Father’s glory. “Rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests but also everyone for those of others.” Christ regarded us as more important than himself, he gave his life to save our lives. Even though he was God, he became our servant so that we might enter into divine life. When we adopt Christ’s attitude, then we, too, will not act out of self-centeredness or for earthly fame but will seek God’s glory, kingdom and will. We will seek to follow Christ’s example of greatness by becoming the servant of all, by washing the feet of others, by giving our lives for their salvation. We will seek, like he did, to empty ourselves and become a servant, obeying God all the way to death.

* We see the attitude, the mindset, of Christ in today’s Gospel when he gives invitation advice to those who had been invited to a dinner with him, a dinner in which he cured a man with dropsy to their scandal (as we would have heard on Friday i...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

October 30, 2022

Wis 11:22-12:2, Ps 145, 1 Thes 1:11-2:2, Lk 19:1-10

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.30.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* Last week Jesus presented us the parable contrasting the prayer of the Pharisee and the Publican. Both went up to the temple to pray. Both left. And only one’s prayer was heard. The one who left justified was not the outwardly devout Pharisee who fasted twice a week, gave ten percent of his income back to God, and rejoiced that he was not a thief, rogue, adulterer or tax collector. The one who left with a right relationship toward God was a humble tax collector, who stood at the back, beat his breast and begged, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” In today’s Gospel, we encounter those characters from the parable — self-righteous “good people” who complain that Jesus actually interacts with sinners and a notorious, humble “tax collector” — in real life. And we see how the God-man responds when such a sinner calls out to him for such mercy.

* Jesus called himself the “Good Shepherd” and said that he would leave the ninety-nine to go in search of one sheep who was lost (John 10:11; Lk 15:4). Before that Good Shepherd headed up to Jerusalem to lay down his life for his sheep (John 10:15), he first wanted to go on a rescue mission to hunt down one of his strays. In the Book of Wisdom, today’s first reading, we recognize that God has mercy on all, he overlooks people’s sins that they may repent, because he is a lover of souls and loves everyone he has made, and so he rebukes offenders gently, reminding them of their sins that they may repent and believe. In the Psalm, we bless God’s name because he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and compassionate to all his works. Jesus enfleshes all of these truths when he goes to literally the nethermost place on earth in search of perhaps the greatest public sinner of that city, to bring him back to his fold. He went to Jericho, the lowest city on the planet — 853 feet below sea level — to find Zacchaeus, who was not just one of a bunch of despised and excommunicated tax collectors loathsome to the Jewish authorities, but the chief tax collector of the whole region. Jesus left the crowds behind and entered alone with the tax collector into his home and into his life. He called Zacchaeus, his lost sheep, by name (Is 43:1; John 10:3). The very name Zacchaeus means “God remembers,” and God had never forgotten him. Heaven rejoiced on that day more for his return than for those who had never wandered (Lk 15:7). So, too, today and everyday, Jesus takes the initiative of knocking at the door of our souls, asking for entry, coming to us wherever we are, no matter the depths to which we’ve sunk, no matter the fact that perhaps everyone else around us might despise us. To the extent that we repent of whatever sins we’ve committed and accept Jesus’ gracious invitation by “welcoming him with delight,” we, too, like Zacchaeus, can have salvation come to us.

* This is the first of three lessons we learn from the story of Zacchaeus and Jesus, that Jesus wants to take us apart from the crowd and bring us the salvation of his mercy. The place where Jesus ordinarily does this is where St. Pope John Paul II used to say Jesus and the whole Church exist solely for you alone — in the Sacrament of Confession. In the confessional Jesus and the whole Church ministers to us individually, just as he interacted individually with Zacchaeus. But we have to be willing to go away with Jesus alone to receive this salvation; like Zacchaeus,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. William the Abbot Parish, Howell, NJ

Day of Recollection on “The Nourishment of Saints: Learning from the Holy Ones How to Live a Eucharistic Life.”

Saturday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass of the Holy Eucharist

October 29, 2022

Phil 1:18-26, Ps 42, Lk 14:1.7-11

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.29.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following outline guided the homily: 

* Today’s Gospel Jesus teaches us about the importance of humility.

* The desire for best seats, back stage passages and first-class goes against Jesus’ message about taking the lowest seats at a dinner in today’s Gospel.

* But to be exalted by him, we need to follow him along the path of humility.

* In the Eucharist, Jesus teaches about humility.

* The Door of Humility in Bethlehem gives us a spirituality of the incarnation and what we need to do to adore the Lord.

* During the Last Supper, Jesus lived this Gospel, not just not taking the lowest seat but taking on the form of a slave and washing the apostles’ feet as an example so that we would learn how to do the same in humble service of others.

* The Eucharist makes us “one body, one Spirit” in Christ, but we must make that a moral communion as well through our loving service of each other.

