Catholic Preaching

Catholic Preaching

By Father Roger LandryReligion & SpiritualityChristianity
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Catholic Preaching episodes

  • Religious as Leaders of Hope according to the thought of Pope Leo XIV, CMSWR National Assembly, St. Louis Missouri, September 19, 2025

    Msgr. Roger J. Landry

    National Assembly of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR)
    Drury Plaza Hotel St. Louis at the Arch
    September 19, 2025

     

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

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.19.25_Religious_as_Leaders_of_Hope_according_to_the_thought_of_Pope_Leo_1.mp3

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

    9.19.25 Religious as Leaders of Hope according to the thought of Pope Leo

     

    The post Religious as Leaders of Hope according to the thought of Pope Leo XIV, CMSWR National Assembly, St. Louis Missouri, September 19, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

    1 hr 3 min
  • Religious as Pilgrims and Living Signs of Hope for the Pilgrim Church on Earth, CMSWR National Assembly, September 18, 2025

    Msgr. Roger J. Landry

    Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR National Assembly)
    Drury Plaza Hotel St. Louis at the Arch
    September 18, 2025

    To listen to an audio recording of tonight’s conference, please click below:

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.18.25_Religious_as_Pilgrims_and_Living_Signs_of_Hope_for_the_Pilgrim_Church_on_Earth_1.mp3

     

    To download a PDF copy of tonight’s conference, please click below: 

    9.18.25 Religious as Pilgrims and Living Signs of Hope for the Pilgrim Church on Earth

    The post Religious as Pilgrims and Living Signs of Hope for the Pilgrim Church on Earth, CMSWR National Assembly, September 18, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

    58 min
  • Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of St. Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi: The Content and Means of Evangelization, September 11, 2025

    Msgr. Roger J. Landry

    Webinar in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Evangelii Nuntiandi
    USCCB Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis and the US Catholic Missionary Association
    September 11, 2025

     

    To watch the video of the presentation and the question-and-answer period, which was moderated by Kevin Foy of the US Catholic Missionary Association, please click below: 

     

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

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.11.25_Celebrating_the_50th_Anniversary_of_Evangelii_Nuntiandi_1.mp3

     

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

    9.11.25 Fiftieth Anniversary of Evangelii Nuntiandi

     

     

    The post Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of St. Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi: The Content and Means of Evangelization, September 11, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

    58 min
  • True Disciples Climbing to the Heights on the Highway to Heaven, Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), September 7, 2025

    Msgr. Roger J. Landry

    Chapel of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
    Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
    September 7, 2025
    Wis 9:13-18, Ps 90, Philemon 9-10.12-17, Lk 14:25-33

     

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

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.7.25_Homily_1.mp3

     

    The following text guided today’s homily: 

