Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) (Vigil)

August 1, 2020

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/8.1.20_Landry_ConCon.mp3

 

The text that guided the homily was: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege 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, in which we enter into the scene of Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fish to feed the crowd of five thousand men, likely five thousand women, and probably 15,000 kids. It allows us to ponder three important aspects of our Christian life.

* The first is the importance of prayer. The scene begins with St. Matthew’s telling us, Jesus “withdrew … to a deserted place by himself.” Jesus wanted to pray and he knew he needed to get away from the hustle, bustle, push and muscle of the multitudes. This type of prayerful withdrawal was very common for Jesus. The evangelists tell us that he would regularly rise early before dawn to go off to a deserted place to pray (see Mk 1:35 and Lk 4:42). Before he commenced his public ministry, he went out into the desert for a month and a half to pray and fast. At the Transfiguration, he took Peter, James and John up an exceedingly high mountain in order to pray. Jesus was, in short, constantly withdrawing from the crowds in order to do what was most important, which was to enter into undistracted communion with his Father in prayer. He did this not merely out of desire and need, but also as an example, to form in us a similar need and desire. Jesus is constantly saying to us, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest for a while” (Mk 6:31). These words refer, of course, to our daily prayer, but also to more extended periods of prayer like retreats. The summer is a time in which we should try to make such time for prayer. I will be beginning my annual retreat on Wednesday. Please keep me in your prayers.

* The second thing we encounter in this Gospel is Jesus’ compassion for the multitudes. When Jesus saw the throng awaiting him when he was trying to pray, it would have been easy for him to have gotten a little frustrated or irritated, but he, rather, was filled with mercy. St. Matthew tells us, “His heart was moved with pity for them.” That expression is a softening of the original Greek verb “esplangchnisthe,” a more literal translation of which would be he was “sick to his stomach” with compassion as he saw the crowds. And we see what he did: He cured their sick. Then he fed them. That verb esplangchnisthe is used by the Gospel writers to introduce, likewise, how Jesus out of gut-bursting mercy taught the crowds, forgave sins, and had us pray to the harvest master for laborers and then called those praying to be laborers. Jesus is always looking at you and at me with mercy, and he’s healing, feeding, teaching, forgiving, and summoning us to join him in his mission of mercy. That brings us to the third point, which concerns how Jesus wants to incorporate us into his ordinary and miraculous exercise of compassion for the crowds.

* In the Gospel, out of concern for the crowd, tried to get Jesus to dismiss the crowd “so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus says, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” Very often, we try to pass the buck on others’ difficulties, saying, “that’s their problem,” not mine. Jesus wanted them, he wants us, to feel responsible. We should also note that when Jesus saw the infamished crowds, he could have easily worked a miracle from scatch. He who created the heavens and the earth from nothing,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Fresno, CA

Nuptial Mass for Philip DeVoe and JoAnna Kroeker

August 1, 2020

Song of Songs 2:8-10.14.16, Ps 34, Rom 12:1-2.9-18, Jn 2:1-11

 

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

 

To watch the marriage ceremony, held in the narthex of the Church because of restrictions imposed by the Governor of California preventing any religious gatherings inside Churches, please click below. 

 

 

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

In ancient Christian basilicas, much would happen in the narthex. The narthex serves architecturally as the bridge between the world and the sanctuary; it’s not really outside the Church but it’s not fully inside, either. The baptismal font was often placed here, since baptism is the sacramental entrance into the Church as Christ’s mystical body. It was here that those preparing for baptism would attend Mass, as their hunger for the Word of God and for the Word made flesh grew. It was here that those who were doing penance for serious sins would assist at Mass as they awaited restoration to full communion through the Sacrament of Penance. It was here that the Church often placed statues of famous Christian leaders, like Constantine, or Charlemagne, or the famous kings of Catholic countries with special bonds to the Church, in order to symbolize the Church’s idea of the relationship between Church and State: the statues of civil leaders were not inside the Church, which would imply a theocracy; the statues were not outside in the piazzas, which might symbolize a total separation between Church and State; they were placed in the narthex to manifest the harmony that should exist between Church and State in caring for the spiritual and temporal needs of the people both have the responsibility to serve.