* St. Paul emphasizes in today’s first reading from his Letter to the Philippians that in life and in death we’re called humbly to follow the Lord. He wants Christ to be magnified in his body, whether in his sufferings in imprisonment or in his death. To magnify Christ requires humility. Later in this Letter — the passage we would have on Tuesday if it were not All Saints Day — he would tell us to have in us “the same mind that is in Christ Jesus, who though he was God, emptied himself took on the form of a slave, being born like a human and becoming obedient even to death on a Cross.” This was the path of exaltation, his kenosis — not just in entering the world but on the altar — and we’re called to have that same mind.

* Continuing our focus on the saints, here in the Church we have watching over us a beautiful statue of St. Therese, whose little way of trust and love, whose way of spiritual childhood, was one of humility, of poverty in spirit, by which she went before the Lord with empty hands, asking the Lord to fill us. That’s what we do at every Mass, asking God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit to send his Son to fill up whatever in us is lacking so that following him down this path of self-sacrificial service, we may be exalted by him forever.

 

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Reading 1 PHIL 1:18B-26

Brothers and sisters:

As long as in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,

Christ is being proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.Indeed I shall continue to rejoice,

for I know that this will result in deliverance for me

through your prayers and support from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

My eager expectation and hope

is that I shall not be put to shame in any way,

but that with all boldness, now as always,

Christ will be magnified in my body,

whether by life or by death.

For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.

If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

And I do not know which I shall choose.

I am caught between the two.

I long to depart this life and be with Christ,

for that is far better.

Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. William the Abbot Parish, Howell, NJ

Day of Recollection

“The Nourishment of Saints: Learning from the Holy Ones How to Live a Eucharistic Life.”

October 29, 2022

 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.29.22_Adoration_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. William the Abbot Parish, Howell, NJ

Day of Recollection

“The Nourishment of Saints: Learning from the Holy Ones How to Live a Eucharistic Life.”

October 29, 2022

 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.29.22_Mass_and_Service_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, C, Vigil

October 29, 2022

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.29.22_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the brief 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 as we go with Jesus on a rescue mission to Jericho and learn there how Jesus seeks to rescue each of us, too.

* You remember that last week Jesus presented us the parable contrasting the prayer of the Pharisee and the Publican. Both went up to the temple to pray. Both left. And only one’s prayer was heard. The one who left justified was notthe outwardly devout Pharisee who fasted twice a week, gave ten percent of his income back to God, and rejoiced that he was not a thief, rogue, adulterer or tax collector. The one who left with a right relationship toward God was a humble tax collector, who stood at the back, beat his breast and begged, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” In this Sunday’s Gospel, we encounter those characters from the parable — self-righteous “good people” who complain that Jesus interacts with sinners and a notorious, humble “tax collector” — in real life. And we see how the God-man responds when such a sinner calls out to him for such mercy.

* Jesus called himself the “Good Shepherd” and said that he would leave the ninety-nine to go in search of one sheep who was lost (John 10:11; Lk 15:4). Before that Good Shepherd headed up to Jerusalem to lay down his life for his sheep (John 10:15), he first wanted to hunt down one who was indeed lost. He went to literally the nethermost place on earth in search of perhaps the greatest public sinner of that city, to bring him back to his fold. He went to Jericho, the lowest city on the planet — 853 feet below sea level — to find Zacchaeus, who was not just one of a bunch of despised and basically excommunicated tax-collectors loathsome to the Jewish authorities, but the chief tax collector of the whole region. “Zacchaeus,” he said, “Today I must stay in your house!” and Zacchaeus “welcomed him with delight.” Jesus left the crowds behind and entered alone with the tax collector into his home and into his life. He called Zacchaeus, his lost sheep, by name (Is 43:1; John 10:3). The very name Zacchaeus means “God remembers,” and God had never forgotten him. Heaven rejoiced on that day more for his return than for those who had never wandered (Lk 15:7). Jesus takes a similar initiative in knocking at the door of our souls, asking for entry, coming to us wherever we are, no matter the depths to which we’ve sunk, no matter the fact that perhaps everyone else around us might despise us. To the extent that we repent of whatever sins we’ve committed and accept Jesus’ gracious invitation by “welcoming him with delight,” we, too, like Zacchaeus, can have salvation come to us.

* This is the first of three lessons we learn from the story of Zacchaeus and Jesus, that Jesus wants to take us apart from the crowd and bring us the salvation of his mercy. The place where Jesus ordinarily does this is the confessional, where Saint Pope John Paul II used to say Jesus and the whole Church exist solely for each of us alone. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation Jesus ministers to us individually, just as he interacted individually with Zacchaeus. But we have to be willing to go away with Jesus alone to receive this salvation; like Zacchaeus, we need to come down, to leave the perches of our pride and allow Jesus to go ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Feast of SS. Simon and Jude, Apostles

October 28, 2022

Eph 2:19-22, Ps 19, Lk 6:12-16

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.28.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* St. Paul in today’s first reading tells the Ephesians and us that our Christian existence is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles.” The feast of the apostles SS. Simon and Jude gives us a chance to ponder several aspects of our Christian life and how to strengthen them by grounding them more firmly on the foundation of what the Lord has done and continues to do through these two apostles. These thoughts are all the more important for students as you look ahead to what the Lord is asking of you in your life.

