Catholic Preaching

By Father Roger LandryReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Catholic Preaching episodes

July 13, 2025The Way of the Good Samaritan, 15th Sunday (C), July 13, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow, Poland
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
July 13, 2025
Deut 30:1-14, Ps 69, C0l 1:15-20, Lk 10:25-37

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.13.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
The question of the scribe is one of the most important questions that can be asked: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Since he was trying to test Jesus, Jesus flipped the test. He answered correctly about loving God with all we have and loving our neighbor. Jesus, however, emphasized that it’s not enough to know the right answer but we have to act on it: “Do this and you will live.”
To justify himself because of, presumably, his own knowledge, he said, “Who is my neighbor?” The question of who was and wasn’t one’s neighbor was important for Jews: as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, many of their rabbis said that they were to love their neighbor and hate their enemy. Jesus would indicate by the Parable of the Good Samaritan that he wanted us to consider everyone as members of our neighborhood.
Jesus is the Good Samaritan who when we were ambushed by the evil one going down from the abode of God to the lowest place on earth, causing us to sin, heard our cries, drew near, saved our life and entrusted us to the Church to care for us until his second coming. The Good Samaritan parable is essentially a summons for us to love others as Jesus loved us. “Do this and you will live,” he said at the end.
He strengthens us at every Mass precisely to do that.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Moses said to the people:
“If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God,
and keep his commandments and statutes
that are written in this book of the law,
when you return to the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul.
“For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say,
‘Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’
Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’
No, it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37
R. (cf. 33) Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness:
in your great mercy turn toward me.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
I am afflicted and in pain;
let your saving help, O God, protect me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
For God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
The descendants of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall inhabit it.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

Reading 2
Colossians 1:15-20
Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the blood of his cross
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.
Alleluia
Cf. John 6:63c, 68c
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Luke 10:25-37
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied,
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
The post The Way of the Good Samaritan, 15th Sunday (C), July 13, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
23 min
July 13, 2025Becoming Like Our Master, 14th Saturday (I), July 12, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Monastery of St. Anne, Swieta Anna, Poland
Saturday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of SS. Louis and Zelie Martin
July 12, 2025
Gen 49:29-32.50:15-26, Ps 105, Mt 10:24-33

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.12.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
Two main points of Christian life: to become a devout disciple and ardent apostle of Jesus. Both are contained in today’s Gospel. The point of discipleship is to become like Jesus. He says today, “It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher.” The point of the apostolate is not principally to share truths, but to give witness to Jesus. He wants us, as he says today, to acknowledge him, to show our friendship with him.
Once we become like Jesus we begin to imitate his divine filiation and his courage, as he speaks about today toward the end of his instructions to his followers as he was sending them out for the first time. We shouldn’t be afraid of anything or anyone except have a holy fear of God, who loves us more than sparrows and has numbered every strand of hair.
We have three examples today of those who became like Jesus.
The Patriarch Joseph in the first reading was prophetically like Jesus in mercy. The way he treated his brothers was an illustration of the main truths of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son.
SS. Louis and Zelie Martin, whom the Church remembers today, remind us of how marriage is supposed to be for the mutual sanctification of the spouses, helping them to become like Christ and his Church. They modeled that type of life, they showed their knowledge of Jesus, to their nine children, especially the five who survived, including St. Therese Lisieux. They show every married couple how to imitate Christ’s holiness and help others come to know Jesus.
Our Lady conformed her whole life to the “Word,” who took on her own flesh.
The Eucharistic Jesus helps us to become like Jesus our teacher, who speaks to us in the Liturgy of the Word, feeds and becomes one with us in Holy Communion, and then sends us out on mission, acknowledging him in communion with him, just like Mary herself did in the mystery of the Visitation.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading I
Genesis 49:29-32; 50:15-26a
Jacob gave his sons this charge:
“Since I am about to be taken to my people,
bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies
in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
the cave in the field of Machpelah,
facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan,
the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite
for a burial ground.
There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried,
and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah,
and there, too, I buried Leah–
the field and the cave in it
that had been purchased from the Hittites.”
Now that their father was dead,
Joseph’s brothers became fearful and thought,
“Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us
and now plans to pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!”
So they approached Joseph and said:
“Before your father died, he gave us these instructions:
‘You shall say to Joseph, Jacob begs you
to forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers,
who treated you so cruelly.’
Please, therefore, forgive the crime that we,
the servants of your father’s God, committed.”
When they spoke these words to him, Joseph broke into tears.
Then his brothers proceeded to fling themselves down before him
and said, “Let us be your slaves!”
But Joseph replied to them:
“Have no fear. Can I take the place of God?
Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good,
to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.
Therefore have no fear.
I will provide for you and for your children.”
By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.
Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father’s family.
He lived a hundred and ten years.
He saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation,
and the children of Manasseh’s son Machir
were also born on Joseph’s knees.
Joseph said to his brothers: “I am about to die.
God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land
that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued,
“When God thus takes care of you,
you must bring my bones up with you from this place.”
Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7
R.   (see Psalm 69:33) Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
make known among the nations his deeds.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
R.   Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
R.   Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R.   Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
Alleluia
1 Peter 4:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of God rests upon you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew 10:24-33
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!
“Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
The post Becoming Like Our Master, 14th Saturday (I), July 12, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
23 min
July 12, 2025Entering into the Challenging School of Divine Service, 14th Friday (I), July 11, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow
Friday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of Saint Benedict
July 11, 2025
Gen 46:1-7.28-30, Ps 37, Mt 10:16-23