Throughout the centuries, Christian marriages have not taken place in a narthex but in the sanctuary proper. There is, however, great symbolism to the fact that, because of coronavirus restrictions, your marriage today, Phil and Jo, is taking place here. Many early saints compared Christian marriage to the baptism of a couple and just like God through baptism comes to dwell within us as his temple, so through holy matrimony he will come to dwell within your relationship in a one-flesh domestic Church. Whereas the order of penitents used to dwell here beseeching God’s mercy, so you both are here asking for God’s help so that you may love each other as God has loved you, conscious that God’s love is always merciful and you will need to forgive each other 70 times 7 times. And similar to how the statues of Christian leaders were symbolically placed here to show how the spiritual and civil domains are meant harmoniously to interrelate, so your marriage here today reveals something important about how your bond is meant to lead you both to God in his sanctuary as well as hand-in-hand out into the world, without being of the world, as witnesses.

In the essays you wrote as part of marriage preparation, Phil, you spoke about how the sacramental vows of marriage have an “earthly element and a heavenly element.” The earthly element, you said, “comes in the gift of self we give” to each other, to children, to friends and family, as your sacrificial love overflows as salt, light and leaven for the world. “The heavenly element,” you added, “is much more demanding and powerful: we must help each other live a Christian life and get the other to heaven. By expecting that we will be accountable to one another in this quest for heaven, our marriage will be a powerful engine for our dual salvation, which will in turn light a fire for our children and help them [and others] understand what a good life looks like as well.” Your getting married in this narthex, Jo and Phil,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Fresno, CA

Nuptial Mass for Philip DeVoe and JoAnna Kroeker

August 1, 2020

Song of Songs 2:8-10.14.16, Ps 34, Rom 12:1-2.9-18, Jn 2:1-11

 

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

 

To watch the marriage ceremony, held in the narthex of the Church because of restrictions imposed by the Governor of California preventing any religious gatherings inside Churches, please click below. 

 

 

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

In ancient Christian basilicas, much would happen in the narthex. The narthex serves architecturally as the bridge between the world and the sanctuary; it’s not really outside the Church but it’s not fully inside, either. The baptismal font was often placed here, since baptism is the sacramental entrance into the Church as Christ’s mystical body. It was here that those preparing for baptism would attend Mass, as their hunger for the Word of God and for the Word made flesh grew. It was here that those who were doing penance for serious sins would assist at Mass as they awaited restoration to full communion through the Sacrament of Penance. It was here that the Church often placed statues of famous Christian leaders, like Constantine, or Charlemagne, or the famous kings of Catholic countries with special bonds to the Church, in order to symbolize the Church’s idea of the relationship between Church and State: the statues of civil leaders were not inside the Church, which would imply a theocracy; the statues were not outside in the piazzas, which might symbolize a total separation between Church and State; they were placed in the narthex to manifest the harmony that should exist between Church and State in caring for the spiritual and temporal needs of the people both have the responsibility to serve.

Throughout the centuries, Christian marriages have not taken place in a narthex but in the sanctuary proper. There is, however, great symbolism to the fact that, because of coronavirus restrictions, your marriage today, Phil and Jo, is taking place here. Many early saints compared Christian marriage to the baptism of a couple and just like God through baptism comes to dwell within us as his temple, so through holy matrimony he will come to dwell within your relationship in a one-flesh domestic Church. Whereas the order of penitents used to dwell here beseeching God’s mercy, so you both are here asking for God’s help so that you may love each other as God has loved you, conscious that God’s love is always merciful and you will need to forgive each other 70 times 7 times. And similar to how the statues of Christian leaders were symbolically placed here to show how the spiritual and civil domains are meant harmoniously to interrelate, so your marriage here today reveals something important about how your bond is meant to lead you both to God in his sanctuary as well as hand-in-hand out into the world, without being of the world, as witnesses.

