Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

September 14, 2022

Num 21:4-9, Ps 78, Phil 2:6-11, Jn 3:13-17

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.14.22_Homily_ND_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

September 14, 2022

Num 21:4-9, Ps 78, Phil 2:6-11, Jn 3:13-17

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.14.22_Homily_SVs_1.mp3

 

For another version of the homily, given to the student Mass for Columbia Catholic Ministry at Notre Dame Church in Manhattan, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.14.22_Homily_ND_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* We are now, this year on Sundays and these weeks during daily Mass, reading St. Luke’s Gospel, which has as its fulcrum Lk 9:51, when St. Luke tells us, “Jesus fixed his face on Jerusalem.” He fixed his attention on what he would accomplish there. He concentrated his gaze on Calvary. And when he did, he was focused on his exaltation. Three times we know of he announced that he would be betrayed, mocked, tortured and crucified, and on the third day raised. He announced that he would triumph on the Cross. And then told us that if we wish to be with him in his victory, as his followers, we, too, must deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him. Most of us hear this news as if it’s somehow “bad news.” We accept it begrudgingly and often try to evade it. But just as the Cross is for Jesus the sign not so much of literally excruciating suffering but of the love that makes that much suffering bearable, so, too, for us the Cross is not meant to be so much a sign of pain and death but of joy and life as we, through the Cross, learn from Jesus how to love to the end.

* Saint John Paul II used to call the Cross the symbol of Christianity. We mark ourselves with it upon entering the Church. We begin and end Mass with it. We start almost every time of prayer with it. Probably every one of our bedrooms has one in it. All types of people wear it around their necks, from the Pope and bishops, to teenage pop stars, to newly baptized babies. The priest holds his arms in the shape of it during the Eucharistic prayer. And it is the center and focal point of every Catholic Church. The Cross is the greatest summary of our faith. St. Francis of Assisi used to call it his “book,” where he learned all of his wisdom. The Cross is also the key that opens the doors of heaven. St. Rose of Lima, the first saint of the Americas, said, “Apart from the Cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.” If we wish to get to eternal life with God, we must climb up with Jesus by means of the Cross.

* To non-believers, to celebrate the feast of the Cross makes no sense at all. It is sheer lunacy. Crucifixion was the worst and most cruel end imaginable in the ancient world. The modern day equivalent would be the electric chair. To celebrate or “exalt” the Cross would be akin to our “lifting up the electric chair” in jubilation. To center every Church with an image of Christ’s suffering on the Cross would be similar to constructing a place of worship in which one would put a gruesome image of someone convulsing and dying in an electric chair or placing a sculpture of someone being burned at the stake. We’ve become so used to seeing the Cross that we’ve become somewhat anaesthetized to the normal shock that should be any person’s first reaction to it and we need to recover a little of the initial human horror we should have before the Cross. This is one reason why St. Paul wrote that Christ on the Cross is “a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.” The pagans used to mock the early Christians for worshipping someone who was ki...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Tuesday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. John Chrysostom