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.11.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
Saint Benedict and the “School of Divine Service” (Rule 45). It’s a school of prayer (ora), work (labora) and discipleship (studium, study of the Master). It’s a way in which we learn how to put nothing whatsoever before Christ (Christo omnino nihil praeponant). As we prayed at the beginning of Mass, he was not just a student in this school but a Master in the school of Divine Service.
He became a Master in that school by learning from Jesus the Master, who was teaching us important lessons in that school in today’s Gospel. It’s a challenging school, as we’ve been seeing as we’ve listened to his instructions this week to his apostles before he sent them out for the first time. We’ve already learned about the various human means they would forsake. Today Jesus, the Good Shepherd who protects us from wolves, announces that he is sending them out as “lambs in the midst of wolves,” and states that they will be betrayed to courts, scourged in houses of worships, handed over by family members, hated by all, and persecuted in various towns. But he tells us four things. First, it will lead to their giving testimony. Second, that they will be given by God what they are to say. Third, it will enhance their divine filiation, when the spirit of their Father will be speaking through them. And finally, that he wants them to be as pure as doves but as shrewd as serpents — as shrewd, in other words, as the ancient serpent while remaining holy. For Christians to be shrewd, not naive, is urgent. We need to look at things as God does and seek to orient everything to the salvation and sanctification of ourselves and others. Joseph the Patriarch in today’s first reading was shrewd in this way. St. Benedict was shrewd in this way.
We enter the school of the divine service at every Mass where the Lord orients our work, prayer and discipleship. This is where we come to put on the mind of Christ, who speaks to us in the Word of God and then helps us to take on the spirit of our Father through our communion with him, so that everything we do, we may allow God the Father to be speaking through us. St. Benedict, who urges us to put nothing whatsoever before Christ, is praying that we put nothing whatsoever before the Eucharistic Lord we’re about to receive.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30
Israel set out with all that was his.
When he arrived at Beer-sheba,
he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
There God, speaking to Israel in a vision by night, called,
“Jacob! Jacob!”
He answered, “Here I am.”
Then he said: “I am God, the God of your father.
Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt,
for there I will make you a great nation.
Not only will I go down to Egypt with you;
I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes.”
So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba,
and the sons of Israel
put their father and their wives and children
on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent for his transport.
They took with them their livestock
and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan.
Thus Jacob and all his descendants migrated to Egypt.
His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters—
all his descendants—he took with him to Egypt.
Israel had sent Judah ahead to Joseph,
so that he might meet him in Goshen.
On his arrival in the region of Goshen,
Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot
and rode to meet his father Israel in Goshen.
As soon as Joseph saw him, he flung himself on his neck
and wept a long time in his arms.
And Israel said to Joseph, “At last I can die,
now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
R. (39a) The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Trust in the LORD and do good,
that you may dwell in the land and be fed in security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart’s requests.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
The LORD watches over the lives of the wholehearted;
their inheritance lasts forever.
They are not put to shame in an evil time;
in days of famine they have plenty.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Turn from evil and do good,
that you may abide forever;
For the LORD loves what is right,
and forsakes not his faithful ones.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Alleluia
John 16:13a, 14:26d
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you to all truth
and remind you of all I told you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew 10:16-23
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
But beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.
When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.
Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel
before the Son of Man comes.”
The post Entering into the Challenging School of Divine Service, 14th Friday (I), July 11, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
22 min
July 11, 2025Remembering the Marvels The Lord Has Done and Continues To Do, 14th Thursday (I), July 10, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Basilica of Corpus Christi, Krakow, Poland
Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Votive Mass of the Holy Eucharist
July 10, 2025
Gen 44:18-21.23-29.45:1-5, Ps 105, Mt 10:7-15

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.10.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
“Remember the Marvels the Lord has done”
The marvel of the Lord’s saving Jacob and his family through Joseph’s betrayal
The marvel of the transmission of the faith through the original twelve apostles, who signed up to a benefits package in today’s Gospel that few would readily embrace.
The marvel of the founding of Corpus Christi Basilica in 1340.
The marvel of the work of St. Stanislaus Soltys here at the Basilica in the Eucharist, as an educator, among the poor and particularly in promoting love of the Eucharistic Jesus
The ongoing marvel of Jesus’ self-giving in the Holy Eucharist

