Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Monastery of Saint Anne, Swieta Anna, Poland

Tertio Millennio Seminar

Saturday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass of Our Lady

July 9, 2022

Is 6:1-8, Ps 93, Mt: 10:24-33

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.9.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* Today we finish five days of instructions that the Lord Jesus gave to the apostles before sending them out for the first time to announce and demonstrate that the Kingdom of Heaven had drawn near. In the section we had yesterday, Jesus had spoken humanly ominous words that they would all suffer in the proclamation, be betrayed by family members, religious leaders and civil officials, hated by all, be persecuted and even killed. But today Jesus tells them three times not to be afraid. He indicates to them that just as he’ll be treated, they’ll be treated, but through that suffering they’ll become like him their teacher and master, and, like him and together with him, introduce people to how the kingdom will triumph even over sin, persecution and death. He encouraged them to speak in light and proclaim on the housetops the truths he has confided in them, confident that, rather than fearing the opinions of others, they should only care about what God thinks, reminding them that God loves them, has numbered every follicle and accounts them far more valuable than many sparrows whom he likewise never forgets. He promises them that whoever acknowledges him before men he himself will acknowledge eternally before the Father.

* Regardless the mission to which he entrusts them can be humanly intimidating. That’s why the first reading from the vocation story of the prophet Isaiah is so important. After Isaiah saw the theophany of God, he recognized his unworthiness to be in God’s presence. He was a man of “unclean” (profane) lips and considered himself objectively unworthy of speaking of what he had seen. But God cured him through the seraphim with a burning charcoal, much like God wants to purify each of us by sending us the fire of the Holy Spirit. Once purified, when God asks for a volunteer to send, Isaiah steps forward: “Here I am. Send me!” That is a witness to us. Before a priest proclaims the Gospel in the Extraordinary Form, he prays for God to purify his lips and heart like God purified Isaiah’s lips with a burning charcoal. God wants to make us worthy to speak to him and about him, so that we can in fact give witness in every age, like Isaiah to his contemporaries before the exile, like the apostles before their martyrdoms.

* Today we have four different examples of those who acknowledge God before others.

* The first is the Chinese martyrs, St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions, who testified to the presence of God despite numerous waves of anti-Christian persecutions, hatred and death.

* The second is the 19 Martyrs of Gorkum, who gave their lives in witness to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist against Calvinists in Holland 450 years ago today.

* The third is the Dominican nuns of this monastery, who are full-fledged members of the Order of Preachers, giving witness to Christ like they just did for an hour behind the grill, and as they do by their whole life, showing not only that God exists but he is the pearl of great price worth selling all they have to obtain.

* Finally, we have our Lady on this Saturday, who let her whole life develop in testimony to the blessed Fruit of her womb, the Word made flesh.

* We ask all of their intercession that we, too, having been purified may step forward to be sent by the Lord to...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, C, Vigil

July 9, 2022

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.9.22_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 as we ponder together one of the Gospel’s most famous passages.

* A lawyer asks Jesus one of the most important questions a man or woman, a boy or a girl, can: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” What do I have to do, in other words, to get to heaven? We don’t get to heaven simply by being born. We don’t get to heaven simply by being reborn in baptism as a child (unless we also die in that state). We don’t get to heaven by coasting there. It’s a choice, or more precisely, a series of choices, and the most important ones we’ll ever make. It’s precisely a choice to love.

* Jesus questioned the lawyer what he himself thought the answer was to his own question, and the lawyer gave what Jesus admitted was the right response. Putting together two parts of what God had revealed in the Old Testament, the lawyer said that to inherit eternal life we must love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind (Deut 6:5) and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev 19:18). On these two commandments, or better, this two-fold commandment, Jesus himself said elsewhere, “hang all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:40). This two-fold commandment is a summary, in other words, of the entire Old Testament, which is all about God’s love for us and about how he calls us to love each other. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Jesus said, “Do this and you will live.” The whole Old Testament was God’s revelation to help his people enter into life and be prepared through love to embrace “life to the full” (Jn 10:10) when it finally was revealed in the person, words and deeds of Jesus.