September 13, 2022

1 Cor 12:12-14.27-31, Ps 10, Lk 7:11-17

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.13.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* In the Gospel, we encounter one of Jesus’ great miracles, one that communicates far more than a great deed done for a particular family, but a whole way of life for us as Christians. There was a collision of two processions, the great crowd following Jesus and the large funeral cortege accompanying the widow who had just lost her only son. Because of Jewish culture at the time, which dictated that a woman needed to be cared and provided by for a man — first her father, then her husband and after her husband’s death, by a son — this woman was now in a particularly pitiful position. When Jesus saw her, his guts exploded with pity — The English translation of the Greek verb splangchnizomai basically means he was sick to his stomach on seeing those in pitiable situations — but then did two things that on the surface would seem the exact opposite of compassion. First, he said something that superficially would seem cruel: “Do not weep,” words I would encourage you never to say to a grieving family at a wake. Second, he then stepped forward and touched the bier, an act that not only would have made him ritually impure according to the Jewish mentality of the time but would have been the equivalent today of going out into the middle of the street today and halting a funeral procession. But I like to think Jesus spoke and acted in a way that, albeit perhaps confusing, would have inspired trust. Jesus the said to the dead son, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” He was going to have him participate in what every act of mercy is meant to indicate: ultimately resurrection from the dead, an eternal triumph over sin and what sin leads to, death. And we see that the boy sat up and began to speak. I wish St. Luke would have recorded his words, because they would have been something! The response of the people is very significant. They first said, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst.” Jesus had just done what they remembered the prophet Elijah had done in raising from the dead the only son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17-24) and the prophet Elisha had done for the only son of a Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:31-17). But they added, “God has visited his people.” They recognized that it was God who had worked that great miracle, that he wasn’t far off, but that he cared, and because he cared he drew near. Little did they know how true their words were! God visited his people with mercy. God always visits his people with mercy.

* As individual Christians and members of the Church, we are called to grasp that Jesus’ compassion is meant to mark the whole way we approach life. Once we have experienced the compassionate visit of the Lord, a visit that is meant to continue within through our remaining in the state of grace, we are capable of going out to visit others with God’s loving mercy in our words and body language. The Lord calls us to become Good Samaritans, not walking by others in need on the other side of the road, but drawing near, visiting them, helping them with compassion. Pope Francis has said that God’s kingdom is a kingdom in which we all draw near to others, when we compassionately weep for other’s sufferings, when we try to heal their wounds with the balm of the love that flows from Jesus’ heart and our own human hearts. God wants to visit others and draw near to them through us.

* This truth helps us to understand what St.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of the Holy Name of Mary

September 12, 2022

1 Cor 11:17-26.33, Ps 40, Lk 7:1-10

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.12.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, a name we invoke every day when we cry out, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners!” The feast originated in Spain in 1513, but it was extended to the whole Church in 1683 by Pope Innocent XI to mark the great victory of King Jan Sobieski of Poland in the Battle of Vienna on September 12 of that year, a victory that most historians believed kept Europe Christian against the invading Muslim Turks. When we turn to Mary and invoke her holy name in the battles we’re fighting, we think of her virtues. Based on today’s Gospel, we can think of two, her humility and her faith, both of which are reflected in the humility and faith with which the centurion related to Jesus.

* The centurion loved his slave and was desperate for help. There was no doctor who could help him, but he heard of Jesus the miracle worker. Even though he was a powerful centurion, he didn’t think he was worthy to approach Jesus himself, and so he sent the local Jewish leaders. They were not as humble as he. They approached Jesus and said, “He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.” No one ever merits a miracle; it’s always an a gift from God. Yet Jesus humbly went with them. When he was on his way, the Centurion humbly sent word that he didn’t think he was worthy to have Jesus visit his house, but asked simply that Jesus command from where he was the life-threatening illness of his servant to depart. He believed that even at a distance Jesus could command and even sicknesses would obey, in a way similar to how he commanded soldiers. Jesus was amazed at the man’s faith. He turned to the crowd and said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Not among the disciples, not among the apostles, not even it seems in his Mother had he found faith like that in his power to command at a distance. What an extraordinary witness of trust in the reach of God’s power and love! Jesus normally worked physical miracles as preludes to the greater miracle of faith he desired to give those healed, but in this case, Jesus didn’t need to meet the man to help him grow in faith because his faith was already remarkable.

* The Church wants to help us to grow to have the humility and faith of the Centurion in today’s Gospel. Every Mass we repeat the Centurion’s words, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and my [soul] shall be healed.” Do we have that same faith that Jesus can and wants to heal our soul like he healed the Centurion’s slave and make us worthy of him? Do we have the same humility in asking for this gift or do we proudly think we deserve the Eucharist and God’s other gifts?

