Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal

August 12, 2020

Ezek 9:1-7.10:18-22, Ps 113, Mt 18:15-20

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Jesus had come to found a family, to bring us through the communion of saints somehow, mysteriously, according to our condition as creatures, into the communion of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. During the Last Supper he prayed repeatedly that we might be one as the Father and He are one, so that the world might believe that the Father sent the Son and loves us like he loves the Son (Jn 17). Jesus’ plan is always for unity, for communion, for a love that binds. At the end of today’s Gospel Jesus speaks about the power of that unity with Him and with others. He tells us whenever just two or three gather in his name, he’ll be present in the midst. When we pray in his name to the Father, the Father is guaranteed to hear it. When we together with the whole Church in his name bind something on earth it will be bound in heaven, and when we loose something on earth in his name, it will be loosed in heaven. In order for this to occur, we need to do so, he tells us, “in his name,” which in the Biblical understanding of name means in his person, in total communion with him, asking for what he himself could and would ask for. We can specify it a little by remembering his names, “Emmanuel,” “Jesus” and “Christ.” To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray conscious of the fact that God is with us, that he is with us precisely to save us, and through that salvation he seeks to make us “little Christs,” anointed by the same Spirit who anointed him. God is with us to unite us, to save us from rupture and division, to help us to follow him and to become his icon in the middle of the world carrying out God’s plan to restore and unite all things in Christ. The devil’s plan, on the other hand, is always to divide. The word diabolos in Greek signifies one who attempts to throw off course. The consequences of sin are always a triple division, a division from God, a division from others, and a division within ourselves. The devil’s work is to get us to try to make a name for ourselves, rather than hallow and pray in God’s name. He wants to frustrate God’s plan of salvation and to get his to live according to the flesh rather than according to the Holy Spirit.

* What happens when we’ve succumbed to the temptations of the great Divider and experienced this division he seeks to provoke? We need conversion. Jesus, greater than Jonah, came to call us to conversion. His first public words were, “Repent and believe.” He called us to pluck out eyes and cut off body parts if they led us to sin. He corrected St. Peter and called him “Satan,” when he was trying to oppose Jesus’ messianic and salvific mission. He repeatedly called the Scribes and the Pharisees to let go of their false interpretations of the law. He called all of us to a higher set of standards that the most righteous Jews and Gentiles, to become Good Samaritans, to wash the feet of others, to care for the poor and needy, to love even our enemies. But that was just the supreme expression of God’s lovingly calling us to conversion. Throughout the Old Testament, God sent his prophets — like we see with Ezekiel in today’s first reading — to call us to repentance, to give us another chance, to lift us up out of our pigsties, and to be bathed in the mercy of God’s covenant. Just as much as he sent Moses to free the Jews from physical slavery in Egypt, he sent his prophets to free us from self-imposed moral slavery. He himself came and sent out the Church to continue that mission of holiness.

* And so today in the Gospel he has us focus on ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal

August 12, 2020

Ezek 9:1-7.10:18-22, Ps 113, Mt 18:15-20

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Jesus had come to found a family, to bring us through the communion of saints somehow, mysteriously, according to our condition as creatures, into the communion of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. During the Last Supper he prayed repeatedly that we might be one as the Father and He are one, so that the world might believe that the Father sent the Son and loves us like he loves the Son (Jn 17). Jesus’ plan is always for unity, for communion, for a love that binds. At the end of today’s Gospel Jesus speaks about the power of that unity with Him and with others. He tells us whenever just two or three gather in his name, he’ll be present in the midst. When we pray in his name to the Father, the Father is guaranteed to hear it. When we together with the whole Church in his name bind something on earth it will be bound in heaven, and when we loose something on earth in his name, it will be loosed in heaven. In order for this to occur, we need to do so, he tells us, “in his name,” which in the Biblical understanding of name means in his person, in total communion with him, asking for what he himself could and would ask for. We can specify it a little by remembering his names, “Emmanuel,” “Jesus” and “Christ.” To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray conscious of the fact that God is with us, that he is with us precisely to save us, and through that salvation he seeks to make us “little Christs,” anointed by the same Spirit who anointed him. God is with us to unite us, to save us from rupture and division, to help us to follow him and to become his icon in the middle of the world carrying out God’s plan to restore and unite all things in Christ. The devil’s plan, on the other hand, is always to divide. The word diabolos in Greek signifies one who attempts to throw off course. The consequences of sin are always a triple division, a division from God, a division from others, and a division within ourselves. The devil’s work is to get us to try to make a name for ourselves, rather than hallow and pray in God’s name. He wants to frustrate God’s plan of salvation and to get his to live according to the flesh rather than according to the Holy Spirit.