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
Genesis 44:18-21, 23b-29; 45:1-5
Judah approached Joseph and said: “I beg you, my lord,
let your servant speak earnestly to my lord,
and do not become angry with your servant,
for you are the equal of Pharaoh.
My lord asked your servants, ‘Have you a father, or another brother?’
So we said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father,
and a young brother, the child of his old age.
This one’s full brother is dead,
and since he is the only one by that mother who is left,
his father dotes on him.’
Then you told your servants,
‘Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.
Unless your youngest brother comes back with you,
you shall not come into my presence again.’
When we returned to your servant our father,
we reported to him the words of my lord.
“Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family.
So we reminded him, ‘We cannot go down there;
only if our youngest brother is with us can we go,
for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.’
Then your servant our father said to us,
‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons.
One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude
that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts;
I have not seen him since.
If you now take this one away from me, too,
and some disaster befalls him,
you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.'”
Joseph could no longer control himself
in the presence of all his attendants,
so he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!”
Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers.
But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him,
and so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace.
“I am Joseph,” he said to his brothers.
“Is my father still in good health?”
But his brothers could give him no answer,
so dumbfounded were they at him.
“Come closer to me,” he told his brothers.
When they had done so, he said:
“I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.
But now do not be distressed,
and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here.
It was really for the sake of saving lives
that God sent me here ahead of you.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21
R. (5a) Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R. Alleluia.
When the LORD called down a famine on the land
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R. Alleluia.
They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
Mark 1:15
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Kingdom of God is at hand:
repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew 10:7-15
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“As you go, make this proclamation:
‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;
no sack for the journey, or a second tunic,
or sandals, or walking stick.
The laborer deserves his keep.
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it,
and stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy,
let your peace come upon it;
if not, let your peace return to you.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—
go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.
Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment
than for that town.”
The post Remembering the Marvels The Lord Has Done and Continues To Do, 14th Thursday (I), July 10, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
14 min
July 10, 2025Called By Name to Continue the Mission of the Apostles, 14th Wednesday (I), July 9, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow
Wednesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions, Martyrs
July 9, 2025
Gen 41:55-57.42:5-7.17-24, Ps 33, Mt 10:1-7

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.9.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
Today in the visit of several sites associated with St. John Paul II’s Krakow, we have had two great unifying themes. First, the former Father Karol Wojtyla. Second, the martyrs. We have gone to the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, both martyrs. To the Franciscan Church, where we encountered those martyred by the shining path in Peru. We’ve passed Wawel Cathedral with the tomb of St. Stanislaus looked at a distance from Skalka, where he was martyred. We’ve visited the Church in Debniki from which many Salesians were martyred. And all along we were thinking about St. John Paul II who, when once asked as he was struggling with Parkinson’s whether he would resign, simply said, “Christ never came down from the Cross.” He was someone who looked at his whole life as a martyrdom, a witness, a manifestation of Christ’s life on the Cross. That’s a perfect introduction to the Memorial of the Chinese martyrs we mark today.
The Gospel mentions that Jesus astonishingly gave his authority to the first apostles. His divine authority over unclean spirits and every disease and illness. As we’ll see tomorrow, he’ll give them his authority even to raise the dead. That authority, given to these 12 whom he called by name, was extended to the whole Church in the great commission. It continues in the Church in an even more astonishing way through the sacraments. We see, likewise, that he tells the apostles to announce that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near, close enough to touch, but requiring them to move to touch it, to enter it, to live in it, by allowing Christ to reign.
But what we can focus on today is Jesus’ instruction to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Eventually, in the great commission, Israel would be expanded to include the whole world through Jesus’ making us his Mystical Body. But there was a prioritization in the proclamation of the good news. Jesus wanted us to start with those we knew, with our kin, with those around us, which is often a far more challenging mission than traveling the world. We see that lesson being played out in Joseph the Patriarch in the first reading in how he was saved in order to save his brothers and his father. We see that lesson likewise in the Chinese martyrs, who evangelized their fellow Chinese.
Every day at Mass Jesus gives us his authority to make his Body and Blood present. He summons us to enter into his kingdom here, to make the effort, to reach out and not just draw near but enter into communion with him. And then at the end he sends us out, just like he sent the first 12, just like he sent out the Chinese martyrs, just like he sent out Karol Wojtyla.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a
When hunger came to be felt throughout the land of Egypt
and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread,
Pharaoh directed all the Egyptians to go to Joseph
and do whatever he told them.
When the famine had spread throughout the land,
Joseph opened all the cities that had grain
and rationed it to the Egyptians,
since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt.
In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain,
for famine had gripped the whole world.
The sons of Israel were among those
who came to procure rations.
It was Joseph, as governor of the country,
who dispensed the rations to all the people.
When Joseph’s brothers came and knelt down before him
with their faces to the ground,
he recognized them as soon as he saw them.
But Joseph concealed his own identity from them
and spoke sternly to them.
With that, he locked them up in the guardhouse for three days.
On the third day Joseph said to his brothers:
“Do this, and you shall live; for I am a God-fearing man.
If you have been honest,
only one of your brothers need be confined in this prison,
while the rest of you may go
and take home provisions for your starving families.
But you must come back to me with your youngest brother.
Your words will thus be verified, and you will not die.”
To this they agreed.
To one another, however, they said:
“Alas, we are being punished because of our brother.
We saw the anguish of his heart when he pleaded with us,
yet we paid no heed;
that is why this anguish has now come upon us.”
Reuben broke in,
“Did I not tell you not to do wrong to the boy?
But you would not listen!
Now comes the reckoning for his blood.”
The brothers did not know, of course,
that Joseph understood what they said,
since he spoke with them through an interpreter.
But turning away from them, he wept.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19
R. (22) Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
The LORD brings to nought the plans of nations;
he foils the designs of peoples.
But the plan of the LORD stands forever;
the design of his heart, through all generations.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
But 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. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Alleluia
Mark 1:15
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Kingdom of God is at hand:
repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew 10:1-7
Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the Twelve Apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'”
The post Called By Name to Continue the Mission of the Apostles, 14th Wednesday (I), July 9, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
22 min
July 09, 2025The Prayer That Leads To An Heroic Christian Life, 14th Tuesday (I), July 8, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow
Tertio Millennio Seminar
Tuesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
July 8, 2025
Gen 32:23-33, Ps 17, Mt 9:32-38

