Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Feast of St. James the Apostle

July 25, 2020

2 Cor 4:7-15, Ps 126, Mt 20:20-28

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* I had been looking forward this month, if COVID-19 had not come, to walking the Camino de Santiago with my brother’s family as a means to defy my bodily odometer that surpassed 50 clicks in February. Every summer tens of thousands of people from around the world, from devout Catholics to agnostics trying to find themselves, make the 478-mile Camino to the tomb of St. James the Apostle whose feast we celebrate today. Although we are not able to go to Spain because of restrictions, nevertheless we’re asked to make what I would call the true way of St. James, following his footsteps as he sought to follow the Lord’s, knowing that this sainted apostle is praying for us that we may indeed take that route.

* The Way of St. James begins at the seashore of Galilee when the apostle left his boats, his fish, his parents to respond to Jesus’ call “follow me!” and he kept following Jesus not only in the occasions he shared with all of the apostles, but when Jesus called him, his brother John and Peter, apart from the rest to cure Peter’s mother in law, to raise the daughter of Jairus from the dead, to be transfigured among them, and to pray in the Garden that, if it be the Father’s will, the chalice of suffering God the Father was giving him might be taken away. For us to follow the way of St. James, we, too, must follow Jesus, leaving other things behind; to follow him to the sick; to follow him to the dead and mourning; to follow him in times to prayer; to follow him into the moments of great suffering.

* To do that, we need to have our desires, our ambitions, our longings transformed just like St. James did. Why did Jesus choose Peter, James and John from among the twelve to be the ones closest to him and his work? I think in all three cases it was capacity for leadership, ambition, zeal. Peter showed that he was a real leader among the others in prayer, being the one who heard God the Father intimate to him that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of the Living God and had the courage to say it. James and John were nicknamed by Jesus “Boanerges,” or “sons of thunder,” because they were the ones who, out of righteousness indignation wanted to have fire rain down from heaven to destroy Samaria for their inhospitality to Jesus just like Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed in times past. They were zealous. They were also plainly ambitious, as we see in today’s Gospel, something that perhaps came from the fact that the two of them, like Peter and Andrew, were fishermen, helping to run their own business. We see that ambition in today’s Gospel, after his mother asks whether James and John could have the choicest positions in Jesus’ messianic administration. Jesus, wanting to transform their ambition from worldly to supernatural, asks, “Can you drink the chalice I am to drink?,” the chalice Jesus would reveal in Gethsemane he would rather have taken from him, the chalice of suffering foretold in Isaiah’s suffering servant song. They both responded with ardor, “We can” — they gave him a blank check, not knowing exactly what it meant — and Jesus confirmed that they would, but they would be able to do so only through a humble acceptance of the power of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, since we know both refused to drink it with Jesus on Holy Thursday night. That chalice is a death to ourselves so that Christ can rise, it’s a joining him in giving our life as a ransom for all, becoming with him a servant and slave of the rest, starting from serving those “among us” rather than neglecting them to serve neighbors elsewhere.

* That path of self-sacrificial loving service of drinking ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Friday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Charbel Maklouf

July 27, 2018

Jer 3:14-17, Jer 31:10-13, Mt 13:18-23

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* The two main ways to apply the word of God to our Christian lives is what it says to us as disciples called to holiness of life and what it says to us as apostles summoned to share the faith with everyone so that they may be holy. Perhaps the most powerful words of Jesus in the Gospel about both of these areas is contained in today’s Parable of the Sower and the Seed. On Wednesday, we would have had Jesus’ mentioning of the Parable, but because of the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene we didn’t. Today we have his explanation of it.