In the essays you wrote as part of marriage preparation, Phil, you spoke about how the sacramental vows of marriage have an “earthly element and a heavenly element.” The earthly element, you said, “comes in the gift of self we give” to each other, to children, to friends and family, as your sacrificial love overflows as salt, light and leaven for the world. “The heavenly element,” you added, “is much more demanding and powerful: we must help each other live a Christian life and get the other to heaven. By expecting that we will be accountable to one another in this quest for heaven, our marriage will be a powerful engine for our dual salvation, which will in turn light a fire for our children and help them [and others] understand what a good life looks like as well.” Your getting married in this narthex, Jo and Phil,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Blessed Solanus Casey

July 30, 2020

Jer 18:1-6, Ps 146, Mt 13:47-53

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the last two of eight images of the kingdom in this 13th chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, the Parable of the Dragnet and the Parable of the Head of the Household. In the image of the Kingdom of heaven as a dragnet thrown into the sea, we can see two great lessons: The kingdom seeks to draw everyone in, but not everyone is fit for the kingdom. The net will collect fish of every kind, but the good (literally the “beautiful” in Greek) will be retained and the bad (literally the “rotten”) will be thrown away after the haul. So there is a universal will for salvation but there’s also a judgment and not everyone will make it. This is one of the main points Jesus makes in his parables of the kingdom. He makes the same point several times elsewhere in the Gospel:

* In the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, Jesus that both good seed and darnel will grow in his field, but at the end they will be separated and those not fit for the kingdom will be thrown by angels into the fire where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

* Likewise Jesus makes the point in St. Luke’s Gospel when he describes the kingdom as a banquet. His servants go into the highways and by-ways to “compel” everyone into the banquet, but those who are improperly dressed for the feast, those who have not maintained their baptismal garments properly cleaned and pressed for the feast, will be cast out to the same dark place of teeth-grinding and wailing.

* He reiterates it yet again in response to the faith of the Centurion. He says that many will come from the east and west — i.e., non-Jewish lands — to recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the banquet, but many of the children of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness, where there’s tear-filled dental destruction.

* Perhaps the most famous image is Jesus’ description that at the last judgment he will separate us as a shepherd distinguishes the sheep from the goats on the basis of faith working through deeds of love for him in the image of those in need; the goats who fail to do this will be forced to depart from him into the eternal fire of punishment.

* To understand this means to understand the incredible stakes of our freedom, to respond with faith and live according to what God has revealed to us, to make the kingdom the precious pearl or hidden treasure worth losing our life for in order to gain it forever. Today there are many who are universalists, believing basically in the ancient heresy of apocatastasis, which teaches that basically everyone goes to heaven, no matter what one does. Theoretically, of course, we can fathom that Judas, Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, serial killers, and all the people who don’t like us might end up in hell, if there is a hell; but we can’t envisage ourselves, any of those we care about, or a sizable chunk of ordinary people ever ending up in Gehenna. How could a God who is full of compassion, slow to anger, and rich in kindness ever set up an eternal, infernal dungeon in which He mercilessly punishes people for disobedience? How could God Who is love ever establish an everlasting Abu Ghraib for anyone, not to mention His beloved children? And if it’s the case that only those with post-doctoral degrees in Satanic wickedness are candidates for the eternal hall of shame, then, at a practical level, we can all just calm down, because very little now matters to our or others’ eternal destiny. It doesn’t matter if we spread the faith,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Blessed Solanus Casey

July 30, 2020

Jer 18:1-6, Ps 146, Mt 13:47-53

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the last two of eight images of the kingdom in this 13th chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, the Parable of the Dragnet and the Parable of the Head of the Household. In the image of the Kingdom of heaven as a dragnet thrown into the sea, we can see two great lessons: The kingdom seeks to draw everyone in, but not everyone is fit for the kingdom. The net will collect fish of every kind, but the good (literally the “beautiful” in Greek) will be retained and the bad (literally the “rotten”) will be thrown away after the haul. So there is a universal will for salvation but there’s also a judgment and not everyone will make it. This is one of the main points Jesus makes in his parables of the kingdom. He makes the same point several times elsewhere in the Gospel:

* In the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, Jesus that both good seed and darnel will grow in his field, but at the end they will be separated and those not fit for the kingdom will be thrown by angels into the fire where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

* Likewise Jesus makes the point in St. Luke’s Gospel when he describes the kingdom as a banquet. His servants go into the highways and by-ways to “compel” everyone into the banquet, but those who are improperly dressed for the feast, those who have not maintained their baptismal garments properly cleaned and pressed for the feast, will be cast out to the same dark place of teeth-grinding and wailing.