* What happens when we’ve succumbed to the temptations of the great Divider and experienced this division he seeks to provoke? We need conversion. Jesus, greater than Jonah, came to call us to conversion. His first public words were, “Repent and believe.” He called us to pluck out eyes and cut off body parts if they led us to sin. He corrected St. Peter and called him “Satan,” when he was trying to oppose Jesus’ messianic and salvific mission. He repeatedly called the Scribes and the Pharisees to let go of their false interpretations of the law. He called all of us to a higher set of standards that the most righteous Jews and Gentiles, to become Good Samaritans, to wash the feet of others, to care for the poor and needy, to love even our enemies. But that was just the supreme expression of God’s lovingly calling us to conversion. Throughout the Old Testament, God sent his prophets — like we see with Ezekiel in today’s first reading — to call us to repentance, to give us another chance, to lift us up out of our pigsties, and to be bathed in the mercy of God’s covenant. Just as much as he sent Moses to free the Jews from physical slavery in Egypt, he sent his prophets to free us from self-imposed moral slavery. He himself came and sent out the Church to continue that mission of holiness.

* And so today in the Gospel he has us focus on ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) (Vigil)

August 8, 2020

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/8.8.20_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 Jesus helps the apostles, especially St. Peter, to overcome their primal fears and through which he seeks to help us, too, go from fear to faith, to overcome our terror of failure, abandonment, struggle, sickness, pain, the past, the future, death, the possibility of hell and anything and everything else, too.

* Let’s put ourselves first in this dramatic scene whose main elements are recapitulated in some way or another in the life of every disciple. Since Jesus, as we saw in last week’s Gospel, had just had everyone sit down on the green grass, we know that it must have been mid-March to mid-April in the Holy Land, because the grass begins to get scorched by the sun by the end of April. That would mean sunset would have happened about 6 pm, which is the time the apostles got into the boat to begin the journey across the top of the Sea of Galilee, which would have been about a 5-6 mile journey that should have taken a few hours. The storm began to rage, St. Matthew tells us, when they were in the middle of the Sea, so about an hour or two along their trek. Jesus came to them in the “fourth watch of the night” — the period stretching from 3-6 am — which meant that by that point, they had been in the boat 9-12 hours, battling a ferocious storm, fatigued, soaking wet and fearing for their life. Jesus was placidly praying on the mountain as they were struggling for hours not to drown to death. Why did Jesus wait so long as his friends were in peril? It brings us back to the other time that they were afraid for their life on the Sea, when Jesus was asleep in the bow of the boat as they thought they were about to perish. In both cases, it was to increase their faith. Jesus was introducing them to a central truth of the spiritual life: that in order to be able to abandon ourselves to God, we must first feel what appears to be total abandonment by  That’s when we’re able to make the leap, when all human means are exhausted, when even God even seems to be absent, that we make the act of faith to believe in him even when we can’t see or hear him.

* After hours of struggling for their lives, Jesus comes walking along the white caps of the churning sea. Their first reaction was to think they were seeing a ghost — after all, no one had ever seen a man walk on water before, not to mention surf waves without a surfboard. There was also a superstition that there were monsters at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee and likely that played into their alarm as well. But Jesus said to them across the howling winds, “Take courage! I am (here)! Do not be afraid!!” They were words of confidence. They were words that could help assuage their fears and give them courage. We see the first fruit of that in Peter. “Lord, if it is you,” he said, “Bid me to come to you across the water.” He first refers to the walking “ghost” as “Lord,” but then he qualifies it by saying, “if it is you.” He was hovering between belief and unbelief. But at the word of Jesus, “Come!,” he did what he had precisely been trying to avoid or the previous 7-10 hours or more: he went overboard. The time fearing for his life made him that much more desirous of being with the Lord Jesus. He wanted to get to him as soon as he possibly could. The whole scene in some way summarizes the mystery of the Incarnation,...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Domus Ecclesiae Mass at the Kroeker House, Fresno, California

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

August 2, 2020

Is 55:1-3, Ps 145, Rom 8:35.37-39, Mt 14:13-21

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today in the epistle, we have some of the most consoling words in all of Sacred Scripture. St. Paul tells us that nothing in all of creation — “neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature” — can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God’s love for us is the one constant that explains creation, redemption, sanctification and our vocation to eternal communion. Even when we sin, God’s love still remains, although we need to open ourselves up to receive it and live by it. Today we have a chance to be able to ponder this truth and examine how we cooperate with God’s love.