* Let’s begin with the application to our discipleship. Jesus today is inspiring us to take a soil sample of our hearts, to help determine how we receive and respond to him, to all that he teaches us, and to all that he seeks to do in our life. He is the Sower who goes out to sow. He ultimately sows himself like a “grain of wheat” (Jn 12:24): he sows his word, his grace, his body and blood, all he is and has he tries to implant within us and within the world. But the way we respond to those gifts varies. To understand what he says, we first need to grasp a little about ancient farming techniques (and how much farming has advanced in 2,000 years!). Sowers would scatter seed on long thin plots before any soil had been turned over. The seed would land on four different types of earth. The first is the hardened land between plots that would serve as the paths on which people would walk and make hard; no seed could penetrate those ancient sidewalks. The second would be the very thin “rocky” soil that would have thick layers of limestone a few inches underneath the surface. Here the seeds would take and quickly germinate because the water would be retained within the few inches of soil during the rapid temperature rise in the morning. Because the roots couldn’t penetrate the stone, however, the sprouts would not be able to last for long, quickly dehydrating and withering as the sun grew in intensity. The third terrain Jesus describes as “thorny” soil, which is basically good earth that could have borne a lot of fruit if it weren’t covered with thornbushes and weeds that would grow up exhausting the nutriets of the soil so that the good seed really couldn’t grow. And the last type was good soil that Jesus describes would bear much fruit.

* Just as a sower would scatter seed over all four types of earth, so Jesus scatters his word, his grace, his saving deeds over all four kinds of people represented by the respective soil samples. We see all four soil types among his first listeners. We saw in many of the scribes and Pharisees the hardened soil that totally resisted Jesus’ words and the testimony of his miracles, closing their ears and their hearts to his message and actually accusing him of working his indisputable miracles not by God’s power but by the devil. No matter what Jesus said, no matter how he said it, no matter how he backed it up by deeds, they weren’t going to listen and be converted. The evil one, as Jesus mentions in the Parable, would come to snatch the seed away before it could ever get planted. We see the rocky or superficial soil in the people for whom Jesus worked the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. They listened to Jesus for hours, they even followed him after the miracle along the entire upper lip of the Sea of Galilee, but most of them abandoned Jesus as soon as he asked them to believe something they found hard, his teaching on the Eucharist, that to have life we need to gnaw on his flesh and drink his blood.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Friday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Charbel Maklouf

July 27, 2018

Jer 3:14-17, Jer 31:10-13, Mt 13:18-23

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* The two main ways to apply the word of God to our Christian lives is what it says to us as disciples called to holiness of life and what it says to us as apostles summoned to share the faith with everyone so that they may be holy. Perhaps the most powerful words of Jesus in the Gospel about both of these areas is contained in today’s Parable of the Sower and the Seed. On Wednesday, we would have had Jesus’ mentioning of the Parable, but because of the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene we didn’t. Today we have his explanation of it.

* Let’s begin with the application to our discipleship. Jesus today is inspiring us to take a soil sample of our hearts, to help determine how we receive and respond to him, to all that he teaches us, and to all that he seeks to do in our life. He is the Sower who goes out to sow. He ultimately sows himself like a “grain of wheat” (Jn 12:24): he sows his word, his grace, his body and blood, all he is and has he tries to implant within us and within the world. But the way we respond to those gifts varies. To understand what he says, we first need to grasp a little about ancient farming techniques (and how much farming has advanced in 2,000 years!). Sowers would scatter seed on long thin plots before any soil had been turned over. The seed would land on four different types of earth. The first is the hardened land between plots that would serve as the paths on which people would walk and make hard; no seed could penetrate those ancient sidewalks. The second would be the very thin “rocky” soil that would have thick layers of limestone a few inches underneath the surface. Here the seeds would take and quickly germinate because the water would be retained within the few inches of soil during the rapid temperature rise in the morning. Because the roots couldn’t penetrate the stone, however, the sprouts would not be able to last for long, quickly dehydrating and withering as the sun grew in intensity. The third terrain Jesus describes as “thorny” soil, which is basically good earth that could have borne a lot of fruit if it weren’t covered with thornbushes and weeds that would grow up exhausting the nutriets of the soil so that the good seed really couldn’t grow. And the last type was good soil that Jesus describes would bear much fruit.