    • Early this morning in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo canonized two great young men, Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) and Carlo Acutis (1991-2006). Both show us you don’t need to be old to be holy, you don’t have to come from a devout family, you don’t need to leave the world, family and friends behind and live some form of extraordinary existence. Rather you have to live with a vivid awareness of the incredible love of God and aim to live one’s whole life in union with him. Both had a great love for the Eucharist and sought to receive Jesus each day once they became truly aware of the treasure. Both were extraordinary friends to large groups of their peers. Both were zealous in their care for others, especially the poor. Both were heroic in their brief but intense periods of physical suffering that would take their lives by acute polio and leukemia respectively. Their relatable and imitable examples have made the call to holiness far more palpable and less intimidating to millions. Their joint canonization is like a message: that the Lord Jesus is sending them as a pair to help encourage each of us to follow them in following Him. St. Pier Giorgio wrote on the back of a photo of him rock climbing up a steep cliff, “Verso l’alto,” which summarizes his entire life: “Toward the heights.” St. Carlo urged us to join him on the “highway to heaven,” which he said is a truly Eucharistic life, “always close to Jesus,” which was his rule of life. Today we seek to join them as disciples climbing to the summit on the heavenly highway.
    • To do that, we need to have a clear sense of the goal, of the destination, of the eternal Jerusalem. Jesus in the Gospel speaks to us with two memorable images about what we could call “starting with the end in mind.” Before beginning to build a tower, he says, we need to make sure we have the resources to complete it. Likewise, before the first battle is waged, we need to know that we have enough troops to win the war. It’s important advice in any endeavor. But it’s essential in the Christian life. Jesus gives three conditions in the Gospel to help us determine if we’re sagely beginning with the end in mind, to help us know whether we’ve got the bricks to finish the job and the troops to fight the good fight. The conditions are challenging, but Jesus regularly challenges his disciples in the Gospel. So what are the conditions?
    • The first condition is to love God above everyone and everything. Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” To understand what he is saying, we have to grasp the Hebrew term for “hate.” It doesn’t mean to “detest” but to “put in second place.” Jesus, after all, calls us to honor our parents, not hate their guts. He calls us to love even our enemies, and so we are certainly called to love our siblings! The point of Jesus’ expression is that He must be our greatest love, our supreme good. To be a faithful disciple of the Lord, we must love Him more than we love ourselves or our loved ones. Jesus cannot just be a part of our life but he must be the center. If we love others more than him, if we love our life more than him, we won’t have enough fuel in the plane to cross the Atlantic. This is a clear characteristic we find in the two new saints we celebrate today. Saint Pier Giorgio used to climb out his bedroom window to go to daily Mass while his parents thought he was still asleep, because he anticipated their opposition. His mother once fought his desire to receive Jesus in Holy Communion every day until he won her over. God was first for him. Similarly, Carlo’s family wasn’t practicing, but he put God in his proper place and eventually his prioritization led his parents back to keeping the promises of their baptism. They show us that what Jesus summons us to do can be done.
    • The second condition concerns our willingness to suffer for him who suffered all for us. Jesus says, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” To be a faithful follower of the one who saved us on Calvary, we need to be prepared to suffer out of love for him and others; otherwise, we will not be able faithfully to fulfill the journey of the Christian life. The clearest example of this is the martyrs, who were prepared to die rather than to sin, who were prepared to embrace the Cross all the way because they knew that the Cross would unite them to Christ. But we see this as well in Christian doctors, medical students and pharmacists who refuse to take part in any way in any practices that harm or take life, even if they might suffer professionally; we see this in people who stick up for Christ and his teachings even when they suffer derision as a result at college, work or in their families; we see this in those who sacrifice money and time to care for others and for the mission of the Church. If we’re not willing to endure suffering, if we run away from the cross rather than seek to embrace it together with Christ, then we won’t have what it takes to follow Christ all the way, uphill, through Calvary to heaven. That’s what’s we see in the lives of Saints Pier Giorgio and Carlo. They were both willing to accept the moral suffering that came from others’ mocking them for their prioritizing Jesus and living differently than the worldly. We see it, too, in the way they suffered at the end of their life. Pier Giorgio bore his enormous pains and gradual paralysis silently so that his family could have its attention on his dying grandmother. Carlo offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI. They not only embraced their Cross but united themselves to Christ on the Cross, making up what was lacking in themselves of Christ’s sufferings for the sake of the Church. They show us, again, that what Jesus asks, though hard, is doable, and their fidelity inspires us.
    • The third condition is meant to help us find and place in Christ our real treasure. Jesus says, “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” This seems to be a shockingly challenging condition, but Jesus was driving at something he had said elsewhere in the Gospel. “No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Mt 6:24). He then gave that sentence a clear practical application: “You cannot serve both God and money” (Mt 6:24). Unless we give up our love of money, unless we make the choice not to serve money, unless we sever the cord of being possessed by our possessions, unless we become detached from them and use them for God’s kingdom, then, he says, we cannot be his faithful follower. We cannot help but think here of the Rich Young Man, who, when presented by Jesus with the path to true fulfillment through giving up what he owned, bestowing the money on the poor, storing up treasure in heaven and then coming after him, chose his stuff rather than Jesus. Jesus says that we cannot be his disciple unless we’re prepared to choose differently from the Rich Young Man, unless we’re ready to use all that we have — every last possession — to obtain the pearl of great price. Otherwise, we will be vulnerable to valuing Jesus less than thirty pieces of silver and won’t have the courage to trade everything else we have to obtain his kingdom. This is something that characterized the lives of our two young saints. Pope Leo during the canonization Mass homily earlier today said that today’s first reading from the Book of Wisdom shows us that God and his wisdom are far more valuable than money, than merely human relationships, than our health and even our life. In response to the Book of Wisdom’s query to God, “Who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high?” Pope Leo said, “This question is in the Book of Wisdom and is attributed to a young man like [Saints Pier Giorgio and Carlo], King Solomon. Upon the death of his father David, [Solomon] realized that he had many things, power, wealth, health, youth, beauty and the entire kingdom. But it was precisely this great abundance of resources that raised a question in his heart: What must I do so that nothing is lost? Solomon understood that the only way to find an answer was to ask God for an even greater gift, his wisdom, so that he might know God’s plans and follow them faithfully. He realized, in fact, that only in this way would everything find its place in the Lord’s great plan.” Pope Leo continued: “The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan. Jesus, too, in the Gospel … calls us to abandon ourselves, without hesitation, to the adventure that he offers us with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit that we can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached in order to listen to His word.” This is what we see in the lives of the two new saints. They both came from wealthy families but rather than seeking and serving money, they sought to give it away. Pier Giorgio would take the third class on the train and use the savings from the first-class fares to buy medicines, food, clothing and other goods for the poor. When asked by his friends why he took the third class when his parents had give him money for first, he said, “Because there isn’t a fourth.” Carlo brought his piggy bank to school to give it to needy classmates. He regularly used his allowance to buy blankets, sleeping bags, and thermoses he’d fill with warm liquids to bring to the homeless around him in Milan. Pier Giorgio and Carlo show us that it is possible to live by Jesus’ third condition. They manifested that whatever resources we have are meant to be blessings not just for ourselves but for others, that our goods allow us to be agents of divine providence by we enter more into his charity and the poverty by which he makes us rich.
    • It’s tempting to try to soften Jesus’ three conditions, as if he really didn’t or couldn’t mean them literally, because they are so challenging to our human weaknesses. We’re tempted to try to reduce the price tag of the faith, as if Jesus were running a Yard Sale and we can haggle the cost down to something we think a price worth paying. To be Jesus’ disciple, to enter into his kingdom, however, requires a challenging and decisive choice. We have got to be willing, as Jesus says elsewhere, to “pluck out [our] eyes” and “cut off [our] hands” if that’s what it takes to follow him (Mt 5:29-30). We have got to be willing even to lose our life, because it is only the one who loses his life who will find it again in God (Mk 8:35). Unless we have a clear idea of the cost of discipleship and are prepared to pay it, Jesus implies, we’ll compromise on our faith and won’t be able to complete the journey of the Christian life. With great love, authentic spiritual fatherhood, and trust in us, Jesus wants to help us reflect on what means it’s going to take to achieve the end and to will those means, just like Carlo and Pier Giorgio show us.
    • And Jesus reminds us that while there is always significant cost to our discipleship, the rewards are so much greater. Jesus promised us as much elsewhere in the Gospel after Peter asked him, “Lord, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, … everyone who for my name’s sake has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields” — almost the very words he gives in today’s first condition — “will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29). There’s no greater promise than that! As we count the cost of discipleship and with God’s help pay the price, we know that in return we will receive Christ, who is the pearl of great value and the treasure buried in the field, worth sacrificing all we are and have to obtain! This is the great lesson we learn today from our two new saints, who received far more than 100 times blessing in this life in terms of the depth of their friendships on earth and, as we mark today in an infallible act of the Church, eternal life.
    • In the second reading today, we see the true transformation power that our Christian faith is supposed to have in our life. St. Paul tells Philemon to relate to his escaped slave Onesimus, who had cared for Paul in his Roman imprisonment, as a brother not as a slave. Somewhat incredibly, he stresses that Philemon’s attitude toward Onesimus should be marked far more by the reality of their common baptism than by Roman class structure and law. Onesimus had escaped and for that reason needed at a minimum to be marked for life by a red-hot iron with a F for “fugitive” on his forehead. He could even be crucified at Philemon’s whim. But Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon and asked Philemon to receive Onesimus not as a escaped slave but as a brother in the Lord, to welcome him as he would welcome Paul himself or even Christ himself. This is amazing: The reality of the indelible mark of baptism on Onesimus’ soul was to be far weightier, Paul suggested, than the branded F that should be seared into Onesimus’ forehead. And we have every reason to believe that that is exactly how Philemon welcomed Onesimus back, otherwise we almost certainly wouldn’t have had this personal letter of St. Paul preserved. This points to the type of revolution the Christian faith is supposed to work. Our faith in Christ, and what we know he asks of us, is supposed to be the central reference point for how we look at ourselves, how we look at others, and how we make our decisions. Philemon received God’s grace to welcome Onesimus no longer as a piece of property, no longer as someone who had stolen from him, but as a beloved spiritual sibling. This is the newness of life Christ came to give us. This is the way we’re called to love him, and his wisdom, and his kingdom, more than anything else. Just as the Christian faith called for a revolution in Philemon’s thinking, decision-making, and relationships, so it’s supposed to transform our thinking, our decision-making, and relationships. Our faith in Jesus is supposed to revolutionize the way we relate to our family, our property, our pleasures, even our own life. It certainly had that impact St. Pier Giorgio’s and St. Carlo’s lives. Pope Leo focused this morning on how their lives were totally changed by their faith in Christ to treat others as beloved brothers and sisters, even as Christ himself. The Holy Father offered their way of life as a beacon for our own. “Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo,” he proclaimed, “cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts available to everyone, daily mass prayer and especially Eucharistic Adoration. … Pier Giorgio said, ‘Around the poor and the sick, I see a light that we do not have.’ He called charity the foundation of our religion, and like Carlo, he practiced it above all through small, concrete gestures, often hidden, living what Pope Francis called a holiness found in our next-door neighbors.” Their lives, he concluded, “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces. They encourage us with their words, ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say, and Pier Giorgio, ‘If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.’ This is the simple but winning formula of their holiness. It is also the type of witness we are called to follow to enjoy life to the full and meet the Lord in the feast of heaven.”
    • The great way they lived was centered on the Eucharist, which Carlo famously said is the highway — the straightest and fastest path — to enfleshing the Gospel message we hear today and the entirety of the Christian life. Pope Leo quoted Saint Carlo today, “In front of the sun, you get a tan. In front of the Eucharist, you become a saint.” The Eucharist is the fruit of Jesus’ leaving his Father’s side in heaven, his carrying the cross, his renouncing all earthly possessions, his “hating” even his own life, so that we might have life to the full, starting even in this life. The Eucharist is where Jesus strengthens us for the battles of life and gives us sturdy bricks, day by day, to become a temple with a high bell-tower capable through its peals of bringing others to worship God alongside us. Today as we celebrate the canonization of Saints Carlo and Pier Giorgio, let us seek to imitate their love for the Eucharistic Jesus who seeks to do in us what he beautifully did in them. In response to Pier Giorgio’s famous motto, “Verso l’Alto,” “to the heights,” let us through his intercession lift up our hearts to the Lord, and, as we elevate Jesus’ Body and Blood to the Father at the consecration, let us ask God’s help so that we might keep our hearts focused on where our true treasure is. And following through on Carlo’s indication of the Christian Eucharistic highway, let us through his intercession step on the gas in the highspeed lane as we ascend the path Jesus has marked out for us on the road to where now Carlo and Pier Giorgio and all the saints rejoice forever.