* In today’s first reading, St. Paul takes the Corinthians to the woodshed for their lack of humility, reverence and faith for Jesus in the Eucharist and for the miracle he wishes to accomplish coming under their collective roofs. The apostle says something astonishing: “Your meetings,” meaning the way they were going about their Sundays, “are doing more harm than good.” The Sunday was structured with a Mass and then an agape meal that they would share as a family. But rather than sharing, Paul says, “when you meet as a Church there are divisions among you.” Therefore, he said,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

September 11, 2022

Ex 32:7-11.13-14, Ps 51, 1 Tim 1:12-17, Lk 15:1-32

 

To listen to the homily for today’s Mass, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.11.22_Homily_CCM_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* Late in his pontificate, St. John Paul II was asked what was the greatest problem facing the world. He didn’t say the threat of nuclear mutually-assured destruction, global warming, endemic poverty, terrorism, scandals in the Church, or the impact of particular sins that continuously cry out to heaven — even though he took all of those problems seriously. How would you respond to the question? St. John Paul II said, to the surprise of almost everyone, that the greatest problem was “unexpiated guilt.” He recognized that after two World Wars and the Cold War, the Holocaust, the genocides in Armenia, the Ukraine, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, after so many atrocities from tyrannical governments, after the waterfalls of blood flowing from more than two billion abortions worldwide, after the sins that have destroyed so many families, after so much physical and sexual abuse, after lengthy crime logs in newspapers every day, after the scourge of terrorism like the terrible events of 9/11 we prayerfully remember today, after so much hurt and pain, the terrible weight of collective guilt crushes not only individuals but burdens structures and whole societies. The modern world is like one big Lady Macbeth, compulsively washing our hands to remove the blood from them, but there is no earthly detergent powerful enough to take the blemishes away. We can converse with psychiatrists and psychologists, but their words and prescriptions can only help us deal with our guilt, not eliminate it. We can confess our sins to bartenders, but they can only dispense Absolut vodka, not absolution, and inebriation never brings expiation. We can escape reality through distractions and addictions — drugs, sports, entertainment, materialism, food, power, lust, and others — but none can adequately anaesthetize the pain in our soul from the suffering we’ve caused, endured or witnessed. Whether we admit it, whether we realize it, we’re longing for redemption. We’re yearning for a second, third or seventy-times-seventh chance. We’re pining for forgiveness, reconciliation, and a restoration of goodness. We’re hankering for a giant reset button for ourselves and for the world. And if we can’t have that personal and collective do over, then at least we ache for liberation from the past and, like the diminutive tax-collector Zacchaeus in the Gospel or Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, for a chance make up for has been done. We want, need and pant for atonement. And in response to that urgent and ever new need, God responds with his mercy. Where sin abounds, grace superabounds. And so St. John Paul II emphasized, and Pope Francis has continued to emphasize, that we are now living in a “kairos of mercy,” from the Greek word that means “favorable time or occasion” for God’s forgiving love.

* Today’s readings put that consoling truth in big bold letters.

* In his First Letter to Timothy, St. Paul tells us very clearly Jesus’ purpose in entering the world: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That explains why he took on our human nature, why he suffered, died, and rose. In the Alleluia verse, St. Paul builds on this truth, telling us, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Jesus, after having come to save us, wants to send us out with his message and mission of reconciliation,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

September 11, 2022

Ex 32:7-11.13-14, Ps 51, 1 Tim 1:12-17, Lk 15:1-32

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.11.22_Homily_MCs_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today’s readings bring us into the heart of Jesus’ mission, the core of our faith, the way we’re supposed to receive God’s action in our life and what he wants us to do as a result. That’s why it’s so important for us not just to understand the Word of God presented to us today, but to live it and help others to live it.

* In today’s second reading, from the First Letter to Timothy, St. Paul tells us very clearly Jesus’ purpose in entering the world: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That explains why he took on our human nature, why he suffered, died, and rose. In the Alleluia verse, St. Paul builds on this truth, telling us, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Jesus, after having come to save us, wants to send us out with his message and work of reconciliation, trying to bring as many as we possibly can to Jesus so that he may save them from sin and its consequence, eternal death.