* Just as a sower would scatter seed over all four types of earth, so Jesus scatters his word, his grace, his saving deeds over all four kinds of people represented by the respective soil samples. We see all four soil types among his first listeners. We saw in many of the scribes and Pharisees the hardened soil that totally resisted Jesus’ words and the testimony of his miracles, closing their ears and their hearts to his message and actually accusing him of working his indisputable miracles not by God’s power but by the devil. No matter what Jesus said, no matter how he said it, no matter how he backed it up by deeds, they weren’t going to listen and be converted. The evil one, as Jesus mentions in the Parable, would come to snatch the seed away before it could ever get planted. We see the rocky or superficial soil in the people for whom Jesus worked the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. They listened to Jesus for hours, they even followed him after the miracle along the entire upper lip of the Sea of Galilee, but most of them abandoned Jesus as soon as he asked them to believe something they found hard, his teaching on the Eucharist, that to have life we need to gnaw on his flesh and drink his blood.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden

July 23, 2020

Jer 2:1-3.7-8.12-13, Ps 36, Mt 13:10-17

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* “Why do you speak to the crowds in parables?,” the disciples ask Jesus in today’s Gospel. It’s a very important question for us to know the answer to, especially as we enter more deeply into Chapter 13 of St. Matthew, which contains eight of Jesus parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, parables we’ll be hearing through next Thursday. Jesus gives us the ultimate answer at the end of his explanation, which tells us not only why he teaches in parables but what is the point of all his teaching. Quoting the prophet Isaiah he says that the reason is so that we “may understand with [our] hearts and be converted and I heal [you].”  Jesus teaches in order to help us convert and be healed, to turn away from whatever is poisoning our relationship with God, to turn toward him the Divine Physician and then literally to “turn with” him (con-vertere).

* He needs to use parables with the crowds in order to circumvent the problem of the three types of infertile soil Jesus spoke about in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. If he were preaching only to those with good soil, he could speak very directly. When he would say, “I need you to stop doing that,” those with good soil would stop. When he would say, “I need you to go here,” those with good soil would go. But relatively few listen to the Lord with the willingness to let it change their life in 30, 60, 100 ways or more. So Jesus, in order to try to bring them to conversion, healing and holiness, uses the images of the parables.

* We see the power of a parable in achieving what direct speech would not be able to accomplish in the interaction between the Prophet Nathan and King David. If Nathan had simply upbraided David for committing adultery with Bathseba and then having Uriah murdered, David likely would have been defensive, since he had already had his conscience eclipsed with regard to what he had done and was self-justifying. Bathsheba was now living with him and he showed no real recognition that anything he had done was wrong. So Nathan went into his presence and called him to conversion parabolically. He asked him, “Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor.”  David was outraged at what had happened and said, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this merits death!” Then Nathan said to him: “You are the man!” That’s when David realized what he had done. After he had recognized the terrible injustice parabolically he was able to grasp what he had done. That’s the first reason why Jesus speaks in parables, because it is through parables that he is able to communicate the truths of the Gospel to those with hardened, rocky, or thorny soil who wouldn’t receive the lessons in an ordinary didactic way, because they listen but do not hear with faith and look but do not see with faith because they don’t want to hear the message of conversion and see the path to a converted life.

* But there’s a second reason he speaks in parables. It’s because the rehabilitation of infertile soil ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden

July 23, 2020

Jer 2:1-3.7-8.12-13, Ps 36, Mt 13:10-17

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* “Why do you speak to the crowds in parables?,” the disciples ask Jesus in today’s Gospel. It’s a very important question for us to know the answer to, especially as we enter more deeply into Chapter 13 of St. Matthew, which contains eight of Jesus parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, parables we’ll be hearing through next Thursday. Jesus gives us the ultimate answer at the end of his explanation, which tells us not only why he teaches in parables but what is the point of all his teaching. Quoting the prophet Isaiah he says that the reason is so that we “may understand with [our] hearts and be converted and I heal [you].”  Jesus teaches in order to help us convert and be healed, to turn away from whatever is poisoning our relationship with God, to turn toward him the Divine Physician and then literally to “turn with” him (con-vertere).