* He reiterates it yet again in response to the faith of the Centurion. He says that many will come from the east and west — i.e., non-Jewish lands — to recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the banquet, but many of the children of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness, where there’s tear-filled dental destruction.

* Perhaps the most famous image is Jesus’ description that at the last judgment he will separate us as a shepherd distinguishes the sheep from the goats on the basis of faith working through deeds of love for him in the image of those in need; the goats who fail to do this will be forced to depart from him into the eternal fire of punishment.

* To understand this means to understand the incredible stakes of our freedom, to respond with faith and live according to what God has revealed to us, to make the kingdom the precious pearl or hidden treasure worth losing our life for in order to gain it forever. Today there are many who are universalists, believing basically in the ancient heresy of apocatastasis, which teaches that basically everyone goes to heaven, no matter what one does. Theoretically, of course, we can fathom that Judas, Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, serial killers, and all the people who don’t like us might end up in hell, if there is a hell; but we can’t envisage ourselves, any of those we care about, or a sizable chunk of ordinary people ever ending up in Gehenna. How could a God who is full of compassion, slow to anger, and rich in kindness ever set up an eternal, infernal dungeon in which He mercilessly punishes people for disobedience? How could God Who is love ever establish an everlasting Abu Ghraib for anyone, not to mention His beloved children? And if it’s the case that only those with post-doctoral degrees in Satanic wickedness are candidates for the eternal hall of shame, then, at a practical level, we can all just calm down, because very little now matters to our or others’ eternal destiny. It doesn’t matter if we spread the faith,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life

Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Martha

July 29, 2020

Jer 15:10.16-21, Ps 59, Jn 11:19-27

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Two of the most important days of “reparation” in the liturgical calendar are July 3 and July 29, for St. Thomas and St. Martha respectively. Like St. Thomas, St. Martha is one of the saints who throughout Church history have seemed to be remembered not for their great faith but for the way Jesus challenged them to grow in faith. Thomas will forever be remembered more for his “doubt” — a doubt the other apostles shared before Jesus’ first appearance — than for his Christological confession. Likewise Martha has suffered in comparison to her sister, Mary, as someone whom Christian tradition has deemed to have had her priorities mixed up. Today is a day to try to correct the record and do ecclesiastical penance by learning from them! The Church has us celebrate the feasts of the saints, as you know, not merely so that we can beg for their intercession but so that we can learn from them the virtues we need to live the Christian life in a holy, faithful and truly fulfilling way. Today on this Feast of St. Martha, therefore, I’d like to ponder four of her great virtues, virtues that Sisters of Life, that Catholic priests and indeed all Catholic faithful should be known for.

* We should ponder first her hospitality. St. Luke tells us, “Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.” The evangelist mentions that it was Martha — not Martha, Mary and Lazarus — who welcomed Jesus, because she was the one who really put in the effort of hospitality. That’s also what today’s opening prayer features, when we turn to God the Father “whose Son was pleased to be welcomed in Saint Martha’s home as a guest” and ask for the grace similarly to be received by him in the house of heaven. Together with St. Benedict, she is the most famous saint of hospitality in the history of the Church. It’s not by coincidence that the guest house in the Vatican where Pope Francis now lives and where all the Cardinals stay during the conclave is called the Domus Sanctae Marthae, “St. Martha’s House.” Her hagiographically famous hospitality to Jesus and the apostles should help us to examine our own, first to Jesus and then in him, to others. St. Josemaria used to call the chapels he would make and adorn to house Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament “Bethanies,” and would say that we should welcome Jesus in that chapel and elsewhere with the same love Jesus found there. He would use that as an illustration to show how our hearts, our lives, our bodies and souls are likewise meant to be like Martha’s House in Bethany, receiving Jesus within. Once we learn how to receive Jesus in that way, then it becomes so much easier to extend a similar hospitality to others because, as Jesus said, whenever we welcome a stranger, Jesus says, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Welcoming the Lord and others as we would the Lord is something in which we need to persevere. It’s not enough in welcoming to give a good “first impression,” but the welcoming must continue. We must receive others as gifts given by the Lord, including those who are near us, to make them feel valued, loved, appreciated, at home.