* That’s the proper context to understand what’s happening in the Gospel. At the beginning of the passage, St. Luke says, “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” The Pharisees were literally, in Hebrew, the “Separated Ones,” those who distanced themselves from sin and sinners. They were scandalized that Jesus would have any contact with sinners at all, not to mention welcome them, treat them with kindness and even share meals and communion with them. They failed to recognize that they were sinners too, and in fact, some of them would soon conspire with their moral archenemies — the laxist Sadducees, debauched Herodians, and the dreaded pagan Romans — to have Jesus executed. It was to them and their attitude about sin and sinners that Jesus addressed the three Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Sons.

* Before we examine Jesus’ answers, however, it’s important for us to pause to recognize that the attitude of the Scribes and Pharisees didn’t expire at a time long ago in a land far away. Many Christians today, for example, do not rejoice on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter when people who do not regularly practice the faith come to back to Church, crowd parking lots and occupy the pews they normally sit in. Many do not rejoice to see the person who bullied them in school, local criminals, the person who destroyed their best friend’s marriage, or family members who gossiped about them come to Church converted. When priests or religious are disciplined for bad behavior and are sent away, many of their confreres or fellow sisters are reluctant to see them return, less open to the joy that they might have repented than the dread that they might not have changed. Today’s cancel culture is one of a total lack of forgiveness: if someone makes a mistake, or if someone just doesn’t like what someone has done, they try to destroy without any possibility of rehabilitation. These are all reasons why Jesus’ stories this Sunday are still so relevant, because many of us are more like the Pharisees in the Gospel than we might want to admit.

* In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, we see how God loves us individually. Jesus the Good Shepherd calls each one of us by name, and none of us is a number to him.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

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

September 10, 2022

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.10.22_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, which will bring us into the heart of Jesus’ mission, the core of our faith, the way we’re supposed to receive God’s action in our life and what he wants us to do as a result. It involves three parables of the Lord, including, perhaps, the most famous short story of all time.

* Luke gives the setting: “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” The Pharisees were literally, in Hebrew, the “Separated Ones,” those who distanced themselves from sin and sinners. They were scandalized that Jesus would have any contact with sinners at all, not to mention welcome them, treat them with kindness and even share meals and fraternity with them. They failed to recognize that they were sinners. It was to them and their attitude about sin and sinners that Jesus addressed the three Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Sons.

* The attitude of the Scribes and Pharisees didn’t expire at a time long ago in a land far away. Many Christians today, for example, do not rejoice on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter when people who do not regularly practice the faith come to back to Church, crowd the parking lot and occupy the pews they normally sit in. Many do not rejoice to see the person who bullied them in school, local criminals, the person who destroyed their best friend’s marriage, or family members who gossiped about them come to Church converted. Jesus’ stories this Sunday are still so relevant because many of us are more like the Pharisees in the Gospel than we might want to admit.

* In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, we see how God loves us individually. Jesus the Good Shepherd calls each one of us by name, and none of us is a number to him. It might seem strange that a shepherd would leave 99 sheep and go out in search of one lost stray, because most of us don’t have that type of love for animals in general, especially if we have 100 of them or more. But Jesus was saying, “If you had ten young kids, and one of the didn’t come home, wouldn’t you leave the other nine to go out in search of your child?” Jesus loves each of us more than the greatest earthly moms and dads loves each of their children. He will come to find us. And he will rejoice when he finds us and leads us home.

* The Parable of the Lost Coin, at first glance, makes even less sense than that of the lost sheep. What woman who lost a quarter would spend all types of time sweeping the house looking for it, and then throw a big party upon finding it? But we need to know what the coin was. When a woman was married, she had a wedding veil, normally with ten precious coins strung like a crown that constituted her dowry. Not only were the coins precious but their symbolic value was priceless. The present-day analogy would be if a woman had lost her wedding ring. She indeed would pick up the sofa cushions, look under the couch, sweep everywhere frantically looking for it, and, if she found it, would certainly rejoice.