* He needs to use parables with the crowds in order to circumvent the problem of the three types of infertile soil Jesus spoke about in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. If he were preaching only to those with good soil, he could speak very directly. When he would say, “I need you to stop doing that,” those with good soil would stop. When he would say, “I need you to go here,” those with good soil would go. But relatively few listen to the Lord with the willingness to let it change their life in 30, 60, 100 ways or more. So Jesus, in order to try to bring them to conversion, healing and holiness, uses the images of the parables.

* We see the power of a parable in achieving what direct speech would not be able to accomplish in the interaction between the Prophet Nathan and King David. If Nathan had simply upbraided David for committing adultery with Bathseba and then having Uriah murdered, David likely would have been defensive, since he had already had his conscience eclipsed with regard to what he had done and was self-justifying. Bathsheba was now living with him and he showed no real recognition that anything he had done was wrong. So Nathan went into his presence and called him to conversion parabolically. He asked him, “Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him. Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor.”  David was outraged at what had happened and said, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this merits death!” Then Nathan said to him: “You are the man!” That’s when David realized what he had done. After he had recognized the terrible injustice parabolically he was able to grasp what he had done. That’s the first reason why Jesus speaks in parables, because it is through parables that he is able to communicate the truths of the Gospel to those with hardened, rocky, or thorny soil who wouldn’t receive the lessons in an ordinary didactic way, because they listen but do not hear with faith and look but do not see with faith because they don’t want to hear the message of conversion and see the path to a converted life.

* But there’s a second reason he speaks in parables. It’s because the rehabilitation of infertile soil ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

July 22, 2020

Songs 3:1-4, Ps 63, Jn 20:1-2.11-18

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today we celebrate one of the greatest saints who has ever lived, the woman who, after the Blessed Virgin, is mentioned most in the Gospels: St. Mary Magdalene. And we celebrate her in a special way, as a liturgical feast, decreed so by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments four years ago, at the express will of Pope Francis. In the Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, it gave three reasons for this liturgical upgrade: St. Mary Magdalene is a witness of the transforming power of Divine Mercy, a model of the indispensable service and dignity of women in the Church, and an epitome of evangelization. These three focuses are very helpful because St. Mary Magdalene’s reputation has suffered from a lot of confusion over the course of time. It suffered first from the crazy writings of the gnostic pseudo-gospels in the centuries after Christ, silliness historically debunked but recently resuscitated by Dan Brown and neo-gnostics, all positing Mary Magdalene as Jesus’ girlfriend or wife. The second is from being confused and conflated by St. Gregory the Great and some others with two other women in the Gospels: the anonymous sinful woman who washes Jesus’ feet in Simon the Pharisees’ house as a sign of repentance and plea for mercy; and Mary of Bethany who sits at his feet and later anoints them with precious nard in the home she shared with her siblings Martha and Lazarus. St. Mary Magdalene’s life, however, is so rich on its own without fantasy or conflation. Today we can ponder the three points from the Decree that we know for certain and what that means for our living our Christian life well.

* First, she experienced Christ’s compassion and mercy. St. Luke and St. Mark tell us that she had had seven demons cast out from her. She had in some way been under the hold of the devil. Some saints throughout the centuries said that these seven demons may have been the seven deadly sins. Regardless of what their manifestation was, she had experienced the healing power of the Lord. In order to relate appropriately to the Lord, we, too, need to relate to him in his saving mercy. Prior to the papacy, Pope Francis in the Book length interview El Jesuita said that it’s only great sinners forgiven by the Lord who have the experience of who they really are and how much they’re love. Mary Magdalene had that grace. She knew she had been saved and healed. And that’s an experience all of us should begin with if we’re going to imitate the saint we fête today.