* But as conceptually simple as Jesus’ answer is, there are obviously practical considerations. The scholar of the law, however, didn’t ask Jesus for help putting the love of God with one-hundred percent of our mind, heart, soul and strength, as well as one-hundred percent of our time, talents, and wallets, into practice. Instead, he asked him to make concrete how he was to love his neighbor, by querying, “Who is my neighbor?” We’ve heard Jesus’ answer so many times that to us the answer might seem obvious, but it wasn’t at the time of the lawyer. In fact the question of who is one’s neighbor was one of the most discussed and controversial debates among Israelites. A typical Jew was raised with an attitude to which Jesus referred in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” (Mt 5:43). Therefore, if one were to love one’s neighbor and detest one’s enemy, it was crucial to determine who was one’s neighbor and who was one’s adversary. Almost all Jews admitted that one’s neighbor extended beyond one’s family or those who lived physically proximate. Most interpreters considered that one’s neighbor included all fellow Israelites and those gentiles who adhered to the Mosaic law. But no one was quite prepared for Jesus’ answer, which he gave in the form of the parable of the Good Samaritan. He basically said that everyone is in our neighborhood — even those considered enemies, as Jews and Samaritans deemed each other.

* In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus stressed that God’s love had no limits and that likewise there be no limitto our love ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow

Tertio Millennio Seminar

Friday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass for Persecuted Christians

July 8, 2022

Hos 14:2-10, Ps 51, Mt: 10:16-23

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.8.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* The Lord tells us through Hosea at the end of the first reading, “Straight are the paths of the Lord.” That’s surprising, at least paradoxical, or seemingly contradictory to what was happening in the prophet’s letter, as the people to whom he was preaching were about to be defeated, destroyed and brought into exile. The paths of the Lord are straight not because their paths weren’t crooked, but because the Lord always makes a b-line to us with his mercy, as we see him promise through Hosea. He shows them how to turn to him, what to say to him, how to sacrifice to him, how to turn away from idols and how they who have orphaned themselves will find compassion in his fatherly care. He promises to heal their defection, love them freedom, be like dew giving them new birth, blossoming like the lily of resurrection, build them as solidly as a Lebanon cedar, and blossom like the vine.

* In the Gospel, we see a similar dynamic. As Jesus sends out the 12 apostles, today he tells them that as they proclaim his kingdom, they will suffer. They would be like sheep in the midst of wolves, who are not accidentally but intentionally intent on mangling the sheep. They’ll be betrayed by family members, courts and synagogues, persecuted from town to town, and hated by all. But still straight are the ways of the Lord. He says that this betrayal will occur so that they might give “witness” before everyone together, so that they can show kingdom and its King are worth living for, suffering for and dying for. He says that when they’re in those circumstances the Holy Spirit will come to give joint witness with them, and he’ll make them wise as serpents and pure as doves. These are not contradictory terms. The Holy Spirit will fill us with his gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge and prudence so that they may be wise as serpents, the gifts of reverence and awe of the Lord so that they may be holy and pure as doves, and courage to help with both.

* Jesus himself was both serpentinely wise and pure. We see it on display in his avoiding those trying to kill him because it wasn’t yet his hour, in his retorts to the Pharisees who tried to entrap the adulteress brought before him asking if it were possible to stone her, who tried to entrap him by asking whether it is possible to pay taxes to Caesar, who asked him by what authority he was driving the money changers out of the temple. He showed it before the High Priest, before Pilate, before Herod, and on the Cross as people mocked him. Likewise St. John Paul II was both wise and pure, during the Nazi occupation with the Rhapsodic theater and clandestine seminary, as a young priest and chaplain against communist indoctrination, as an auxiliary bishop whom the communists supported to try to drive a wedge between him and Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (straight are the paths of the Lord that Wojtyla was appointed bishop!), and then as Pope in so many complicated circumstances in the world, most notably leading the world against communism and the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall. The purpose of this Tertio Millennio Seminar is to help form all participants — through the pillars of liturgical, academic, communal, apostolic formation imparted — to be as wise as serpents and pure as doves. And we have the chance to become one with the p...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Corpus Christi Basilica, Krakow

Tertio Millennio Seminar

Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass of the Holy Eucharist

July 7, 2022

Hos 11:1-4.8-9, Ps 80, Mt: 10-7-15

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.7.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Through Hosea, God shows that his spousal and today fatherly love is all about healing his people from their self-inflicted sinful wounds. “They did not know I was their healer,” he says.