* Both parables led to a similar application by Jesus: “In just the same way,” he said, “there will be more joy in heaven,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Friday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Peter Claver

September 9, 2022

1 Cor 9:16-19.22-27, Ps 84, Lk 6:39-42

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.9.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us an indication of what he hopes we will become: “When fully trained,” he said, “every disciple will be like his teacher.” Jesus wants us to become like him, to love as he has loved, to live as he has lived. The essence of human life and of Christian existence is to become “fully trained.” God provides this training, through his Word, through his Church, even through the suffering he permits. In the Gospel, in the powerful parable of the splinter and the wooden beam, Jesus indicates to us that he wants us paying attention to the ways that we need to grow, to those aspects of our own conduct that still need to be trained, rather than to obsess about others’ faults and flaws, so that we might see clearly, virtuously, charitably and be better trained to help our neighbor.

* St. Paul in the first reading today likewise talks about the training necessary to become saints, to become like Jesus. He makes an analogy to the training of championship athletes. “Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.” We need to learn how to exercise discipline in every way, because discipline makes disciples. In this, St. Paul leads the Corinthians and us by example. He says, “Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” He was taking out his own logs from his life and that’s why he was able to see so clearly to assist others.

* And help others he did. He wanted everyone to become fully trained disciples through exercising discipline in every way. He made himself “a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible.” He became “all things to all, to save at least some.” His love for others and his recognition of God’s love for them because the driving force of his zeal. He wasn’t doing it for money or for earthly compensation, but because of an interior obligation to share the joy of what he himself had received. “Woe to me,” he says today, “if I do not preach the Gospel!” He recognized he had been given a treasure of which he had been made a steward and sought to pass on free of charge what he himself had received. A Christian spiritual athlete fully formed will have that same holy woe.

* Today we celebrate one such great spiritual athlete, St. Peter Claver, the great apostle to the slaves in Colombia. As a young Jesuit, St. Peter left his native Spain in order to go to Cartagena to minister to the African slaves when they would disembark after a brutal trans-Pacific journey, be sold and bought. Their condition was execrable. He spent his last 44 years of life as a slave to the slaves, a Good Samaritan, catechizing them by learning their dialects or finding translators, baptizing more than 300,000 of them, sharing their life and doing everything he could to introduce them to Christ and to how he has overturned worldly values. He slept in the slaves’ quarters rather than in their masters’ when he came to preach missions to them. And he sought to proclaim the Gospel and bring the message of conversion to the slaveowners, helping them to take out the planks from their eyes and souls.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

September 8, 2022

Rom 8:28-30, Ps 13, Mt 1:18-23

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.8.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* As today we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of our Lady, we can ponder how great was the joy of this day not only for Saints Joachim and Anne but also for God. If we accept what the second-century gnostic Pseudogospel of James says, Joachim and Anne, as we ponder each July 26, were aged in years and begging God to remove the shame of sterility from their life, as Joachim went into the desert to fast and pray and Anne wept a double lamentation. When the Angel appeared in response to their prayers, when she conceived, when she gave birth, and when she began to nurse Mary, St. Anne was ebullient with joy. But I’m sure that was nothing compared to what it must have been like for the eternal Son of God to be looking at the birth of the little girl who about 14 years later would become his own mother and give birth to him in the Gospel scene we’ve just heard. We can look at the baby Mary with the joy-filled eyes and hearts of her parents as well as of her Son as she was an infant and began to grow, thoughts that even many with strong Marian devotions seldom contemplate. We can also think about how Jesus and Joseph celebrated Mary’s birthday each year, recognizing that they are with us now, together with all the angels and saints, as we fete here anew today.

* God the Father had had Mary in his sights since the beginning of time. St. Paul tells us that he has “chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world to be holy and immaculate in his sight” (Eph 1:4), and how could he not be thinking of Mary as the icon of this divine election? We know that at the very instant of the fall, her advent was prophesied as the one in whom God would place an enmity for the serpent. Today, she who had been immaculately conceived was born full of grace.