* Second, we should ponder St. Martha’s loving service. St. John says that after the raising of Lazarus she threw a reception for Jesus and she was “ministering” to the guests present (Jn 12:2). We see her doing the same when she and Martha received Jesus into their home in St. Luke’s Gospel (10:38-42). She was cleaning and cooking for Jesus and working so hard that she began to resent that her sister Mary wasn’t doing any work at all but sitting at Je...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life

Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Martha

July 29, 2020

Jer 15:10.16-21, Ps 59, Jn 11:19-27

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Two of the most important days of “reparation” in the liturgical calendar are July 3 and July 29, for St. Thomas and St. Martha respectively. Like St. Thomas, St. Martha is one of the saints who throughout Church history have seemed to be remembered not for their great faith but for the way Jesus challenged them to grow in faith. Thomas will forever be remembered more for his “doubt” — a doubt the other apostles shared before Jesus’ first appearance — than for his Christological confession. Likewise Martha has suffered in comparison to her sister, Mary, as someone whom Christian tradition has deemed to have had her priorities mixed up. Today is a day to try to correct the record and do ecclesiastical penance by learning from them! The Church has us celebrate the feasts of the saints, as you know, not merely so that we can beg for their intercession but so that we can learn from them the virtues we need to live the Christian life in a holy, faithful and truly fulfilling way. Today on this Feast of St. Martha, therefore, I’d like to ponder four of her great virtues, virtues that Sisters of Life, that Catholic priests and indeed all Catholic faithful should be known for.

* We should ponder first her hospitality. St. Luke tells us, “Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.” The evangelist mentions that it was Martha — not Martha, Mary and Lazarus — who welcomed Jesus, because she was the one who really put in the effort of hospitality. That’s also what today’s opening prayer features, when we turn to God the Father “whose Son was pleased to be welcomed in Saint Martha’s home as a guest” and ask for the grace similarly to be received by him in the house of heaven. Together with St. Benedict, she is the most famous saint of hospitality in the history of the Church. It’s not by coincidence that the guest house in the Vatican where Pope Francis now lives and where all the Cardinals stay during the conclave is called the Domus Sanctae Marthae, “St. Martha’s House.” Her hagiographically famous hospitality to Jesus and the apostles should help us to examine our own, first to Jesus and then in him, to others. St. Josemaria used to call the chapels he would make and adorn to house Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament “Bethanies,” and would say that we should welcome Jesus in that chapel and elsewhere with the same love Jesus found there. He would use that as an illustration to show how our hearts, our lives, our bodies and souls are likewise meant to be like Martha’s House in Bethany, receiving Jesus within. Once we learn how to receive Jesus in that way, then it becomes so much easier to extend a similar hospitality to others because, as Jesus said, whenever we welcome a stranger, Jesus says, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Welcoming the Lord and others as we would the Lord is something in which we need to persevere. It’s not enough in welcoming to give a good “first impression,” but the welcoming must continue. We must receive others as gifts given by the Lord, including those who are near us, to make them feel valued, loved, appreciated, at home.

* Second, we should ponder St. Martha’s loving service. St. John says that after the raising of Lazarus she threw a reception for Jesus and she was “ministering” to the guests present (Jn 12:2). We see her doing the same when she and Martha received Jesus into their home in St. Luke’s Gospel (10:38-42). She was cleaning and cooking for Jesus and working so hard that she began to resent that her sister Mary wasn’t doing any work at all but sitting at Je...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Tuesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Blessed Stanley Rother, Martyr