* The first thing we can examine is the theme of our calling. The apostles’ vocation, we see, was born from Christ’s prayer. Jesus had pulled an all-nighter praying to his Father about whom he should choose and praying for those he would choose. His prayer was not just a single invocation, but a persevering intercession. This prayer for those whom he would call continued throughout his public life and we can presume even after his Ascension. During the ordination rite of the Last Supper we see how fervently Jesus prayed to the Father. “I pray for them,” he said aloud, “I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me because they are yours. … Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. … I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. … Consecrate them in the truth. …  I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” And then he prayed for the apostles’ work to be fruitful, for all “those who will believe in me through their word,” and prayed for their salvation, “I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, … that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” Jesus’ ongoing prayer would take on a very specific form, as we would see in Jesus’ Holy Thursday dialogue with St. Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your [singular] own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.” It’s important regularly for us to take the time to recall with gratitude and wonder that our Christian vocation, likewise, has its beginning in Jesus’ prayer. Just as much as Jesus prayed all night and then called Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Jude, and Judas Iscariot,” so he has prayed and called each of us. He has prayed for each of us, to keep us in the Father’s name, to unite us to God and to each other, to consecrate us in the truth of God’s word, in the truth of Jesus’ own consecration to the Father. Jesus has prayed for us that our faith may not fail and that we will strengthen the faith of each other and those we serve. Jesus continues to pray for us. He’s praying for us at this Mass. He’s praying for us when we have difficulties in our work. His persevering prayer for us is an example for us to persevere in prayer together with him during it as well.

* The second theme is our discipleship. When Jesus came down the mountain, St. Luke tells us, he chose the twelve from among the “disciples,” from among those who were already as the Greek word disciple means Jesus’ “students,” who were zealously following him, who were living by faith, who were hearing his words and seeking to put them into practice. Together with Jesus’ prayer,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Albany Legatus Chapter

Fort Orange Club, Albany, New York

“Saints and the Eucharistic Revival”

October 27, 2022

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.2722_Legatus_1.mp3

 

To download a PDF of the slides of the presentation, please click below: 

Saints and the Eucharistic Revival

 

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Thursday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass for Persecuted Christians

October 27, 2022

Eph 6:10-20, Ps 144, Lk 13:31-35

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.27.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

 

The text that guided today’s homily is below: 

* Today in the Gospel, Jesus is confronted by the fact that Herod was trying to kill him. Jesus was unafraid, however. He sent him a message, calling him a “fox,” an indication that he was sly and ferocious, and then gave this paranoid man who thought Jesus might be the risen John the Baptist whom he beheaded a mysterious thing for him to dwell on, which summarizes his whole mission: “Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose. Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.” First, he synthesizes his work as exorcizing and healing — something that would come to its fulfillment in the two days of the Last Supper/Good Friday and his rest in the tomb — and then on the “third day,” accomplishing his purpose, a clear sign of the Resurrection. He also gave a clear indication that he knew he would die in Jerusalem, something that would have taken away any intimidation factor Herod might have thought he had, but also open Herod up to the fact that this was part of Jesus’ plan.

* The sad thing, however, that got Jesus to weep over Jerusalem was that despite his work of healing and exorcizing, some would not receive it. Jesus says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,but you were unwilling!” They were unwilling. They didn’t want to allow God to gather them, to heal them, to free them from the power of Satan. They didn’t respond to the appeals of God’s loving mercy through the prophets but instead killed them, much like many of them were preparing to call for the Crucifixion of God’s own Son and image. It’s a reality that we need to face in every age, that sometimes we’re unwilling to let Jesus do his work and transform us the way he wants to do. But nevertheless, forward he goes, accomplishing his work, healing, casting out the devil, and gathering us from the evil one who wounds and possesses. Jesus’ courage is compelling as is he love.

* Jesus wants to give us a similar courage so that, having gathered us, we might be his instruments to gather with him, to heal with him, to cast out with him. In the Responsorial Psalm today, we bless God because he is our “rock who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war,” because he is our “fortress,” “stronghold,” “deliverer,” and “shield.” He strengthens us. We see how in today’s first reading, which is the end of our study of the Letter to the Ephesians, dedicated to how Jesus has come into the world to reconcile and sum up all things and help us, united to him, to become holy and immaculate in his sight, to become his Bride purified by water and the word. Jesus in uniting us to himself wants us to become strong with him, as he is our fortress, stronghold, deliverer and shield. St. Paul urges us to “put on the armor of God,” which means to “put on God.” He reminds us that our struggle isn’t fundamentally “with flesh and blood” — meaning other people, for whom we’re called to give our lives to help Jesus save — but “with the principalities, with the powers,