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.8.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
We’ve had an inspiring day focused on St. John Paul II. He was a man of heroic faith, hope and love. He became such because of his prayer. We pray as we live and live as we pray and he became heroic in life by heroic perseverance in prayer, which is where his faith, hope and love for God and others was honed.
In today’s first reading, we see that prayer is a battle, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms (2573). It’s where, as Pope Benedict said in a 2011 catechesis on prayer, is where we learn to fight the good fight of faith. Prayer is faith in action, the way by which we act on the hope in Jesus’ promises that the Father will answer whatever we ask in his name, the means by which we become like the one we lovingly adore as we come to share his love for ourselves and those around us. We learn in this first reading not just about the battle of prayer but about how we are called to walk by our prayer, that just as Jacob limped after his prayer, so prayer is supposed to change our “walk” as we walk as children of the light, following Jesus’ footsteps. We also learn that prayer and life is meant to seek God’s blessing, which he gave Jacob at the end of the scene.
We see similar perseverance in prayer in the Gospel when we are called to pray without ceasing to God the Harvest Master for laborers — hard workers — in his vineyards. The more we pray, the more we’re supposed to be influenced by that prayer to become those laborers, to see ourselves as the first answer to that prayer made to God.
Today’s readings — and the heroism of St. John Paul II — converge in Mass where sometimes we need to battle to get here and stay attentive, where we’re changed to walk differently, where we receive and become God’s blessing as we go forth as his harvesters. Let’s ask St. John Paul’s intercession to live these dimensions of our Christian life as heroically as he did.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading I
Genesis 32:23-33
In the course of the night, Jacob arose, took his two wives,
with the two maidservants and his eleven children,
and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
After he had taken them across the stream
and had brought over all his possessions,
Jacob was left there alone.
Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.
When the man saw that he could not prevail over him,
he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket,
so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled.
The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”
The man asked, “What is your name?”
He answered, “Jacob.”
Then the man said,
“You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel,
because you have contended with divine and human beings
and have prevailed.”
Jacob then asked him, “Do tell me your name, please.”
He answered, “Why should you want to know my name?”
With that, he bade him farewell.
Jacob named the place Peniel,
“Because I have seen God face to face,” he said,
“yet my life has been spared.”
At sunrise, as he left Penuel,
Jacob limped along because of his hip.
That is why, to this day, the children of Israel do not eat
the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket,
inasmuch as Jacob’s hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 17:1b, 2-3, 6-7ab, 8b and 15
R.   (15a) In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
Hear, O LORD, a just suit;
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.
R.   In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
From you let my judgment come;
your eyes behold what is right.
Though you test my heart, searching it in the night,
though you try me with fire, you shall find no malice in me.
R.   In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
Show your wondrous mercies,
O savior of those who flee from their foes.
R.   In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
Hide me in the shadow of your wings.
I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking, I shall be content in your presence.
R.   In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
Alleluia
John 10:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew 9:32-38
A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,
and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.
The crowds were amazed and said,
“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
But the Pharisees said,
“He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”
The post The Prayer That Leads To An Heroic Christian Life, 14th Tuesday (I), July 8, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
23 min
July 08, 2025Responding to the Holy Spirit like St. John Paul II, Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit, July 7, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of St. Leonard
Wawel Cathedral, Krakow, Poland
Beginning of the Tertio Millennio Seminar
Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit
July 7, 2025
Is 61:1-3.6.8-9, Ps 104, Jn 14:23-26