* Hence when the fulfillment of Hosea, Jesus, arrived, to fulfill Hosea’s spousal prophecy and actualize the Father’s healing love, Jesus sent out his twelve apostles precisely to heal: to heal the sick, to raise those whom sickness has killed, to draw close and heal lepers and even to cast out the evil one. They went out to show the Kingdom as they announced it in seven simple words in English, five words in Matthew’s original Greek.

* Jesus sent them out as those already healed by the Gospel, those living it: giving it for free as they’ve received it; trusting in God’s providence; staying in one house so that, by welcoming the apostles, the hosts would be welcoming Jesus and God the Father who sent Jesus; wishing peace to everyone without prejudging prejudice, because everyone is capable; and if they’re rejected, to wipe off the memory from their sandals so that they could go to the next house or village proclaiming not resentment but the kingdom! They lived what they were proclaiming.

* In this Basilica dedicated for 700 years to the Holy Eucharist, housing the relics of the 15th-century “Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Stanislaw Kazimierzcyk, we can focus on the healing given to us by this medicine of immorality and the way we’re supposed to live Eucharistic lives, showing others the difference receiving Christ makes.

The readings for today’s Mass were:

Reading 1

HOS 11:1-4, 8E-9

Thus says the LORD:

When Israel was a child I loved him,

out of Egypt I called my son.

The more I called them,

the farther they went from me,

Sacrificing to the Baals

and burning incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

who took them in my arms;

I drew them with human cords,

with bands of love;

I fostered them like one

who raises an infant to his cheeks;

Yet, though I stooped to feed my child,

they did not know that I was their healer.

My heart is overwhelmed,

my pity is stirred.

I will not give vent to my blazing anger,

I will not destroy Ephraim again;

For I am God and not man,

the Holy One present among you;

I will not let the flames consume you.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 80:2AC AND 3B, 15-16

R. (4b) Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved.

O shepherd of Israel, hearken.

From your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.

Rouse your power.

R. Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved.

Once again, O LORD of hosts,

look down from heaven, and see:

Take care of this vine,

and protect what your right hand has planted,

the son of man whom you yourself made strong.

R. Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow

Tertio Millennio Seminar

Wednesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr

Hos 10:1-3.7-8.12, Ps 105, Mt 10:1-7

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.6.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today we pondered the characteristics of the multivalent soul of St. John Paul II — Polish, Carmelite, Marian, Dramatic, Priestly and humanistic — but all of these are crowned in what we could call his apostolic, evangelical and missionary soul. He longed to share with others what we had received so that God might strengthen others’ souls like God did his own.

* In the Gospel, we see Jesus call the apostles by name, just as he did Karol Wojtyla, just as he does us. He sent them to the “slain” and “suffering” sheep of the House of Israel — the Greek word is far more powerful than “lost.” These were not the pretty people or the rich and famous but those who are wounded. And he sent them with his own power to exorcise demons and heal of every disease and illness, to illustrate what he put on their lips later, that the Kingdom of God, which is God, had drawn near. In upgrading them from disciples to apostles, Jesus was helping them become more fully evangelized. In the landmark 2007 Aparecida document co-authorized by the future Pope Francis, the process of evangelization was described in five stages: encounter, conversion, discipleship, communion and mission. Mission is the full flourishing of the seed having grown within so that the fruit we bear has seeds to plant in others. They were sent on own to show first and then to proclaim the Kingdom and to encourage others to enter into the process of growth in that kingdom, from encounter through Mission.

* When Jesus preached about the kingdom he used images of a vineyard with frequency, like when he said that the Kingdom is like a vineyard a master planted, put a tower in it and put a hedge around it, or even used the image of the Vine and the Branches. It is precisely the fulfillment of the “luxuriant vine Isaiah described in today’s first reading. The Israelites, however, bore fruit not for the kingdom but for themselves and, after sending the prophets to them to call them to conversion, God then mentioned the consequences of their action and they would cry for the mountains to collapse on them to kill them. But the vengeance God took was to “rain down justice upon” them, namely, the Just One, Jesus himself, whom we invoke every Advent when we say, “Rorate Caeli Desuper and tubes pluant Iustum.” Jesus, the Just one, would come, but he would in his mercy suffer the justice the sins of Israel deserved. The fulfillment of the process of evangelization is precisely in letting that mercy so transform us that we will share that mercy with others.