* Second, St. Mary Magdalene shows us the dignity of women in God’s plan of salvation, caring for the Lord and the Church, sharing in his mission, hearing his teaching, seeing his deeds. St. Luke tells us that, after having received Christ’s mercy, she was one of several women “who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities” who faithfully accompanied Jesus and the apostles during his journeys and “provided for them out of their resources” (Lk 8:2-3). This was not a group of bored do-gooders who figured that these wandering 13 men would be lost without their spiritual and practical maternity. No, each of them had received from Jesus a physical healing, a spiritual healing, or both, and in gratitude wanted to give Jesus and his mission all the love, time and material support they could. And St. Mary Magdalene particularly excelled in this care, even when others failed. The evangelists all tell us that when almost all of Jesus’ disciples abandoned him, St. Mary Magdalene was faithful with him to the end,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

July 22, 2020

Songs 3:1-4, Ps 63, Jn 20:1-2.11-18

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today we celebrate one of the greatest saints who has ever lived, the woman who, after the Blessed Virgin, is mentioned most in the Gospels: St. Mary Magdalene. And we celebrate her in a special way, as a liturgical feast, decreed so by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments four years ago, at the express will of Pope Francis. In the Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, it gave three reasons for this liturgical upgrade: St. Mary Magdalene is a witness of the transforming power of Divine Mercy, a model of the indispensable service and dignity of women in the Church, and an epitome of evangelization. These three focuses are very helpful because St. Mary Magdalene’s reputation has suffered from a lot of confusion over the course of time. It suffered first from the crazy writings of the gnostic pseudo-gospels in the centuries after Christ, silliness historically debunked but recently resuscitated by Dan Brown and neo-gnostics, all positing Mary Magdalene as Jesus’ girlfriend or wife. The second is from being confused and conflated by St. Gregory the Great and some others with two other women in the Gospels: the anonymous sinful woman who washes Jesus’ feet in Simon the Pharisees’ house as a sign of repentance and plea for mercy; and Mary of Bethany who sits at his feet and later anoints them with precious nard in the home she shared with her siblings Martha and Lazarus. St. Mary Magdalene’s life, however, is so rich on its own without fantasy or conflation. Today we can ponder the three points from the Decree that we know for certain and what that means for our living our Christian life well.

* First, she experienced Christ’s compassion and mercy. St. Luke and St. Mark tell us that she had had seven demons cast out from her. She had in some way been under the hold of the devil. Some saints throughout the centuries said that these seven demons may have been the seven deadly sins. Regardless of what their manifestation was, she had experienced the healing power of the Lord. In order to relate appropriately to the Lord, we, too, need to relate to him in his saving mercy. Prior to the papacy, Pope Francis in the Book length interview El Jesuita said that it’s only great sinners forgiven by the Lord who have the experience of who they really are and how much they’re love. Mary Magdalene had that grace. She knew she had been saved and healed. And that’s an experience all of us should begin with if we’re going to imitate the saint we fête today.

* Second, St. Mary Magdalene shows us the dignity of women in God’s plan of salvation, caring for the Lord and the Church, sharing in his mission, hearing his teaching, seeing his deeds. St. Luke tells us that, after having received Christ’s mercy, she was one of several women “who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities” who faithfully accompanied Jesus and the apostles during his journeys and “provided for them out of their resources” (Lk 8:2-3). This was not a group of bored do-gooders who figured that these wandering 13 men would be lost without their spiritual and practical maternity. No, each of them had received from Jesus a physical healing, a spiritual healing, or both, and in gratitude wanted to give Jesus and his mission all the love, time and material support they could. And St. Mary Magdalene particularly excelled in this care, even when others failed. The evangelists all tell us that when almost all of Jesus’ disciples abandoned him, St. Mary Magdalene was faithful with him to the end,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Doctor

July 21, 2020

Mic 7:14-15.18-20, Ps 85, Mt 12:46-50

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in today’s homily: 