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.7.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were made in the homily:
John Paul II celebrated his first three Masses here in this chapel, the day after his ordination. On Nov. 2, a priest can celebrate three Masses and he offered them, respectively, for his deceased mom, dad and brother Edmund.
We are celebrating a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit to begin our Seminar. St. John Paul II had a great love for the Holy Spirit. He dedicated his third encyclical to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity and he gave a year’s worth of catecheses in 1998, in preparation for the great Jubilee of 2000, on the Holy Spirit. I’d like to focus on six aspects of his teaching on the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit and prayer
The Holy Spirit and our charisms, our manifestation of the Spirit for the common good
The Holy Spirit and learning.
The Holy Spirit and life according to the Spirit
The Holy Spirit and the Church.
The Holy Spirit and sharing the faith with tongues of fire.
John Paul II taught about the Holy Spirit in each of those areas in his magisterium and lived by those same teachings.
All of these teachings are summarized here at Mass, where the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray, where he reminds us of the great gifts of the talents of the sacraments, where he reminds us of what Jesus has taught us and leads us to all truth, where he strengthens us to live with him full-time, as he seeks to unite us as one body, and as he prepares us inwardly to leave Mass and go out with tongues of fire and give joint witness to us. The same Holy Spirit who will overshadow the priests and altar and change bread and wine into Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity, will overshadow each of us here to make us “one body, one spirit in Christ.” Let us ask St. John Paul II’s intercession to help us to correspond to the work of the Holy Spirit in us with the same docility he did.

The readings for this homily are below:
A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn; To place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes, To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit. They will be called oaks of justice, planted by the LORD to show his glory. You yourselves shall be named priests of the LORD, ministers of our God you shall be called. You shall eat the wealth of the nations and boast of riches from them. For I, the LORD, love what is right, I hate robbery and injustice; I will give them their recompense faithfully, a lasting covenant I will make with them. Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; All who see them shall acknowledge them as a race the LORD has blessed.
Responsorial Psalm: Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth
Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How varied are your works, LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD be glad in these works!
May my theme be pleasing to God; I will rejoice in the LORD.
When you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust from which they came.
When you send forth your breath, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. M
Alleluia, Alleluia
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth and remind you of all I told you.
Alleluia, Alleluia
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John
Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name — he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.
The post Responding to the Holy Spirit like St. John Paul II, Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit, July 7, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
16 min
July 06, 2025Bringing the Joy of the Gospel, the King and his Kingdom to Others, 14th Sunday (C), July 6, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Vincentian Seminary, Krakow, Poland
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
July 6, 2025
Is 66:10-14, Ps 66, Gal 6:14-18, Lk 11:1-12.17-20

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.6.25_Homily.mp3

The following points were attempted:
Jesus’ call of 72 “others” (beyond the apostles) and the importance of recognizing that as we pray to the Harvest Master, we’re praying for ourselves to be those harvesters, just like the Church has been praying for us all the way back to today’s Gospel scene.
The link between the Gospel and the other readings is joy. We go to God to receive joy, just like through the Prophet Isaiah God encouraged them to come to receive, even to be breastfed, with delight in Jerusalem. Then, as prayed in the Psalm, we’re summoned to go out to all the world to let the whole world cry out to God with joy. The mission of the Church, the harvest, the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, is a proclamation of joy.
Joy is the interpretive key for the missionary instructions Jesus gives in the Gospel.
Joy is the way St. Paul responded to his being crucified with Christ and why he boasted it, because he was able to make up what was lacking in himself of Christ’s sufferings for the sake of his body the Church.
Joy is what St. Maria Goretti had with regard to the Church’s teachings on chastity and purity, for which she was murdered 123 years ago today. Joy is what she sought to bring to her murdered, Alessandro Serenelli, and then what he brought to her mother, Assunta, they brought to their parish, he brought to the Capuchin order and they brought to the whole world, being present together at her canonization 75 years ago, the first outdoor canonization in St. Peter’s Square in the history of the Church.
We come to Mass to be renewed in joy, as Jesus nurses us with maternal love with the word of God and the word made flesh, both of which he wants to give us so that his joy may be in us and our joy perfected. Then he wants to bless us at the end of the Mass so that we may go and announce the Gospel of the Lord, bringing this joy, his joy, our joy, to the whole world.

The readings for this Mass were:
Reading 1
Isaiah 66:10-14c
Thus says the LORD:
Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,
all you who love her;
exult, exult with her,
all you who were mourning over her!
Oh, that you may suck fully
of the milk of her comfort,
that you may nurse with delight
at her abundant breasts!
For thus says the LORD:
Lo, I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river,
and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent.
As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms,
and fondled in her lap;
as a mother comforts her child,
so will I comfort you;
in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.
When you see this, your heart shall rejoice
and your bodies flourish like the grass;
the LORD’s power shall be known to his servants.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Reading 2
Galatians 6:14-18
Brothers and sisters:
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been crucified to me,
and I to the world.
For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision,
but only a new creation.
Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule
and to the Israel of God.
From now on, let no one make troubles for me;
for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit,
brothers and sisters. Amen.
Alleluia
Colossians 3:15a, 16a
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let the peace of Christ control your hearts;
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.
He said to them,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.
Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;
and greet no one along the way.
Into whatever house you enter, first say,
‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you,
for the laborer deserves his payment.
Do not move about from one house to another.
Whatever town you enter and they welcome you,
eat what is set before you,
cure the sick in it and say to them,
‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’
Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you,
go out into the streets and say,
‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet,
even that we shake off against you.’
Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand.
I tell you,
it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”
The seventy-two returned rejoicing, and said,
“Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”
Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.
Behold, I have given you the power to ‘tread upon serpents’ and scorpions
and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
The post Bringing the Joy of the Gospel, the King and his Kingdom to Others, 14th Sunday (C), July 6, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
21 min
June 29, 2025Proclaiming Christ with Courage, Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
Solemnity of Saints Peter & Paul
June 29, 2025
Acts 12:1-11, Ps 34, 2 Tm 4:6-8.17-18, Mt 16:13-19