* She was born according to a template. St. Paul tells us in today’s first reading that “those [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Mary was most certainly conformed to the image of the Holy One who would become the blessed Fruit of her womb and he, according to his humanity, would be conformed, mysteriously, to her earthly image. And this was a “shaping together” (literally con-formation) that would be manifested mutually throughout life, as her fiat would anticipate his, as her desire to help a young married couple would become his first miracle, as her pierced heart would emulate his heart pierced with a lance, as his glory would become reflected in her forever.

* It’s important for us whenever we celebrate a Marian feast to make explicit Mary’s Christocentric conformation, not just to avoid Protestant misinterpretations that we give Mary the homage that is only due to God, but also to help us deepen our own appreciation not only for our spiritual mother’s vocation and mission but for our own. Normally for us the celebration of a birthday is always an occasion to think with gratitude to God and to our parents for the gift of human life — and that is a very good thing to do! — but Mary’s birthday is a celebration of something more. As we see in today’s Gospel and know from throughout her life, she was born with a purpose, to be the Mother of God according to his humanity. This is alluded to in the other possible first reading for this feast, when the Prophet Micah says “You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be rule...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, New York

Wednesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

September 7, 2022

1 Cor 7:25-31, Ps 45, Lk 6:20-26

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.7.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* St. Paul tells the Corinthians today and us, “I tell you brothers, the time is running out. … The world in its present form is passing away.” The world is in the midst of a “present distress.” These words don’t mean that St. Paul was predicting the imminent end of the world, but rather that he was describing the urgency of reordering our priorities for the eternal rather than the ephemeral. The biggest trick in the devil’s arsenal, if he can’t convince us that he doesn’t exist, is to persuade us that there’s plenty of time “later” for us to get our act together, that there’s no urgency for us to make big choices for God now. Today St. Paul is continuing to teach both us and the Christians in Corinth the path to true wisdom, which is also the path by which we’ll be considered foolish by those who are worldly. But he’s not just indicating the path: he’s also urging us to choose to live by that path.

* There’s no greater illustration of the choice we’re called to make for what’s everlasting instead of what’s evanescent than what Jesus mentions in the Gospel today. This is St. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain. The fact that there are differences between this version and what Jesus says in Matthew 5-7 in the Sermon on the Mount is a clear sign that Jesus returned to his central messages often and developed different nuances. Rather than the eight beatitudes he proclaimed on the mountain, today in the plain he focuses on four and contrasts them clearly to four “woes.” But his essential teaching remains the same: that the real path to happiness, the way to have life to the full forever, is not just different, but in fact opposite, than what those infected by spiritual worldliness often presume.

* Jesus makes four contrasts today.

* The first is “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours,” and “Woe to you are rich, for you have received your consolation.” It is simply revolutionary — not just in Jesus’ age, not just our era, but in every epoch — to believe that we’ll be happier if we’re poor than if we’re rich. Jesus says that the “rich” are to be pitied because they have already received their consolation in their money and possessions, whereas the poor are blessed because they are therefore able to seek with hope God and his kingdom. Material wealth is what those who live for the present age often believe will bring them happiness, but God’s kingdom is the hope and the treasure of those who are living knowing that time is running out and eternity is about to begin. Today many people, including Christians, spend more time nourishing their hope to win the lottery rather than to win heaven, and Jesus says that these people are “woeful” because they think that the monopoly money and temporary houses on Park Avenue are more valuable that the Father’s House and treasure.

* The second is “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied,” versus, “Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.” Like at Paul’s time with the Epicureans, there are many people today who have made pleasure their deity. St. Paul says in his letter to the Christians in Philippi that the “enemies of the Cross” have made their “bellies their god.” There are people who live to satiate their bodily appetites, obsessing about meals at restaurants, storing up precious wines in cellars,