* In the Liturgy of the Word today, we finish both the Twelfth Chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel as well as our biennial three-day focus on the Book of the Prophet Micah. By each of them God is seeking to provoke in us a conversion based on getting right what the Scribes and the Pharisees in the Gospel, and the people of Judah in Micah’s time, got wrong. The whole twelfth chapter of Matthew has focused on Jesus’ confrontation with the Scribes and Pharisees over whether his disciples were doing what is unlawful on the sabbath by picking, winnowing, threshing and eating heads of grain, whether Jesus himself was violating it by curing a man with a withered hand in the Synagogue on a sabbath, or whether he was exorcizing a blind, mute possessed man by the power of God or the power of Beelzebul the prince of demons. Jesus’ whole approach was summarized in last Friday’s Gospel, which is, “If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice….'” The Scribes and Pharisees, for all their religious practice, had forgotten that religion is supposed to make us like the one we worship, that it’s supposed to help us grow in the image and likeness of God. It’s supposed to make us merciful like God the Father is merciful. It’s supposed to make us like Jesus the Suffering Servant, whom God the Father has chosen, loves and in whom he delights, who with the power of the Holy Spirit will proclaim justice not by contention or crying out, not by breaking bruised reeds or quenching smoldering wicks, but through meekness and humility. It’s supposed to make us good trees that bear good fruit “out of a store of goodness.” Yesterday as you recall Jesus, when asked by the Scribes and Pharisees for a sign, told them that no sign would be given except the sign of Jonah, which is a sign of conversion leading us to die and rise with him, entering into the mercy of what he did when he spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and seeking to follow him who is greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon, and greater than the Temple.

* That brings us to today’s Gospel, which is the exclamation point on the whole chapter. When people tell him that Jesus’ mother and his relatives (the Hebrew and Aramaic words for brother was used for all relatives) were outside hoping to speak to him, he used it to stress who his family members really are. His words were revolutionary for the Jews, who prided themselves, and based so much of their theological understanding on their biological connection to Abraham. Jesus was saying that they needed rather to imitate Abraham’s obedient faith to live as members of God’s family. Stretching out his hands toward his disciples, Jesus said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister and mother.” This was not denigrating his mother in the least, because she was one whose whole life was summarized by her words to Gabriel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” She was the one whom Jesus implicitly praised when a woman from the crowd blessed the womb that bore him and the breasts that nursed him, and he replied, “Blessed, rather, are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” And at the end of this chapter in which Jesus and the disciples were suffering on account of mercy shown on the Sabbath,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Doctor

July 21, 2020

Mic 7:14-15.18-20, Ps 85, Mt 12:46-50

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in today’s homily: 

* In the Liturgy of the Word today, we finish both the Twelfth Chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel as well as our biennial three-day focus on the Book of the Prophet Micah. By each of them God is seeking to provoke in us a conversion based on getting right what the Scribes and the Pharisees in the Gospel, and the people of Judah in Micah’s time, got wrong. The whole twelfth chapter of Matthew has focused on Jesus’ confrontation with the Scribes and Pharisees over whether his disciples were doing what is unlawful on the sabbath by picking, winnowing, threshing and eating heads of grain, whether Jesus himself was violating it by curing a man with a withered hand in the Synagogue on a sabbath, or whether he was exorcizing a blind, mute possessed man by the power of God or the power of Beelzebul the prince of demons. Jesus’ whole approach was summarized in last Friday’s Gospel, which is, “If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice….'” The Scribes and Pharisees, for all their religious practice, had forgotten that religion is supposed to make us like the one we worship, that it’s supposed to help us grow in the image and likeness of God. It’s supposed to make us merciful like God the Father is merciful. It’s supposed to make us like Jesus the Suffering Servant, whom God the Father has chosen, loves and in whom he delights, who with the power of the Holy Spirit will proclaim justice not by contention or crying out, not by breaking bruised reeds or quenching smoldering wicks, but through meekness and humility. It’s supposed to make us good trees that bear good fruit “out of a store of goodness.” Yesterday as you recall Jesus, when asked by the Scribes and Pharisees for a sign, told them that no sign would be given except the sign of Jonah, which is a sign of conversion leading us to die and rise with him, entering into the mercy of what he did when he spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and seeking to follow him who is greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon, and greater than the Temple.