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/6.29.26_Homily_1.mp3

The following text guided the homily:
Sisters, it’s great to be back with you after three and a half months on the road! During much of that time I was in Rome not just for the international meetings of the Pontifical Mission Societies but also for the papal funeral, interregnum, conclave and election. I had the joy to proclaim to all those who throughout the world were watching EWTN’s coverage the historic news that the cardinals had elected not just the 267th Peter but the first Pope ever born in the United States of America. Among all of the coverage we did, one of the most moving was of the Mass the day after Pope Leo XIV’s election when, according to tradition, he returned to the Sistine Chapel where the Cardinals had elected him to celebrate Mass for the Church. The Gospel for that day, which I had the chance to translate live for all the viewers, is today’s Gospel. In it, Pope Leo gave a glimpse not just of how he saw his new papal ministry, but how he saw the role of the Church. I’d like to begin by recalling some of what he proclaimed in his first homily as our pope on May 9.
He began with St. Peter’s confession of Jesus in today’s Gospel, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and commented: “In these words, Peter, asked by the Master, together with the other disciples, about his faith in him, expressed the patrimony that the Church, through the apostolic succession, has preserved, deepened and handed on for two thousand years. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God: the one Savior, who alone reveals the face of the Father.” Peter, he said, “makes his profession of faith in reply to a specific question: ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ The question is not insignificant. It concerns an essential aspect of our ministry, namely, the world in which we live, with its limitations and its potential, its questions and its convictions.” He said that there were, and remain, two basic answers to that question.
First, he stated, “there is the world’s response, … a world that considers Jesus a completely insignificant person, at best someone with an unusual and striking way of speaking and acting. And so, once his presence becomes irksome because of his demands for honesty and his stern moral requirements, this ‘world’ will not hesitate to reject and eliminate him. Then there is the other possible response to Jesus’ question: that of ordinary people. For them, the Nazarene is not a charlatan, but an upright man, one who has courage, who speaks well and says the right things, like other great prophets in the history of Israel. That is why they follow him, at least for as long as they can do so without too much risk or inconvenience. Yet to them he is only a man, and therefore, in times of danger, during his passion, they, too, abandon him and depart disappointed. What is striking about these two attitudes,” Pope Leo continued, “is their relevance today. They embody notions that we could easily find on the lips of many men and women in our own time, even if, while essentially identical, they are expressed in different language. Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure. These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. … Today, too, there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman. This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism. This is the world that has been entrusted to us, a world in which … we are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Jesus the Savior. Therefore, it is essential that we too repeat, with Peter: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”
He said that it is “essential to do this, first of all, in our personal relationship with the Lord, in our commitment to a daily journey of conversion. Then, to do so as a Church, experiencing together our fidelity to the Lord and bringing the Good News to all. …I say this first of all to myself, as the Successor of Peter, as I begin my mission as Bishop of Rome” but added that these “words apply more generally to an indispensable commitment for all those in the Church.”
So we’re all called, with St. Peter and his successor, Pope Leo, to make that common confession of faith, of Christ’s divinity, of Christ as the long-awaited Savior, against the indifference, questions, inconveniences, and hopes of the age. To do this requires courage, the courage to state the truth even when others challenge it, the courage to live the truth even when many others, including sometimes in the Church, don’t. And so today, as we celebrate two of the most important persons who have ever lived. without whom we probably wouldn’t be here right now in this chapel worshipping God, I think it’s important to learn from both of them what they teach us about courage. We could, of course, ponder the moving stories of their conversions, callings, and commissioning. We could examine their preaching and writing. We could talk about their missionary journeys as a fisher of men and teacher of the nations. We could look into their friendship and famous confrontation, as Pope Leo did this morning in his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica. But since today we celebrate their martyrdoms — Peter’s by crucifixion in the Circus of Caligula and Nero and Paul’s by beheading in the forest of Aquae Salviae south of Rome — I would like to focus above all on their courage because it is very much a virtue that we Catholics in America need.
Jesus had spoken to us about the courage we’d need to be a Christian during the Last Supper when he said to Peter and the other apostles, “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn 15:18-20). Saul before his conversion would be one of the fiercest persecutors of the early Church, presiding over the stoning of St. Stephen, ripping Christians out of their homes and bringing them for trial, and even getting a commission to go to Damascus, Syria, 137 miles away by foot, to arrest the Christians there. This was just the beginning of many waves of persecution. After his conversion, Paul himself would be hunted down for assassination by the very ones with whom he used to collaborate. We see him imprisoned in today’s second reading awaiting execution. In today’s first reading, we see Peter imprisoned and threatened by the very ones who had gotten Jesus crucified. And those scenes would be before Nero would try to scapegoat the Christians for the fire of Rome he himself had set and before other emperors would join in 13 ferocious anti-Christian persecutions before Christianity was legalized in 313.