July 28, 2020

Jer 14:17-22, Ps 79, Mt 13:36-43

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* There’s been a progression among the eight Parables Jesus has been preaching to us as recorded in the 13th Chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel. They’ve gone from focusing on the power of the seed of the Word of God to bear 30, 60, 0r 100 fold fruit in those with good soil, to showing how the growth of the Kingdom happens, as a mustard seed or leaven, once someone really begins to bear that fruit. Today Jesus says that once we receive Him as the Seed sown in us, once we become united with him, he seeks in turn to sow us together with him in the field of the world, as “children of the kingdom.” At the same time, however, he describes in today’s explanation of the Parable of the Weeds and Wheat, which we would have heard on Saturday if we didn’t have the proper Gospel for the Feast of St. James, that while God the Father wants to sow Christians like wheat as children of the kingdom in the world (united with Christ), so the “Enemy” sows like weeds the “children of the Evil One.” How are we supposed to relate to this reality as wheat and weeds, of children of the kingdom versus those of the evil one?

* The first thing we should ponder is what it means to be in a relationship of filiation, of being children. At the end of the Parable Jesus speaks about the righteous’ “shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” and earlier he mentioned that the weeds are “children of the evil one.” At first glance, it might seem that this parable points to an almost Calvinist notion of predestination, that we’re born either of God or of the devil. But in the spiritual case, what we’re talking about is a relationship of adoption. Through baptism, we become adopted children of God (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5). There’s a choice on God’s part to extend to us this supreme gift and there’s an acceptance of it on our part and a desire to live as chips off the old divine block. Similarly with the devil, there’s an offer on his part — seldom explicit, but through temptation — and an acceptance on the part of free men and women to live according to him, the world and the flesh. This is something we can see. In the middle of the field of the world there are so many faithful religious and ascetic priests, pious prayerful grandmothers and innocent children on the one hand and Porn makers, abortion doctors, and drug cartel leaders on the other. Today is an opportunity for us to examine the principle on the basis of which we’re living, whether we’re ardently seeking to live as children of the Father, righteous and shining like the sun, and allowing him to plant us wherever he wishes, or whether, rather than good wheat that nourishes others, we’re growing more like weeds under the influence of evil, living according to the spirit of the world.

* The main point of the parable is about what to do with the weeds. The slaves ask their Master, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” And he shouts, “No!,” lest “you pull up the weeds [and] uproot the wheat along with them.” Out of concern for the wheat — for the children of the kingdom — he urges patience until the harvest. In order to understand better Jesus’ message, it helps to know something about wheat and weeds (called lolium temulentum) in the Holy Land. The wheat and the weeds Jesus was likely pointing to are indistinguishable during the early phases of growth. Not even expert farmers can tell the difference between them. When they grow enough to distinguish between them, their roots are so intertwined that you can’t separate them without ripping out the wheat by the roots a...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Tuesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Blessed Stanley Rother, Martyr

July 28, 2020

Jer 14:17-22, Ps 79, Mt 13:36-43

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* There’s been a progression among the eight Parables Jesus has been preaching to us as recorded in the 13th Chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel. They’ve gone from focusing on the power of the seed of the Word of God to bear 30, 60, 0r 100 fold fruit in those with good soil, to showing how the growth of the Kingdom happens, as a mustard seed or leaven, once someone really begins to bear that fruit. Today Jesus says that once we receive Him as the Seed sown in us, once we become united with him, he seeks in turn to sow us together with him in the field of the world, as “children of the kingdom.” At the same time, however, he describes in today’s explanation of the Parable of the Weeds and Wheat, which we would have heard on Saturday if we didn’t have the proper Gospel for the Feast of St. James, that while God the Father wants to sow Christians like wheat as children of the kingdom in the world (united with Christ), so the “Enemy” sows like weeds the “children of the Evil One.” How are we supposed to relate to this reality as wheat and weeds, of children of the kingdom versus those of the evil one?

