Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

Memorial of St. Benedict

July 11, 2020

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: 

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today on this Feast of St. Benedict, the great founder of western monasticism and one of the greatest saints who ever lived, it’s key for us to grasp what he did founding the Benedictine Order, as he said in his famous Rule, as a “school of the Lord’s service.” Jesus told us in the Gospel, “No disciple is above his teacher. … It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,” and St. Benedict sought to become like his Master and to train others to enter that same school of the Lord’s service. St. Benedict and his Benedictine sons and daughters seek to serve the Lord in their prayer, especially their common liturgical prayer that he called the “opus Dei,” the work of God. They seek to serve the Lord in their work. Prior to St. Benedict’s revolution, manual work, like working the fields, being in shops, even copying manuscripts, were considered things done by slaves. The Benedictines sought to do it as slaves of the Lord, not in a slavish way, but learning from the Master in the school of service how to do it well. They also sought to serve the Lord in their study, zealously learning from the Master in such a way that they could not only live it but pass on as of the first important what they themselves received. Ora et labora et studium: They served the Lord and learned from him in this three course classroom of prayer, work, and study. Those are the three principle courses in the life of every Christian and in all of those activities God comes first. Two of the most celebrated phrases in the famous Rule of St. Benedict that formed countless monks and nuns and lay oblates in the “school of divine service” were about the preference that needs to be given to God. Ergo nihil operi Dei praeponant, St. Benedict says in Chapter 43: “Prefer nothing to the Work of God,” by which he means their common prayer; and Christo omnimo nihil præponant, which he says at the very end (Chapter 72): “Prefer nothing whatsoever to Christ.” These were part of the opening prayer of the Mass, when we besought, “O God, who made the Abbot Saint Benedict an outstanding master in the school of divine service, grant, we pray, that, putting nothing before love of you, we may hasten with a loving heart in the way of your commands.”  The whole point of the Christian life is to put God first, above family members, friends, even our own life, which is something St. Benedict did and trained his monks to do. Once we do, we hasten to obey him with a loving heart:  in prayer we put God first, in our work we seek to offer him the sacrifice of Abel, and in our study we come on fire for him and for the truth that he has revealed in so many settings.

* Today in the Gospel, Jesus continues his instructions to the Twelve about the mission he was giving them to complete his own. It is the Master’s own school of divine service. It’s all meant to help them to go out in the person of Christ, with his words, with his authority, and even with his sufferings, and to put nothing before him. Jesus lets the apostles know that if they’ve insulted him and tried to ascribe his work to the devil, they will do the same to the Apostles and us. But he reiterates to us not to be afraid, but to speak in the light what Jesus says in the darkness, to proclaim on the housetops what he whispers. He reminds us that we have nothing to fear from those who will seek to kill our bodies but can’t harm our souls. This is what gave the apostles and the martyrs the courage to proclaim the Gospel despite all the vicissitudes they encountered,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Friday of the 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Year II