St. Paul wrote about courage in his spiritual will and testament to his young convert St. Timothy in today’s second reading. He said, “I, Paul, am already being poured out like a libation and the time of my departure is at hand.” He was about to die after having spent his post-converted life pouring out all he had for Christ and for others. “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” He had bravely fought the good fight. He had fought for God. He knew there was a battle and in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, he described how arduous that battle was: “Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned [and left for dead, but the prayers of the first Christians with Barnabas in Galatia raised him from the dead], three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure (2 Cor 11:24-27). That was the fight he fought to pass on the faith. It would have been very easy for him to have stayed as a tent maker in Tarsus, pondering the Scriptures, getting a good night’s rest in his own bed. He could have simply never engaged the fight or retired early, saying after three scourgings, two shipwrecks and other dangers that it was somebody else’s turn. But his entire life he fought for Christ against “principalities and powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Eph 6:12). And he did so with urgency: “I have finished the race.” Many crawl through life, others go one inch at a time. Others slide back. Still others sightsee and get distracted by everything along the way. Paul recognized that he had one life to give and he ran, with zeal, in order to spread the faith to as many as he could until his time was up. Most importantly he writes, “I kept the faith!” He kept it by passing it on as of the “first importance” (1 Cor 15:3). It wasn’t easy, but he knew that the faith was worth his life, that it was the greatest gift he could give to anyone.
And he shows all Christians how to suffer courageously for the faith. He was able to undergo so much and not lose heart not because he had a superhuman constitution, but because he was suffering together with Christ. He would write to the Philippians, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). He was able to maintain his strength because of his union with the Lord, a union that grew stronger not weaker whenever he suffered. “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). These persecutions and sufferings conformed him to Christ to such a degree that they helped perfect his union with Christ. He would write to the Galatians that through the Cross he had picked up every day, “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” His union became so strong that he was able to say, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:19-20). And he knew that union in suffering was helping Jesus redeem the human race. “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church” (Col 1:24). He teaches us a crucial lesson for when we suffer on account of our faith — one that also is useful whenever we undergo any other type of physical, psychological, familial or moral suffering. To suffer with courage, we need, like St. Paul, to unite ourselves to Christ through that suffering so that in our weakness we may be strengthened by Christ to fight, to run and not only to keep the faith but to spread it through our example of faith under trial.
But this is obviously challenging and we can all be discouraged by the times that, rather than respond with courage, we’ve betrayed the Lord: we have stayed silent when others have uttered blasphemies; we’ve done nothing when we saw someone innocent being attacked or abused; we’ve minded our own business when we should have stopped as Good Samaritans to those who are hurting; we’ve allowed others to impose their immorality when we know Jesus has sent us out to be salt, light and leaven. If we haven’t been as courageous in the past as we know God is asking us to be, today’s feast is an important grace for us to see that and how the Lord gives us a second chance.
We see those lessons in one of the most important scenes in the life of St. Peter. We remember what happened with him during the Last Supper. After Jesus had said both, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me,” and, “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed [for you, singular] that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers,” Peter replied, “Even though all may have their faith in you shaken, mine will never be,” and “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” But Jesus warned Peter about his bravado: “I tell you, Peter, before the cock crows this day, you will deny three times that you know me” (Mt 26; Lk 22). And we know that that’s exactly what happened. Three times in the high priest’s courtyard, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. He not only lied, but to some degree, he apostatized. He denied the Lord. He denied his faith: “I do not know the man!” The reason, as Jesus would say to him in the Garden of Gethsemane, was because the “spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Peter thought that he would give his life for the Lord. He certainly loved the Lord enough to die for him, but when the going got rough and he was confronted in the courtyard by a “waitress with an attitude” as Cardinal Sean O’Malley is accustomed to say, Peter lost his boldness because his flesh was cowardly. He didn’t even realize what he was doing until the cock crowed and the Lord, coming out through the courtyard in chains, looked at him. It was then that Peter went out and wept bitterly. But it’s important for to see that Jesus didn’t leave him there. As we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus had made him, despite his human frailties, the rock on whom he was going to build his Church and Jesus needed to reconstitute him. And in the Gospel for the Vigil Mass of this Feast last night we see how. After the Resurrection, Jesus gives him a three-fold opportunity to profess his love. It’s a moving scene. Jesus asks Peter twice if he loves him with agape, a total self-sacrificial type of love. Peter responds both times saying that he loves Jesus with philia, as a friend. He couldn’t profess he would die for him because he was so ashamed and humiliated by the way his weak flesh had previously taken over. So Jesus lowers the question to asking whether Peter loved him as a friend, and Peter, saddened, replied that he knew the Lord knows everything and knows that he loves him. But Jesus wouldn’t leave him there in his sadness. He lifted him up with a prophecy, saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” St. John tells us that he was describing by the phrase “stretch out your hands” which was a Greek idiom for being crucified, how Peter would glorify God by his death. Jesus was indicating that in the end Peter would actually love the Lord with a total self-sacrificial type of love.