      •  

      The readings for today’s Mass were: 

      Reading 1
      Wisdom 9:13-18b

       Who can know God’s counsel,

      or who can conceive what the LORD intends?
      For the deliberations of mortals are timid,
      and unsure are our plans.
      For the corruptible body burdens the soul
      and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.
      And scarce do we guess the things on earth,
      and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty;
      but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?
      Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom
      and sent your holy spirit from on high?
      And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.

      Responsorial Psalm
      Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17

      R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

      You turn man back to dust,
      saying, “Return, O children of men.”
      For a thousand years in your sight
      are as yesterday, now that it is past,
      or as a watch of the night.
      R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
      You make an end of them in their sleep;
      the next morning they are like the changing grass,
      Which at dawn springs up anew,
      but by evening wilts and fades.
      R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
      Teach us to number our days aright,
      that we may gain wisdom of heart.
      Return, O LORD! How long?
      Have pity on your servants!
      R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
      Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
      that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
      And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
      prosper the work of our hands for us!
      Prosper the work of our hands!
      R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

      Reading 2
      Philemon 9-10, 12-17

      I, Paul, an old man,

      and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,
      urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,
      whose father I have become in my imprisonment;
      I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
      I should have liked to retain him for myself,
      so that he might serve me on your behalf
      in my imprisonment for the gospel,
      but I did not want to do anything without your consent,
      so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.
      Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,
      that you might have him back forever,
      no longer as a slave
      but more than a slave, a brother,
      beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,
      as a man and in the Lord.
      So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.

      Alleluia
      Psalm 119:135

      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      Let your face shine upon your servant;
      and teach me your laws.
      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      Gospel
      Luke 14:25-33

      Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,

      and he turned and addressed them,
      “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
      wife and children, brothers and sisters,
      and even his own life,
      he cannot be my disciple.
      Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
      cannot be my disciple.
      Which of you wishing to construct a tower
      does not first sit down and calculate the cost
      to see if there is enough for its completion?
      Otherwise, after laying the foundation
      and finding himself unable to finish the work
      the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
      ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
      Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
      and decide whether with ten thousand troops
      he can successfully oppose another king
      advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
      But if not, while he is still far away,
      he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
      In the same way,
      anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
      cannot be my disciple.”

      The post True Disciples Climbing to the Heights on the Highway to Heaven, Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), September 7, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      24 min
    • Homily for the Baptism of Nicholas Patrick Perez-Benzo, St. Patrick Church, Bedford, NY, September 6, 2025

      Msgr. Roger J. Landry

      St. Patrick’s Church, Bedford, NY
      Baptism of Nicholas Patrick Perez-Benzo
      September 6, 2025
      Ezek 47:1-9.12, Ps 34, Eph 4:1-6, Mk 1:9-11


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

      https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.6.25_Baptism_of_Nicholas_Patrick_Perez_Benzo_1.mp3

       

      The readings for today’s Mass were: 

      A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel

      Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the facade of the temple was toward the east; the water flowed down from the southern side of the temple, south of the altar. He led me outside by the north gate, and around to the outer gate facing the east, where I saw water trickling from the southern side. Then when he had walked off to the east with a measuring cord in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and had me wade through the water, which was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand and once more had me wade through the water, which was now knee-deep. Again he measured off a thousand and had me wade; the water was up to my waist. Once more he measured off a thousand, but there was now a river through which I could not wade; for the water had risen so high it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming. He asked me, “Have you seen this, son of man?” Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit. Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides. He said to me, “This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah, and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”

      Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord (Psalm 34:2-3.6-9.14-19)

      I will bless the LORD at all times; praise shall be always in my mouth.

      My soul will glory in the LORD that the poor may hear and be glad.

      Look to God that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush for shame.

      In my misfortune I called, the LORD heard and saved me from all distress.

      The angel of the LORD, who encamps with them, delivers all who fear God.

      Learn to savor how good the LORD is; happy are those who take refuge in him.

      Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking lies.

      Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

      The LORD has eyes for the just and ears for their cry.

      The LORD’s face is against evildoers to wipe out their memory from the earth.

      When the just cry out, the LORD hears and rescues them from all distress.

      The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed.

      A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians

      I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

      A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark

      It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

       

      The post Homily for the Baptism of Nicholas Patrick Perez-Benzo, St. Patrick Church, Bedford, NY, September 6, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      15 min
    • Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, August 31, 2025

      Msgr. Roger J. Landry

      National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
      Daily Reflection for August 31, 2025

      Here is the video of today’s reflection.

      The Youtube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:

      I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies coming to you from a Manhattan rooftop. Today, Sunday, August 31st, Jesus gives us a parable about two different banquets that teach us essential lessons about how to live our life. First banquet, he says, when you’re invited over to somebody’s house, don’t take the place of honor just in case there’s a dignitary who’s come in, you’re asked to move instead, take the lowest place so that he’ll come over to you and say, “Ascende Superius Amiche”, “my friend, come higher.”