July 10, 2020

Hos 14:2-10, Ps 51, Mt 10:16-23

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* The Prophet Hosea says, “Straight are the paths of the Lord,” but the Book of Hosea, as well as today’s Gospel both at first glance seem to contradict it. Those words of Hosea are at the end of the entire book. Hosea summarizes everything he says about the forceful call to conversion throughout the book as the Assyrians were approaching to attack the Kingdom of Israel and had finally arrived to do their destruction and deport so many Israelites, “Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them.” The Lord’s paths are straight, he says, and the just walk in them. Sinners stumble, in them, he adds, but as God said through him in yesterday’s passage, God lifts them after they’ve fallen up to his cheek, or, as we saw earlier this week, God welcomes us back as his beloved bride. But how can we understand the Lord’s straight paths when he allows his people to be defeated and deported? The Lord’s path does not meant the path to earthly prosperity, or earthly tranquility, or earthly pleasure. The Lord’s path is ultimately the path to him. And even in hardship, even in difficulty, even in losing everything else in life, we can still walk that path. That’s why God through Hosea tells those in the Kingdom of Israel before the deportation, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.” They are leaving Israel but it’s still a chance to return to the Lord! He adds, “Take with you words and return to the Lord,” meaning that God’s word is part of the journey home. And God specifies those words that they’re supposed to say to him: “Forgive all iniquity and receive what is good. … Assyria will not save us. … We shall say no more ‘Our god’ to the work of our hands, for in you the orphan finds compassion.” He was teaching them the straight path of a prayer for mercy, which involves renouncing the sins of placing their trust in Assyria, creating idols and making sacrifices to them. He was also teaching them the path of trust. Even though they were being orphaned their land, God extends to orphans his compassion. And God specifies the compassion he will give: He will heal their defection, forgive their betrayal. He will love them free of any anger. He will be like dew for them, allowing a fruitful spring day, that will permit their flower — their lily, a sign of purity and a future sign of resurrection — to blossom. He will plant them like a fragrant Lebanon cedar and a splendid olive tree and they will produce fruit — symbolized by great wine. God says about himself, “I am like a verdant cypress tree,” meaning he is ever green, ever casting his shade, preventing them as olives and vines from being scorched by incessant sun. This is what the Lord will do as soon as the Israelites return to him and walk the straight path to meeting him.

* In the Gospel, Jesus similarly illustrates how the straight path is not immune from bandits, traitors, persecutors and even executioners. He says he is sending out the apostles as sheep among wolves, and describes how they will be betrayed to courts, scourged in places of worship, led before governors and kings, handed over by family members to death, hated by all, and persecuted. The ways of the Lord seem complicated and perilous, anything but straight. But that brings up again what we understand by straight. If it means a road without sufferings, without hills and valleys, without having people try to get in our way, then it would seem that the Lord’s ways indeed are meandering. But if we understand by straight everything intended to lead us to the destination he intends — encounter with him — then we can begin to ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Friday of the 14th Week of Ordinary Time, Year II

July 10, 2020

Hos 14:2-10, Ps 51, Mt 10:16-23

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* The Prophet Hosea says, “Straight are the paths of the Lord,” but the Book of Hosea, as well as today’s Gospel both at first glance seem to contradict it. Those words of Hosea are at the end of the entire book. Hosea summarizes everything he says about the forceful call to conversion throughout the book as the Assyrians were approaching to attack the Kingdom of Israel and had finally arrived to do their destruction and deport so many Israelites, “Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them.” The Lord’s paths are straight, he says, and the just walk in them. Sinners stumble, in them, he adds, but as God said through him in yesterday’s passage, God lifts them after they’ve fallen up to his cheek, or, as we saw earlier this week, God welcomes us back as his beloved bride. But how can we understand the Lord’s straight paths when he allows his people to be defeated and deported? The Lord’s path does not meant the path to earthly prosperity, or earthly tranquility, or earthly pleasure. The Lord’s path is ultimately the path to him. And even in hardship, even in difficulty, even in losing everything else in life, we can still walk that path. That’s why God through Hosea tells those in the Kingdom of Israel before the deportation, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.” They are leaving Israel but it’s still a chance to return to the Lord! He adds, “Take with you words and return to the Lord,” meaning that God’s word is part of the journey home. And God specifies those words that they’re supposed to say to him: “Forgive all iniquity and receive what is good. … Assyria will not save us. … We shall say no more ‘Our god’ to the work of our hands, for in you the orphan finds compassion.” He was teaching them the straight path of a prayer for mercy, which involves renouncing the sins of placing their trust in Assyria, creating idols and making sacrifices to them. He was also teaching them the path of trust. Even though they were being orphaned their land, God extends to orphans his compassion. And God specifies the compassion he will give: He will heal their defection, forgive their betrayal. He will love them free of any anger. He will be like dew for them, allowing a fruitful spring day, that will permit their flower — their lily, a sign of purity and a future sign of resurrection — to blossom. He will plant them like a fragrant Lebanon cedar and a splendid olive tree and they will produce fruit — symbolized by great wine. God says about himself, “I am like a verdant cypress tree,” meaning he is ever green, ever casting his shade, preventing them as olives and vines from being scorched by incessant sun. This is what the Lord will do as soon as the Israelites return to him and walk the straight path to meeting him.