And that’s precisely how Peter would die, with great courage for the Lord. When he was being prepared for martyrdom among three to five thousand other Christians by Nero and his henchmen as scapegoats for the fire that destroyed Rome that Nero had set, there were three ways the Christians died, as a seven year-old witness, Tacitus, would later write in his Annals. They were covered with wild beast skins and torn to death by dogs. Others were covered with flammable liquid and lit on fire to serve as living lamps for the circus races at night. And the third group was crucified. Peter was one of those chosen to be crucified. But as he was preparing to be killed, he gave his executioners one last request: to crucify him upside down because he didn’t consider himself worthy to be crucified right-side up as Jesus had been 34 years earlier outside the city gates of Jerusalem. The sadistic executioners gladly assented because it would be a much more painful way to die. In crucifixion you die not because of the literally excruciating pain, but by asphyxiation. You can’t breathe. And when you flip somebody upside down, the diaphragm, essential for breathing, doesn’t function very well upside down. So for the last few hours of St. Peter’s life, he would have been suffering not only the pains of crucifixion — the most painful torture ever developed by the Romans — but also the equivalent of drowning at the same time. Before he had said that he would die for the Lord only to go out and deny him. This time, even though he was hesitant to say the same thing and promise that he loved the Lord enough to die, he actually died with incredible courage and devotion.
Peter wrote to the members of the early Church about courage in a letter that he sent out shortly before his death. “Although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, it’s so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.… If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.” And that’s precisely what St. Peter did, following Jesus as someone else stretched out his arms in crucifixion and following him all the way home to heaven.
Like Saints Peter and Paul, like so many early disciples who lived their faith in times of persecution, Christians always need the virtue of courage. Jesus left us an example of suffering so that we will know how to suffer in union with him and so come to reign with him in glory. Sometimes the greatest way we spread the faith is by the witness that Jesus, who suffered for us, is worth suffering for in return, that he who died for us is worth living for and dying for as well. This is the witness still being given today by so many dauntless brothers and sisters throughout the world, including Missionaries of Charity.
Saints Peter and Paul, the early Christian martyrs, and Christian heroes in every age, have received their strength from the same Jesus whom we’re about to welcome on this altar. As we consume Jesus in Holy Communion, we consume his “guts,” his courage, his love for the Father, his love for others, and his love for the truth. He wants to fortify us, like he strengthened Saints Peter and Paul, so that we might be faithful and courageous all our days. Today from the altar he says to us, “Who do you say that I am?” and, together with Pope Leo and the whole Church, we confess him to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and our Savior, now and in every circumstance.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading I
Acts 12:1-11
In those days, King Herod laid hands upon some members of the Church to harm them.
He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword,
and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews
he proceeded to arrest Peter also.
–It was the feast of Unleavened Bread.–
He had him taken into custody and put in prison
under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each.
He intended to bring him before the people after Passover.
Peter thus was being kept in prison,
but prayer by the Church was fervently being made
to God on his behalf.
On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial,
Peter, secured by double chains,
was sleeping between two soldiers,
while outside the door guards kept watch on the prison.
Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him
and a light shone in the cell.
He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying,
“Get up quickly.”
The chains fell from his wrists.
The angel said to him, “Put on your belt and your sandals.”
He did so.
Then he said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.”
So he followed him out,
not realizing that what was happening through the angel was real;
he thought he was seeing a vision.
They passed the first guard, then the second,
and came to the iron gate leading out to the city,
which opened for them by itself.
They emerged and made their way down an alley,
and suddenly the angel left him.
Then Peter recovered his senses and said,
“Now I know for certain
that the Lord sent his angel
and rescued me from the hand of Herod
and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R.        (5) The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R.        The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R.        The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R.        The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R.        The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
Reading II
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
I, Paul, am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge,
will award to me on that day, and not only to me,
but to all who have longed for his appearance.
The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.
To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Alleluia
Matthew 16:18
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew 16:13-19
When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The post Proclaiming Christ with Courage, Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
29 min
June 26, 2025 Christian Mission and Integral Human Development, Acton University, June 26, 2025
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Acton University
Grand Rapids, Michigan
June 26, 2025

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6.26.25 Christian Mission and Integral Human Development
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1 hr 16 min

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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.