* In the Gospel, we see the love of God on full display. When he disembarked and saw the throng awaiting him, it would have been easy for him to have gotten a little frustrated or irritated — after all, he had tried to escape to pray — but that wasn’t his reaction. He 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,” which is a compound of the word splanchna, which means “viscera” or “guts” or “womb.” A more literal translation would be he was “sick to his stomach” with compassion as he saw the crowds. An even more accurate translation is that his “bowels exploded” with pity. Jesus’ compassion was like a volcanic eruption in his innards. In the Gospels, this expression is used several times of Jesus and it describes five things that Jesus, in response to these intense stomach cramps of mercy, did.

* In today’s Gospel, we see that his heart was moved with pity for them “and he cured their sick.”

* We also saw that he fed the crowd of 5,000 men, probably 5,000 women and likely at least 15,000 children. Similarly in the feeding of the 4,000, Jesus says in the first person what St. Matthew described about him today in the third: “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat” and once again in response he fed

* Elsewhere, St. Mark describes a third thing Jesus did out of mercy. He says, “When he saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity or them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mk 6:34).

* Several times in the Gospel, Jesus’ heart was similarly moved with pity, like with the paralyzed man on the stretcher, or the women caught in adultery, on the woman in Simon the Pharisee’s house, and he forgave their sins.

* And when Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for the crowds because they were “mangled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd,” he told his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, so pray the Master of the Harvest to send out laborers for his harvest,” a prayer that would be answered immediately when Jesus would from among those praying disciples call 12.

* Jesus’ visceral compassion, in short, led him to teach, to heal, to feed, to forgive, and to pray for, call and send out laborers with the same compassion on the crowds. He wants to transform us by that mercy to see things with the eyes of his own bursting heart, to notice how many are wandering without direction in life and teach them the truth and instruct them how to live by following Jesus the Way. He wants us to see how many are suffering physically, psychologically and spiritually and seek to become nurses of the Divine Physician.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Domus Ecclesiae Mass at the Kroeker House, Fresno, California

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

August 2, 2020

Is 55:1-3, Ps 145, Rom 8:35.37-39, Mt 14:13-21

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today in the epistle, we have some of the most consoling words in all of Sacred Scripture. St. Paul tells us that nothing in all of creation — “neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature” — can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God’s love for us is the one constant that explains creation, redemption, sanctification and our vocation to eternal communion. Even when we sin, God’s love still remains, although we need to open ourselves up to receive it and live by it. Today we have a chance to be able to ponder this truth and examine how we cooperate with God’s love.

* In the Gospel, we see the love of God on full display. When he disembarked and saw the throng awaiting him, it would have been easy for him to have gotten a little frustrated or irritated — after all, he had tried to escape to pray — but that wasn’t his reaction. He 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,” which is a compound of the word splanchna, which means “viscera” or “guts” or “womb.” A more literal translation would be he was “sick to his stomach” with compassion as he saw the crowds. An even more accurate translation is that his “bowels exploded” with pity. Jesus’ compassion was like a volcanic eruption in his innards. In the Gospels, this expression is used several times of Jesus and it describes five things that Jesus, in response to these intense stomach cramps of mercy, did.

* In today’s Gospel, we see that his heart was moved with pity for them “and he cured their sick.”

* We also saw that he fed the crowd of 5,000 men, probably 5,000 women and likely at least 15,000 children. Similarly in the feeding of the 4,000, Jesus says in the first person what St. Matthew described about him today in the third: “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat” and once again in response he fed

* Elsewhere, St. Mark describes a third thing Jesus did out of mercy. He says, “When he saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity or them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mk 6:34).

* Several times in the Gospel, Jesus’ heart was similarly moved with pity, like with the paralyzed man on the stretcher, or the women caught in adultery, on the woman in Simon the Pharisee’s house, and he forgave their sins.

* And when Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for the crowds because they were “mangled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd,” he told his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, so pray the Master of the Harvest to send out laborers for his harvest,” a prayer that would be answered immediately when Jesus would from among those praying disciples call 12.

* Jesus’ visceral compassion, in short, led him to teach, to heal, to feed, to forgive, and to pray for, call and send out laborers with the same compassion on the crowds. He wants to transform us by that mercy to see things with the eyes of his own bursting heart, to notice how many are wandering without direction in life and teach them the truth and instruct them how to live by following Jesus the Way. He wants us to see how many are suffering physically, psychologically and spiritually and seek to become nurses of the Divine Physician.

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,