* The first thing we should ponder is what it means to be in a relationship of filiation, of being children. At the end of the Parable Jesus speaks about the righteous’ “shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” and earlier he mentioned that the weeds are “children of the evil one.” At first glance, it might seem that this parable points to an almost Calvinist notion of predestination, that we’re born either of God or of the devil. But in the spiritual case, what we’re talking about is a relationship of adoption. Through baptism, we become adopted children of God (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5). There’s a choice on God’s part to extend to us this supreme gift and there’s an acceptance of it on our part and a desire to live as chips off the old divine block. Similarly with the devil, there’s an offer on his part — seldom explicit, but through temptation — and an acceptance on the part of free men and women to live according to him, the world and the flesh. This is something we can see. In the middle of the field of the world there are so many faithful religious and ascetic priests, pious prayerful grandmothers and innocent children on the one hand and Porn makers, abortion doctors, and drug cartel leaders on the other. Today is an opportunity for us to examine the principle on the basis of which we’re living, whether we’re ardently seeking to live as children of the Father, righteous and shining like the sun, and allowing him to plant us wherever he wishes, or whether, rather than good wheat that nourishes others, we’re growing more like weeds under the influence of evil, living according to the spirit of the world.

* The main point of the parable is about what to do with the weeds. The slaves ask their Master, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” And he shouts, “No!,” lest “you pull up the weeds [and] uproot the wheat along with them.” Out of concern for the wheat — for the children of the kingdom — he urges patience until the harvest. In order to understand better Jesus’ message, it helps to know something about wheat and weeds (called lolium temulentum) in the Holy Land. The wheat and the weeds Jesus was likely pointing to are indistinguishable during the early phases of growth. Not even expert farmers can tell the difference between them. When they grow enough to distinguish between them, their roots are so intertwined that you can’t separate them without ripping out the wheat by the roots a...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

July 27, 2020

Jer 13:1-11, Dt 32:18-21, Mt 13:31-35

 

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

 

The allowing points were attempted in the homily: 

* There is a huge contrast in today’s readings between the organic growth of God’s kingdom in and through those who cooperate with God in faith and the corruption that occurs when people fail to listen.

* We begin with the growth. In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us two parables to describe the growth of the Kingdom in us and through us among others. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, we see that the kingdom can begin very small, in the heart of one faithful person, but then over time, it can grow huge. This is, of course, what we see in how the Kingdom began in the Annunciation, when out of Mary’s yes, the Seed conceived within her by the power of the Holy Spirit, began to grow and eventually all nations would be embraced in the branches of his arms on the Cross. We saw that this is what happened on Pentecost, when out of this small band of apostles, the Church started and experienced great growth. We’ve seen this happen in the founding of parishes out of a few committed families, of religious movements and orders that only began with the founder, and in families when one person’s conversion led to the conversion of so many others.

* This type of organic growth is contrasted with the prophet ôt, the symbolic action, that God asked the Prophet Jeremiah to carry out in today’s first reading. God told him to get a brand new linen loincloth, basically the ancient underwear worn by the priestly class, and after wearing it for a while, take it off and place it unlaundered in the soily cleft of a rock in Parath, a place a short distance from his home. A long interval later, God had him retrieve the loincloth and he discovered that it had been rotted in contact with the earth and other elements. That was an image, God communicated to him so that he could communicate it to others, to show the rotting of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. God wanted the whole houses of Israel and Judah to cling to him intimately like the linen underwear. He wanted them to be his people, his renown, his praise, his beauty. He wanted to see them grow in relationship with them. “But they did not listen,” God said. They refused to obey his words, they walked in the stubbornness of their hearts, they followed and adored false gods, and that special priestly garment rotted. In the Responsory, the Church has us return to the Book of Deuteronomy detailing the infidelity of the Israelites 700 years before because history was repeating itself: they were unmindful of the God who gave them birth, they were fickle with no sense of loyalty, they treated God as if he didn’t exist, angering him with their idols. And they would bring demise on themselves. God wouldn’t so much punish them as allow them to experience the punishment of their own actions when they turned their back on him, when they allowed the intimate relationship in the Covenant he formed with them to rot like the loincloth.

* It behooves us to examine which of these two vectors we are on personally and communally. We’re either on a path of growth in the kingdom, like the Parables of the Leaven and the Mustard Seed indicate, or we are on the path of corruption. Our relationship with God is even more intimate than that of the Jews, but is that a source of growth for us or are we forsaking that incredible treasure? We can begin communally. Are we growing as a Church, as an Archdiocese, as a religious institute, are we lifting up all of society, or are we recapitulating what we saw in Moses’ and Jeremiah’s times? We can of course point to certain places where the Church really is growing and thriving and others wh...