      He says because the ones who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Are we humble enough to recognize how lucky we are just to be invited over, especially, for example, when we’re invited to mass?

      Second great image that he gives us is of our own throwing banquets, and he says, don’t do what everybody else does. Who invites relatives and family members and wealthy and influential people who might be able to reward us somehow? He says, when you throw a banquet, do so by inviting the blind, the poor, the crippled, the lame, how blessed you’ll be by their inability to do a quid pro quo with you.

      He wants us to care about those whom the world doesn’t basically care about, and not just to say hi to them, but to invite them to a meal to share their life with them, literally to become companions with them companions breaking bread. This is what missionaries try to do throughout the entire world.

      They go to the world in doing very humble service in order to bring people to the banquet that Christ Himself is throwing here on Earth, which is the banquet of his word, the banquet of the word made flesh the Holy Eucharist. And ultimately through that banquet to the eternal wedding banquet in which the Lord Jesus wants to be able to say to each of us friend, come up higher, come up to my father’s house in which we.

      Who so often are spiritually poor blind, that we can’t walk by faith crippled in lame, that we don’t follow in Jesus’ footsteps, that Jesus has invited us, purified us, healed us, so that we in our resurrected body, fully healed, may be able with all the saints to praise and glorify God forever. This is the church’s mission to invite everybody to this banquet.

      May God help us to be humble enough to take up our missionary role and to support the missionaries all across the globe who are filling out that table. God bless you.

       

      GOSPEL

      Luke 14:1 7-14

      The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:

      On a sabbath Jesus went to dine

      at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
      and the people there were observing him carefully.

      He told a parable to those who had been invited,

      noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
      “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
      do not recline at table in the place of honor.
      A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
      and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
      ‘Give your place to this man,’
      and then you would proceed with embarrassment
      to take the lowest place.
      Rather, when you are invited,
      go and take the lowest place
      so that when the host comes to you he may say,
      ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
      Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
      For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
      but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
      Then he said to the host who invited him,
      “When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
      do not invite your friends or your brothers
      or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
      in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
      Rather, when you hold a banquet,
      invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
      blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
      For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

       

      The post Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, August 31, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      3 min
    • Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, September 1, 2025

      Msgr. Roger J. Landry

      National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
      Daily Reflection for September 1, 2025

       

      Here is the video of today’s reflection: 

      The YouTube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:

      I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, National Director of  the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. I’m here at the world’s most beautiful church, the Cathedral of Monreale in Palermo, Sicily. I’m looking at Jesus the Pantocrator, the  ruler of all, on top of me. Today in the Gospel for September 1st, Jesus speaks to us precisely  about how he has come into the world to proclaim the gospel to the poor. He was the Messiah  anointed literally by the Holy Spirit in order to carry out that precious work.

      Today, September 1st  is Labor Day in the United States of America. And we think about Jesus’s work of the saving of the human race. We think of the work that built this most beautiful church dedicated to the Lord. We also think about the work that the Lord has given to each of us every day.

      Today is a day in which we all draw close to the Holy Family of Nazareth to learn the gospel of work from St. Joseph, from  Our Lady, and from Jesus Christ himself, who took on a real human trade, so that we recognize  that as we’re doing something for the world, we’re also building up ourselves in virtue.  Today, let’s pray through the intercession of St. Joseph for all those who work hard, that we might come to work just like Jesus above me worked for our salvation so that we can experience the fruits of our work with him forever. God bless you.

       

       

      The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:

      GOSPEL

      Luke 4:16-30

      Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
      and went according to his custom
      into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
      He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
      He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

      The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

      because he has anointed me
      to bring glad tidings to the poor.
      He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
      and recovery of sight to the blind,
      to let the oppressed go free,
      and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

      Rolling up the scroll,

      he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
      and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
      He said to them,
      “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
      And all spoke highly of him
      and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
      They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”
      He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,
      ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place
      the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'”
      And he said,
      “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
      Indeed, I tell you,
      there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
      when the sky was closed for three and a half years
      and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
      It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
      but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
      Again, there were many lepers in Israel
      during the time of Elisha the prophet;
      yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
      When the people in the synagogue heard this,
      they were all filled with fury.
      They rose up, drove him out of the town,
      and led him to the brow of the hill
      on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
      But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

       

      The post Daily Reflection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, September 1, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      2 min
    • Humbling Yourselves the More, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), August 31, 2025

      Msgr. Roger J. Landry

      Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
      Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
      August 31, 2025
      Sir 3:17-18.20.28-29, Ps 68, Heb 12:18-19.22-24, Lk 14:1,7-14

       

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

      https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/8.31.25_MCs_Homily_1.mp3

       

      The text that guided today’s homily was: 