* This is illustrated in the life of St. Maria Goretti, who forgave her attempted rapist and murder Alessandro Serenelli in such a way that her mother Assunta could forgive him and later all the people of the parish and village. Today as we celebrate her feast we ask her to intercede for us to be capable of such mercy. And we ask for it in the context of the Mass, as we become one with the King who in this holy city revealed to St. Faustina that he was mercy incarnate.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Reading 1

HOS 10:1-3, 7-8, 12

Israel is a luxuriant vine

whose fruit matches its growth.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow, Poland

Tertio Millennio Seminar

July 5, 2022

Hos 8:4-7.11-13, Ps 115, Mt 9:32-38

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.5.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted: 

* We’ve just watched together the gripping documentary John Paul II: Liberating A Continent from Communism. Today in the Gospel we enter into the story on which it is ultimately based, which would could entitle, Jesus Christ: Liberating the World from the Evil One.

* His exorcism meant that he was quite special, and the Pharisees opposed him. We see similar opposition to God’s work in the passage from Hosea and from the Psalm, in which the people became like the lifeless statues they worshipped.

* Jesus came to liberate us from the evil one by his mercy. We ready in the Gospel that his heart was moved with pity — splangchnizomai — for the crowds who were mangled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd, and Jesus encouraged them to pray to the harvest master for laborers. Tomorrow we’ll see he will call those very ones who prayed. He similarly taught, fed, healed and forgave out of the same gut-bursting-sick-to-his-stomach love. St. John Paul II received the Lord’s mercy in these five ways and sought to extend it. The Lord hopes that we will do likewise.

* Every Mass we have all five forms of these mercy in action. If we receive the Lord’s merciful love consequentially, then, God-willing, we will be listed in the credits at the end of the great drama of the divine liberation of the human race by Mercy Incarnate.

 

Reading 1

HOS 8:4-7, 11-13

Thus says the LORD:

They made kings in Israel, but not by my authority;

they established princes, but without my approval.

With their silver and gold they made

idols for themselves, to their own destruction.

Cast away your calf, O Samaria!

my wrath is kindled against them;

How long will they be unable to attain

innocence in Israel?

The work of an artisan,

no god at all,

Destined for the flames—

such is the calf of Samaria!

When they sow the wind,

they shall reap the whirlwind;

The stalk of grain that forms no ear

can yield no flour;

Even if it could,

strangers would swallow it.

When Ephraim made many altars to expiate sin,

his altars became occasions of sin.

Though I write for him my many ordinances,

they are considered as a stranger’s.

Though they offer sacrifice,

immolate flesh and eat it,

the LORD is not pleased with them.

He shall still remember their guilt

and punish their sins;

they shall return to Egypt.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 115:3-4, 5-6, 7AB-8, 9-10

R. (9a) The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Our God is in heaven;

whatever he wills, he does.

Their idols are silver and gold,

the handiwork of men.

R. The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.

or:

R. Alleluia.

They have mouths but speak not;

they have eyes but see not;

They have ears but hear not;

they have noses but smell not.

R. The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.

or:

R. Alleluia.

They have hands but feel not;

they have feet but walk not.

Their makers shall be like them,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. Leonard Crypt, Wawel Cathedral, Krakow, Poland

Site of the First Three Masses of the future St. John Paul II

Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit

July 4, 2022

Acts 2:1-11, Ps 104, Jn 20:19-23

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.4.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following outline guided the homily:

* Fr. Karol Wojtyla’s First three Masses, Nov. 2, 1946 where we are.

* The invocation of the Holy Spirit over him at his ordination and his life of the Holy Spirit thereafter. He taught, preached and manifested in his action five different aspects we can ponder:

* Prayer according to the Holy Spirit

* Life according to the Holy Spirit

* The manifestation of the Holy Spirit given to each of us for the common good.

* The gifts of the Holy Spirit that help us to use that “manifestation” and how we can see those gifts in him.

* The tongue of fire given so that we can share the faith.