* That brings us to today’s Gospel, which is the exclamation point on the whole chapter. When people tell him that Jesus’ mother and his relatives (the Hebrew and Aramaic words for brother was used for all relatives) were outside hoping to speak to him, he used it to stress who his family members really are. His words were revolutionary for the Jews, who prided themselves, and based so much of their theological understanding on their biological connection to Abraham. Jesus was saying that they needed rather to imitate Abraham’s obedient faith to live as members of God’s family. Stretching out his hands toward his disciples, Jesus said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister and mother.” This was not denigrating his mother in the least, because she was one whose whole life was summarized by her words to Gabriel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” She was the one whom Jesus implicitly praised when a woman from the crowd blessed the womb that bore him and the breasts that nursed him, and he replied, “Blessed, rather, are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” And at the end of this chapter in which Jesus and the disciples were suffering on account of mercy shown on the Sabbath,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

July 20, 2020

Mic 6:1-4.6-8, Ps 50, Mt 12:38-42

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* In the Gospel, the Scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a “sign.” A sign was a miracle that pointed to something else, namely Jesus’ authority to preach and do what he was saying and doing. We know that Jesus had been doing nothing but miracles: he had immediately before cured a man with a withered hand and cured another who was blind, mute and possessed. But the Scribes and Pharisees didn’t want to accept what those miracles signified and the authority of Jesus’ words and deeds to which they testified. So they kept asking for other ones. Perhaps they were waiting until a supposed miracle attempt failed so that they would be able to feel justified in their rejection of Jesus. Jesus cut to the core of why they were asking for such a miracle, saying, an “evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign.” A good and faithful generation would have already taken seriously all of the miracles and words that Jesus had done and grasped that he himself was the sign for which the Jews should have been looking.

* But Jesus nevertheless says that the one sign that would be given to the evil and perverse generation that constantly seeks another sign is the Sign of Jonah. On the one hand this certainly points to his death, burial in the belly of the earth, and resurrection on the third day, the greatest of all his miracles. That sign would be given to all, but, as we know, some would refuse to believe it. The fundamental sign of Jonah, however, is a sign of conversion. Jonah was himself a convert — he had run away from the mission the Lord had given him, much as many of the Scribes and Pharisees were running away from the mission the Lord had given all the Jews in preparing for and receiving the long-awaited Messiah — and called the pagan Ninevites to conversion. And we remember how the Ninevites responded: they all repented, from the king down to the pets, and fasted in sackcloth and ashes. Jesus told them that he was greater than Jonah and a greater sign of conversion. If the pagans of Nineveh had changed their ways at the preaching of Jonah on the first day, then the supposedly “good and faithful” religious Jews of his day should have much more readily changed when they heard Jesus preaching “Repent and believe in the Gospel” and working all the signs to back up his message. Jesus added that the Queen of Sheba had traveled a great distance with many caravans in her retinue in order to hear Solomon’s wisdom — she had in fact traveled 1660 miles or, at a pace of 15 miles a day, over 110 days or nearly four months each way — but that his wisdom was greater than Solomon’s and they weren’t willing to travel any intellectual or moral distance.

* The chief problem with the Scribes and Pharisees is not that they didn’t want to convert “in general.” It’s not that they didn’t really consider themselves sinners in need of mercy. They marked Yom Kippur each year and piously recognized their need for atonement just like everyone else, but they wanted to convert on their own terms and in their own way. They didn’t want to convert in the way God wanted and to begin to do what he was asking. We see that problem laid out starkly in the reading from the Prophet Micah and in the Responsorial Psalm. God through Micah puts words on their lips about the type of repentance they were willing to do and were already doing: “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow before God most high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriad streams of oil?