      • In Jesus’s parable in today’s Gospel, the Lord is doing far more than giving his disciples — those 2,000 years ago and us today — advice on how to achieve the best seats at a wedding reception. As valid and applicable as that counsel is for human situations, Jesus’ real point was to teach us how to be exalted at the eternal wedding banquet to which the Host, his Father, has invited “the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.” In order for us to hear those words from God the Father, “Friend, move up higher,” which is the deepest longing that exists in the human heart, for definitive happiness and holiness in heaven, Jesus says that there is only one way: we must recognize that we’re poor in need of the Lord’s true riches, crippled in need of the Lord’s help to straight ourselves out, lame desperate for the Lord’s grace to walk by faith, and blind crying out for the light of faith to see things clearly. We must, in short, humble ourselves, for it is only the humble who will be so exalted.
      • These are very hard and challenging words in our age, which prizes and even prioritizes human exaltation. We see it in the ever-growing number of award shows indulging the egos of those in film, television and music, as they give out awards for best actors, actresses, directors, producers, graphic artists, costume designers, film editors, hairstylists, production designers, sound mixers, screen play writers, you name it. We witness it in the honors we give to the students who are “Most Popular” and “Most Likely to Succeed,” to the “Best Looking” women in beauty pageants, to the “Most Successful” sales representatives, to the “Most Valuable Player” in sports leagues, and even to the “best groomed” dogs. We see it even in the Church in which the culture of earthly honoring and exaltation survives as certain clergy are given honorific titles, lay people special pontifical medals, and the wealthy have pews, or halls, or buildings named after them. So many of us have been raised with the desire not only to be the best, but to be acknowledged as the best — and if we recognize begrudgingly that we’re not the best, then we at least want to be better than those around us. We want to get our own way, rather than conceding to the wishes of another. We yearn to have the last word, rather than concede it to someone else. We desire to be the ones noticed and thanked, and resent it when others get the credit we think we deserve. In short, so many of us hunger to be noticed, esteemed, and exalted. We want the places of honor at table, first class seats on airplanes and front row seats at concerts. We long for positions of power and influence and titles of status and worldly honor.
      • To all of us in this culture, Jesus says to us in the words of today’s Alleluia verse, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). Jesus’ whole life is a lesson in humility. And he turns to each of us and says, “Follow me!”
      • Paul described Jesus’ humility best in his letter to the Philippians, grounding our humility on the unbelievable humility of the Son of God: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:3-11). Jesus, St. Paul emphasizes, humbled himself to assume our human nature, to take upon the form of a slave to serve us rather than to be served (Mt 20:28), to wash our feet, (Jn 13), to become obedient to human authority, and even to allow himself to be mistreated, manhandled and murdered by his own creatures, all so that he might save us. He humbled himself and God the Father exalted him forever. St. Peter said that Jesus did all of this to leave us an example, so that we would follow in his footsteps (1Pet 2:21). If we do this, if we learn, imitate and enter into Christ’s humility, then we will enter into Christ’s exaltation, being lifted up by and with him forever.
      • This is a perennial message God is trying to drive home to us today. Sirach instructs us in today’s first reading, “My child, conduct your affairs with humility.” Everything we do, in other words, we’re called to do humbly. Sirach continues, “The greater you are,” the more blessed you are with talents, material goods, prestige or high office, “humble yourself the more, and you will find favor in God.” The Letter to the Hebrews, of which we have a portion in our second reading, focuses on the humility of Jesus as our High Priest, who although he was Son of God, became like us in every respect, able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he has been tested in every way without sin, learning obedience through what he suffered. Right before today’s passage, the sacred author urges us to rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us — most especially pride — and persevere in running the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith as he seeks to lead us as creatures, liturgically and eschatologically, to the awesome fulfillment of all that gave the Israelites in the desert as a foretaste: to God the Father, the blazing fire, the judge of all, accompanied by storm and trumpet blast; to Jesus himself, the mediator of the new and eternal covenant whose blood is not just sprinkled upon us but that we consume; to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, with countless angels, the assembly of the heavenly first born, the spirits of the just made perfect. Jesus humbled himself as our leader and perfecter so that he might exalt us in the heavenly Jerusalem.
      • But becoming humble is easier said than done. We first need to have a clear grasp of what humility is. Humility comes from the Latin word, humus, which means ground or dirt. It has various connected spiritual meanings. It means, first, that we have both of our feet on the ground, that we have a deep sense of who we are. As we hear every year on Ash Wednesday, we recognize we’re dust and unto dust we shall return. We acknowledge our human weaknesses and limitations. At the same time, however, humility means that even though we know we’re dust, we also recognize that God has breathed into us the breath of life, that he calls us through a humble life to greatness, to a communion of love with him and others. We’re vessels of clay, to use St. Paul’s image, carrying within an immense treasure (2 Cor 4:7). To be humble, we need to keep both of these things in mind. To be humble doesn’t mean that we think that we’re losers, to lack self-esteem or even harbor a little self-hatred. Consistent with the overall message of the Gospel, it means, rather, that we recognize we’re ex-captives who have been liberated by Jesus and have become adopted children of the King. Humility means never forgetting whence we have come but also remembering the greatness that our relationship with God confers on us. To be humble, in other words, does not concern primarily our attitude toward ourselves, but fundamentally our attitude toward God and others, to let God act, to acknowledge our dependence on him, to thank him for his blessings, to implore his mercy, and to make his ways our own.
      • Pope Leo has been trying to remind the Church of humility since the beginning of his papacy. In his first homily, the day after his election, he urged the Cardinals and the whole Church to “move aside so that Christ may remain, … to make oneself small so that He may be known and glorified, … to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love” Jesus. In his homily for the Mass formally inaugurating his papacy 9 days later, he said, “we want to say to the world, with humility and joy,” to “look to Christ” and “come closer to him!” To look toward Christ, rather than at oneself, is the open secret of humility. Earlier today in the Vatican, during his Angelus meditation, Pope Leo talked about the connection of humility to freedom and therefore to love. He said, “In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of humility in describing perfect freedom. Humility is really freedom from ourselves. It is born when the Kingdom of God and its righteousness become our real concern and we allow ourselves to lift up our eyes and look ahead: not down at our feet, but at what lies ahead! Those who exalt themselves generally think that nothing is more interesting than themselves; yet deep down, they are quite insecure. Whereas those who know that they are precious in God’s eyes, who know they are God’s children, have greater things to be worried about; they possess a sublime dignity all their own. Once we learn to take the last places, rather than striving for the first, that dignity will appear, and we will come to the fore simply and effortlessly. … Let us pray that the Church will always be a school of humility for everyone, …where Jesus still speaks to us and teaches us to imitate his own humility and freedom.”
      • Pope Leo has been schooled in the importance of humility and its relationship to authentic freedom and love by his spiritual father Saint Augustine, whose feast day the Church celebrated on Thursday. The great doctor of the Church recognized that his conversion was ultimately not from a life of unchastity to chastity but from pride to humility. When he was 17 and was going to school in Carthage, he was open to the Christian faith of his mother St. Monica, but he couldn’t accept that God’s word could exist in the bad Latin translation extant before St. Jerome produced the Vulgate. In the pagan mentality in which he immersed, humility was a vice not a virtue, a choice for wretchedness rather than excellence, or minimally a begrudging acknowledgement of the misery of the human condition. His conversion was the fruit of many influences, including the tear-filled prayers of his mother and the spiritual fatherhood of St. Ambrose, but the trigger God used manifested this interplay between pride and humility that was at the core of his struggles. Even after he had become convinced of the truth of the Christian faith, morally he couldn’t yet submit to it. He lamented with his friends that the poor and the humble were seizing the kingdom of God but that he, with all his learning, was remaining outside. But God converted him through the voice of what seemed to be a little child singing over the wall, “Take and read,” which led him to open Sacred Scripture and have his eyes fall on St. Paul’s words, “It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. … Let us then throw off the works of darkness [and] put on the armor of light. … put[ting] on the Lord Jesus Christ, and mak[ing] no provision for the desires of the flesh.” And to put on the Lord Jesus Christ was to allow him as the Divine Physician to heal him of the consequences of pride through conquering it via humility on Calvary.
      • Augustine made humility from that point forward the foundation of his life and the center of his moral teaching. He recognized that the true notion of humility was what the ancient pagan authors called “wisdom,” which was the first rung on the ladder of perfection. In a letter to a young man who was trying Augustine’s patience by his resistance to converting to God, St. Augustine wrote about the crucial importance of humility: “My dear Dioscorus, I wish you to submit with complete devotion, and to construct no other way for yourself of grasping and holding the truth than the way constructed by Him who, as God, saw how faltering were our steps. This way is first humility, second humility, third humility, and however often you should ask me I would say the same, not because there are no other precepts to be explained, but, if humility does not precede and accompany and follow every good work we do, and if it is not set before us to look upon, and beside us to lean upon, and behind us to fence us in, pride will wrest from our hand any good deed we do while we are in the very act of taking pleasure in it. It is true that other defects have to be feared in our sins, but pride is to be feared in our very acts of virtue; otherwise, those praiseworthy acts will be lost through the desire of praise itself. And so, …if you should ask, and as often as you should ask, about the precepts of the Christian religion, my inclination would be to answer nothing but humility, unless necessity should force me to say something else.” He told us that if we wish to rise spiritually and grow, we must begin by descending. Without humility, there cannot be any other virtue, except in appearance, because it’s humility that helps us take on the mind and heart of Christ and relay on his love and providence. The “beauty ever ancient, ever new” that he discovered late but not too late was the incredible humble love of God for him and for us that it came to save us.
      • This understanding of and love for humility was very much appreciated and lived by St. Teresa of Calcutta, to whom we are now praying a novena as we approach the 28th anniversary of her birthday into eternal life on Friday. Mother wrote, “Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. It is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed, you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint, you will not put yourself on a pedestal.” She learned humility, and sought to teach her spiritual daughters humility, by focusing on him who is meek and humble of heart. “The humility of Jesus,” she said, “can be seen in the crib, in the exile to Egypt, in the hidden life, in the inability to make people understand Him, in the desertion of his apostles, in the hatred of his persecutors, in all the terrible suffering and death of his passion, and now in his permanent state of humility in the tabernacle, where he has reduced himself to [the appearance of] such a small particle of bread that the priest can hold Him with two fingers.” She urged us to “learn to be humble by doing all the humble work and doing it for Jesus. You cannot learn humility from books; you learn it by accepting humiliations. Humiliations are not meant to torture us; they are gifts from God. These little humiliations — if we accept them with joy — will help us to be holy, to have a meek and humble heart like Jesus.” Her insights are encapsulated in her so-called humility list, about practices to grow in humility, which has become known to millions: “Speak as little as possible about yourself. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others. Avoid curiosity. Do not interfere in the affairs of others. Accept small irritations with good humor. Do not dwell on the faults of others. Accept censures even if unmerited. Give in to the will of others. Accept insults and injuries. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone. Do not seek to be admired and loved. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right. Choose always the more difficult task.”
      • Every time we come to Mass, God gives us the opportunity to grow in humility. We begin Mass with the penitential rite, humbly crying out for mercy in response to our public acknowledgement that we have greatly sinned in thought, word, action and omission by our own most grievous fault. We try to put on the mind of Christ through the Liturgy of the Word. We fall down in awe as we approach Mount Zion, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, the spirits of the just made perfect, God the judge of all, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, as he comes from heaven to the altar. Entering into Holy Communion with him under the most humble appearances, recognizing that we’re not worthy to be called to the Supper of the Lamb, but begging to say the word that lifts us up, we seek to become meek and humble of heart like the celestial one we consume. We finish by receiving God’s blessing so that we can go out as missionaries, to use Micah’s celebrated phrase, “do right, love goodness and walk [live] humbly with [our] God” (Mic 6:8). As we prepare for nuptial union with him, let us ask him for the grace to learn from him, to decrease so that he and others can increase, so that together with him we can go out to serve others in such a way that through us and our Christian example, they might themselves journey with us on the way of humility and have God one day say to them as well, “Friend, come up higher!”
      • O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts humble like yours!