* The place we come to be renewed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the Mass, which is the perpetual Pentecost. It’s here that Jesus continues to say, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” as we await his changing bread and wine into Jesus and men, women, boys and girls into “one body, one Spirit in Christ.” It’s here that St. John Paul II is praying for us as we pray with insistence, “Lord send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.” May we respond as fruitfully as he did!

 

The readings for today’s Mass

Reading I

Acts 2:1-11

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,

they were all in one place together.

And suddenly there came from the sky

a noise like a strong driving wind,

and it filled the entire house in which they were.

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,

which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit

and began to speak in different tongues,

as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven

staying in Jerusalem.

At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,

but they were confused

because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,

“Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?

Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?

We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,

inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,

Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,

Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,

as well as travelers from Rome,

both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,

yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues

of the mighty acts of God.”

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34

R (cf. 30) Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

or:

R Alleluia.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!

How manifold are your works, O LORD!

the earth is full of your creatures;

R Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

or:

R Alleluia.

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;

may the LORD be glad in his works!

Pleasing to him be my theme;

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Day of Recollection for the Rome Experience for Seminarians

Villa Betania, Bracciano, Italy

July 3, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.3.22_Gratitude_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Day of Recollection for the Rome Experience for Seminarians

Villa Betania, Bracciano, Italy

July 3, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.3.22_Learning_Rome_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Chapel of Villa Betania, Bracciano, Italy

Rome Experience for Seminarians

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C

July 3, 2022

Is 66:10-14, Ps 66, Gal 6:14-18, Lk 10:1-12,17-20

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.3.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* Most of you are aware of how the Sunday lectionary is put together. Everything begins with the Gospel. Years A, B and C feature Matthew, Mark and Luke respectively, and, in Ordinary Time, we basically follow the Gospel passages sequentially. The first reading is always linked to the Gospel, to highlight St. Augustine’s principle that the New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. The Psalm is always a response to the first reading and, therefore, also a preparation for the Gospel. And the New Testament epistle is basically on its own cycle, as we go through the letters of the apostles, sticking with the same letter for several weeks, whether or not it really links well to the other three readings. Knowing the connection between the first reading, psalm and Gospel, however, allows us to determine the main theme that the Church is trying to highlight that given Day of the Lord.

* What is it this Sunday?

* If you read the Gospel first, one would think it’s basically straightforward about proclaiming the Gospel. When the Lord sends out the 72 — basically the 12 apostles and 60 lay people, indicating he was sending out almost everyone who had been following him, in an all-hands-on-deck evangelizing mission — he gives them a message and then a packaging for that message. The Church has been seeking to respond to that sending forth ever since. But when you look at the passage from Isaiah and the Responsorial Psalm you recognize that there’s a particular emphasis on rejoicing. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,” Isaiah says in anticipation of the return of the captives from Babylon. Isaiah talks about nursing with delight at the huge spiritual bosom of Jerusalem, at the comfort of being embraced in her lap, of experiencing her prosperity like an overflowing torrent. Seeing all of this, Isaiah says for God, peoples’ hearts shall rejoice.

* That theme continues in Psalm 66, when we exclaim, “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy,” “shout joyfully to God all the earth, sing praise to the glory of his name,” and then the rest of the psalm tells us why, because God’s deeds of liberating love, stretching back to the exodus, are mighty tremendous, and glorious. When we re-read the Gospel, therefore, on the basis of the two readings from the Old Testament, we quickly capture that the link is to the joy in the second half of Luke’s pericope, when the 72 “returned rejoicing” at the demons being subject to them just like Jesus had promised, together with Jesus’ gentle correction indicating what should be the source of real joy: rejoicing because their names are written in heaven.

* That connection should influence the interpretation of the entire passage. When Jesus sends out the 72 with a message that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that message is meant to be announced by joyful heralds. When he tells them to wish others peace, he wants them to be delighted in doing so, because that’s the peace he has entered humanity to bestow, which the world can’t give or rob. When he speaks about praying to the Harvest Master for laborers, he wants them to be full of joy that they’ve been chosen among the few to roll up their sleeves in his vineyard. When he describes the packaging with which they’re supposed to announce that kingdom and bestow that peace, he wants each to be enveloped in joy: when they go out like lambs amo...