        •  

        The readings for today’s Mass were: 

        Reading 1
        Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29

        My child, conduct your affairs with humility,

        and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.
        Humble yourself the more, the greater you are,
        and you will find favor with God.
        What is too sublime for you, seek not,
        into things beyond your strength search not.
        The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs,
        and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise.
        Water quenches a flaming fire,
        and alms atone for sins.

        Responsorial Psalm
        Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11

        R. (cf. 11b)  God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

        The just rejoice and exult before God;
        they are glad and rejoice.
        Sing to God, chant praise to his name;
        whose name is the LORD.
        R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
        The father of orphans and the defender of widows
        is God in his holy dwelling.
        God gives a home to the forsaken;
        he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
        R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
        A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
        you restored the land when it languished;
        your flock settled in it;
        in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
        R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

        Reading 2
        Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a

        Brothers and sisters:

        You have not approached that which could be touched
        and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness
        and storm and a trumpet blast
        and a voice speaking words such that those who heard
        begged that no message be further addressed to them.
        No, you have approached Mount Zion
        and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
        and countless angels in festal gathering,
        and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
        and God the judge of all,
        and the spirits of the just made perfect,
        and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
        and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

        Alleluia
        Matthew 11:29ab

        R. Alleluia, alleluia.

        Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord,
        and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
        R. Alleluia, alleluia.

        Gospel
        Luke 14:1, 7-14

        On a sabbath Jesus went to dine

        at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
        and the people there were observing him carefully.

        He told a parable to those who had been invited,

        noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
        “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
        do not recline at table in the place of honor.
        A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
        and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
        ‘Give your place to this man,’
        and then you would proceed with embarrassment
        to take the lowest place.
        Rather, when you are invited,
        go and take the lowest place
        so that when the host comes to you he may say,
        ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
        Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
        For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
        but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
        Then he said to the host who invited him,
        “When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
        do not invite your friends or your brothers
        or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
        in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
        Rather, when you hold a banquet,
        invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
        blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
        For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

        The post Humbling Yourselves the More, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), August 31, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

        25 min
      • Introducing to Catholic Social Teaching: Loving Others as Christ Has Loved Us First, Kenya’s Drinks + Dogma Program, August 28, 2025

        Msgr. Roger J. Landry

        Kenya’s Drinks + Dogma Program (Online)
        August 28, 2025

         

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

        https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/8.28.25_Catholic_Social_Teaching_Drinks_and_Dogma_Kenya_1.mp3

         

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

        8.28.25 Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching

         

        The post Introducing to Catholic Social Teaching: Loving Others as Christ Has Loved Us First, Kenya’s Drinks + Dogma Program, August 28, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

        1 hr 7 min
      • Indestructible Money Bags with Inexhaustible Treasures, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), August 10, 2025

        Fr. Roger J. Landry

        Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
        Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C
        August 10, 2025
        Wis 18:6-9, Ps 33, Heb 11:1-2.8-19, Lk 12:32-48

         

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

        https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/8.10.25_Homily_1.mp3

         

        The following text guided today’s homily:

        • “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own,” we prayed several times in today’s psalm. How blessed we are to know God, to know how loved we are by him, to know what he asks of us, to have the joy of helping others to know him. The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews describes how blessed Abraham was to have been chosen by God and to respond with faith in him, the faith that led him to leave all he knew in his 70s and go to a place God would show him, the faith that helped him and his wife Sarah to trust in God that, even in their old age, they would have a son through whom Abraham would become the father of many nations, the faith that led him even to be willing to sacrifice that long-awaited son, confident that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom describes how blessed the Jews were, for having been chosen by God and having trusted in him to follow Moses’ instructions, celebrate the Passover and follow Moses through the Red Sea, into the desert, to the Promised Land. The Psalm itself describes how blessed all believers are, trusting in God to “deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine.” All of these readings are illustrations of what the Letter to the Hebrews says about faith. Faith, it underlines, “realization of what is hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” We live by faith when we trust in God to know he will keep his promises and live in accordance with those promises. How blessed we are that God has chosen us to receive the gift of faith in him!
        • In the Gospel today, Jesus makes plain that blessing and the way we are supposed to respond in faith. Everything begins with his extraordinary words, “Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom!” God the Father wants to give us something greater than he gave Abraham and the Jews. He wants to give us what they and their descendants longed for: to make us, in this world and forever, heirs of his Kingdom. The kingdom of God is ultimately God, who chooses us to be his own and makes us members of the royal family. Bestowing on us that gift, Jesus says, gives God the Father great joy. Jesus tells us, therefore, “Don’t be afraid any longer.” Sometimes we are afraid of God, afraid of displeasing him, afraid of our weaknesses and our capacity to choose against God, others and ourselves, we are afraid of the eternal consequences of our sinful choices. But Jesus encourages us not to be afraid, because his Father is delighted to give it all to us, shown in his sending his Son into the world to announce to us that the Kingdom is at hand, to teach us how to enter it, and, at great personal cost on Calvary, to make it possible for us to live with the King always.
        • Jesus wants us to be as happy about receiving that gift of the kingdom as God the Father is to give it. That’s why he tells us that we need to let go of a desire to build our own material kingdom here on earth and use everything we have to obtain God’s kingdom. “Sell your belongings and give alms,” he says. “Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.” The way to seize and live in the kingdom is through Christ-like charity, to use whatever money or goods we have, time we have, capacities we have we have, to lift others up. To love in this way is like transferring all we have to an account in the national bank of the kingdom that can never be taxed, where it will form an “inexhaustible treasure” that will never cease paying dividends. But Jesus wants us to respond with faith, trusting in his promises. He wants us to make a choice as to whether we are going to build up this heavenly treasure or, like the fool in last Sunday’s Gospel, try to build up towers for our grain and wealth here on earth. “For where your treasure is,” Jesus tells us, “there also will your heart be.” Is our heart really in God, in his kingdom, in his promises and in his eternally secure treasure? Or is our heart in this fleeting world where eventually everything will pass away?
        • If our heart is really in God, Jesus today tells us how to prove it. He tells us, “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master on his arrival finds vigilant.” If we’re living in the kingdom with the King, then we will be vigilant, alert, hungry for him. Like the five wise virgins Jesus described in a parable of the kingdom in St. Matthew’s Gospel, we will light our lamps full of oil burning and ready for his return. We will gird our loins like the Jews in the desert, ready to run out to meet, embrace him and follow him wherever he leads. This is an expectant longing, like a child awaiting the return of a parent so that together they can to on an exciting adventure. A little later in the parable, Jesus drives home the point with two other images. One is of a security guard. “Be sure of this,” he says. “If the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” Jesus wants us to be as alert for the joy of his arrival as a shepherd is alert for the advance of wolves who want to attack his flock, or a father is to protect the family members and property in his house when he hears a report of burglars in the neighborhood. The second image is of a steward. “Who, then,” Jesus states, “is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds already doing so.” If we’re awaiting him, Jesus wants us to be faithful, prudent and sharing what he has put at our disposal for the care of others. Notice the tense of the verbs Jesus employs: he will put in charge the one he finds already doing so He doesn’t want us to wait for an official ceremony appointing us; he wants us caring for others now. That’s what it means to be faithful. That’s what it means to be prudent. That’s what good stewardship means. He adds, in words that could apply to both images, “And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.” The Jewish night was broken down into four three-hour periods or “watches”: 6-9 pm, 9 pm to midnight, midnight to 3 am and 3-6 am. Jesus is communicating that if he finds us vigilant for him with the lamp of our heart burning, loins girt ready to greet him, and generously sharing his blessings, even at night when we and others are tired, even when most others aren’t even watching, how much more blessed we’ll be. We’ll really be showing that charity is not some quid pro quo that we do only because we have to or are looking for a reward, but has become so much a part of our nature that we do it even when we’re exhausted. That’s what it means to live in the kingdom with faith.
        • But that’s not the only response Jesus describes. There are those who don’t light their lamps. There are those who not only don’t gird their loins but take off their sandals. There are those who don’t distribute God’s blessings to others, but who, instead, thinking he’s long delayed, begin to “eat, drink and get drunk” and beat and abuse others. These are the unfaithful and imprudent stewards, these are the co-conspirators of the thieves, these are the ones who will be, Jesus says, with images evoking hell, “beaten severely” and assigned a place with the unfaithful. It’s a sad possibility of human freedom that people to whom God wants to give the kingdom can respond to his offer with such indifference and ingratitude, or even with such contempt as to spurn the values of the kingdom for an earthly fiefdom of their own making. Such a life begin when we place our heart not in God and his promises, but in the pleasures of this life and things of the world. That leads to the corruption of our heart, such that it’s drowsy rather than vigilant, lazy rather than prompt, drunk rather than sober, evil rather than generous, stupid rather than smart, and unfaithful rather than true. Which set of adjectives and actions better would better describe us? Are we truly faithful and prudent stewards with lamps lit, loins girt and hearts really in God? What about in the second or third watch of the night? Are we already doing what he asks us, or do we wait until he or others seem to start paying attention?
        • There are two objections that come up in the conversation. The first is from St. Peter, who queries, “Lord, is this parable for us or for everyone?” The question implies that he thought that the apostles might be exempt from what Jesus was teaching. We, too, can sometimes listen to Jesus’ words and immediately apply them to others, rather than to ourselves. In priestly work, I’m often approached by people who ask me to preach or write an article about x or y, not because they think they need help in that particular area, but because they think a family member, or a friend, or someone at whom they’re wagging a finger needs to hear it. All of Sacred Scripture, however, applies to each of us. Perhaps particular passages are more obviously relevant to some disciples rather than others, but none of us is exempt. Every parable is meant for us and for everyone, including what Jesus is saying to us in the Gospel today. Those of us who, like the apostles, may be more known for following Jesus, for striving to live by his teachings and spreading love of him, rather than being exempt from the application of the parables are called to be examples.
        • That leads us to the second objection. We might think that even though we are not excused from their application, there are others who need to listen to Jesus’ words more carefully and follow them more assiduously. In terms of being faithful and prudent stewards, for example, we may think that it applies more toward bishops, priests, and religious, teachers, business owners and parents. In terms of being vigilant for the master’s arrival, we might think that it really focuses on those who are advanced in years or facing a life-threatening diagnosis. In terms of converting from placing their treasure in things that thieves can pilfer and moths can destroy, we might deem that those words pertain far more to those far richer than we are and not living by a vow of poverty, or de facto poverty, or a promise of simplicity of life. But Jesus at the end of this Sunday’s passage says, not, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and little will be demanded of the person entrusted with little,” but rather, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” The point is that we’ve all been entrusted with lavish gifts, filled to overflowing. Others may have more than we think we have, but each of us has still been blessed with a great deal. Others may be spiritual billionaires, but we’re still millionaires. And God wants us to spend what he’s given us! Much is demanded of us, not in a way in which God wants to pressure us to doing good, but in a way in which he has high expectations and hopes in us because of the love with which he has enriched us. He wants us to use everything we have, not to eat, drink and get drunk, not for our own aggrandizement, but to make indestructible money bags containing an inexhaustible treasure. He has given us the resources, the time and the trust that we need. Rather than making excuses or thinking ourselves somehow excused from learning from and living like the King, he wants us to purify our hearts, light our lamps, gird our loins, and distribute his blessings.
        • Today on August 10 the Church annually celebrates someone who was always conscious of the Lord in his midst who with loins girt and lamps lit sought to be a faithful and prudent steward at all times. St. Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome in the mid-third century. As we see in the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles in Jerusalem were no longer able to do the charitable service of tables and all the charity that was implied in that activity. So they ordained seven men, full of the Holy Spirit, to the service of charity. They did this not because such charity was less important than the prayer and the ministry of the Word the apostles were doing but precisely because it was, and the apostles wanted to ensure that it get done. Over the course of time in various ancient dioceses, the service of deacons expanded into diakoniai, the charitable centers of the Church (like Catholic Charities today). In Rome, these service centers were quite extensive and were run by a team of seven deacons. Even though there were many priests in Rome, there were just seven deacons, who were men of great charity and organizational ability, and it was from the deacons that popes were often elected (like Pope Saints Leo the Great and Gregory the Great, who would be ordained priests and then bishop of Rome). St. Lawrence was one of the deacons and was put in charge of the diakoniai, to give so many of the poor, of God’s family members, their food at the proper time.He died in the persecution of Valerian in 258, four days after Pope St. Sixtus and four other deacons of Rome were arrested in the Catacomb of St. Praetextatus during the celebration of Mass. St. Lawrence was given a few days to round up all of the Church’s “treasures.” The Romans were trying to decapitate the Church of Rome by killing off its leaders and amassing and destroying all its good. So St. Lawrence assembled all of the Church’s true treasures, which were not books or vessels but those for whom Christ died: all of the poor, both Christian and non-Christian. They were the pearls of great price that the early Church during the age of persecutions was willing to sacrifice so much to serve. The authorities were so incensed at Lawrence’s not turning over the supposedly real treasures of the Church that they wanted to execute him in a particularly gruesome way. He was roasted on a gridiron, a terribly painful manner to die. But in giving his body and blood and roasting flesh, he was just continuing the charity of his adult life. As he was being burned alive, he turned to his executioners and said perhaps the most famous comic line in all of hagiography: “Assum est. Versa et manduca,” roughly translated, “This side is cooked. Turn me over and eat.” Through his love for God and for others, through giving his very life and goods as alms, he was amassing an inexhaustible treasure. He was one entrusted with more and invested that trust for the Master’s glory.
        • If we choose to live like St. Lawrence, as a minister, missionary, man or woman of charity, Jesus promises in the Gospel an extraordinary reward. He guarantees he will “gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.” That is what he did for the apostles during the Last Supper as he fed them with his own body and blood, and that’s what he promises to do for us at the eternal wedding banquet. God the Father indeed is pleased to give us the kingdom and he shows it by giving us the King of Kings as our food even here on earth. Let us lift up our hearts to the Lord and place our treasure where our hearts are. How blessed we are to have been chosen by God and called to the Supper of the Lamb!

          •  

          The readings for today’s Mass are: 

          Reading 1
          Wisdom 18:6-9

          The night of the passover was known beforehand to our fathers,

          that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith,
          they might have courage.
          Your people awaited the salvation of the just
          and the destruction of their foes.
          For when you punished our adversaries,
          in this you glorified us whom you had summoned.
          For in secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrifice
          and putting into effect with one accord the divine institution.

          Responsorial Psalm
          Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22

          R. (12b) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

          Exult, you just, in the LORD;
          praise from the upright is fitting.
          Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
          the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
          R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
          See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
          upon those who hope for his kindness,
          To deliver them from death
          and preserve them in spite of famine.
          R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
          Our soul waits for the LORD,
          who is our help and our shield.
          May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
          who have put our hope in you.
          R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

          Reading 2
          Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19

          Brothers and sisters:

          Faith is the realization of what is hoped for
          and evidence of things not seen.
          Because of it the ancients were well attested.

          By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place

          that he was to receive as an inheritance;
          he went out, not knowing where he was to go.
          By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country,
          dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise;
          for he was looking forward to the city with foundations,
          whose architect and maker is God.
          By faith he received power to generate,
          even though he was past the normal age
          —and Sarah herself was sterile—
          for he thought that the one who had made the promise was
          trustworthy.
          So it was that there came forth from one man,
          himself as good as dead,
          descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky
          and as countless as the sands on the seashore.

          All these died in faith.

          They did not receive what had been promised
          but saw it and greeted it from afar
          and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth,
          for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland.
          If they had been thinking of the land from which they had come,
          they would have had opportunity to return.
          But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one.
          Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,
          for he has prepared a city for them.

          By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac,

          and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son,
          of whom it was said,
          “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.”
          He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,
          and he received Isaac back as a symbol.

          Alleluia
          Matthew 24;42a, 44

          R. Alleluia, alleluia.

          Stay awake and be ready!
          For you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
          R. Alleluia, alleluia.

          Gospel
          Luke 12:32-48

          Jesus said to his disciples:

          “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,
          for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
          Sell your belongings and give alms.
          Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out,
          an inexhaustible treasure in heaven
          that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.
          For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

          “Gird your loins and light your lamps

          and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
          ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
          Blessed are those servants
          whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
          Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
          have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
          And should he come in the second or third watch
          and find them prepared in this way,
          blessed are those servants.
          Be sure of this:
          if the master of the house had known the hour
          when the thief was coming,
          he would not have let his house be broken into.
          You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,
          the Son of Man will come.”

          Then Peter said,

          “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”
          And the Lord replied,
          “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
          whom the master will put in charge of his servants
          to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?
          Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.
          Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant
          in charge of all his property.
          But if that servant says to himself,
          ‘My master is delayed in coming,’
          and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,
          to eat and drink and get drunk,
          then that servant’s master will come
          on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
          and will punish the servant severely
          and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
          That servant who knew his master’s will
          but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will
          shall be beaten severely;
          and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will
          but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating
          shall be beaten only lightly.
          Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
          and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

          The post Indestructible Money Bags with Inexhaustible Treasures, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), August 10, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

          29 min

        About Catholic Preaching

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        Father Roger J. Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who works for the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York.

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