* In the Gospel, Jesus similarly illustrates how the straight path is not immune from bandits, traitors, persecutors and even executioners. He says he is sending out the apostles as sheep among wolves, and describes how they will be betrayed to courts, scourged in places of worship, led before governors and kings, handed over by family members to death, hated by all, and persecuted. The ways of the Lord seem complicated and perilous, anything but straight. But that brings up again what we understand by straight. If it means a road without sufferings, without hills and valleys, without having people try to get in our way, then it would seem that the Lord’s ways indeed are meandering. But if we understand by straight everything intended to lead us to the destination he intends — encounter with him — then we can begin to ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of SS. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions

July 9, 2020

Hos 11:1-4.8-9, Ps 80, Mt 10:7-15

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today through the Prophet Hosea we continue to focus on the reality of the merciful dimension of God’s spousal — and today he reveals, paternal — love. Through his prophet God describes the infidelity of the people of Israel, how after he had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, rather than keeping his covenant, drawing closer to him, and seeking to become holy as he is holy, they broke his covenant, wandered far from him, and became idolatrous. “The more I called them,” God says through Hosea, “the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Ba’als and burning incense to idols. … I drew them with … bands of love, I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks, yet, though I stooped down to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.” Yet, even though God’s people had repeatedly rejected that love to commit spiritual adultery and even though it would have been fitting for God to have reacted with righteous indignation, he responded rather with mercy. “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred,” he tells us today through Hosea. “I will not give vent to my blazing anger. I will not destroy,… for I am God and not man, the Holy One present among you, [and] I will not let the flames consume you.” To symbolize God’s relationship to his people, he had Hosea marry Gomer, a prostitute, to show that God’s will was mercifully to take us back after we had engaged in infidelity with other deities, saying, as the Church heard at daily Mass on Monday, “I will espouse you to me forever … in right and in justice, in love and in mercy. I will espouse you in fidelity and you shall know the Lord” (Hos 2:17-18; 21-22).

* This was the plan of God that was fulfilled when Christ, the incarnation of divine love eventually came and identified himself as Bridegroom. As St. Paul described for us in his Letter to the Ephesians, “Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to made her holy, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word so that he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, … that she might be holy and immaculate” (Eph 5:25-27). Despite our sins, Christ not only forgave us, he not only redeemed us by taking us back, but through his merciful love, he changed us, taking our sins away, so that we in the Church might be his holy and immaculate Bride. He continues to do this work of redeeming love through the Sacraments of Baptism and Reconciliation, through the holy bath of his Word and through the one-flesh consummation of our spousal union with him in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. That’s the power of his mercy and the goal of his mercy. That’s what we are called to receive. That’s also what we’re called to live, rejoice in and proclaim.

* That brings us to today’s Gospel. The profound experience of God’s mercy is not something we can or ought to keep to ourselves. It’s a gift we’ve received that we’re called to announce to others. Today in the Gospel, Jesus sends the apostles on their first missionary journey. These would be the ones to whom on Easter Sunday evening he would entrust the power of the Holy Spirit so that just as God the Father had sent him as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, he could send them with God’s authority to forgive and retain sins in his name (see Jn 20:19-23). He was preparing them — and through them, us — to take his mercy to the ends of the earth. In this first expedition of evangelization, Jesus didn’t give them a lengthy message, just five words in St. Matthew’s Greek,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of SS. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions

July 9, 2020

Hos 11:1-4.8-9, Ps 80, Mt 10:7-15

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today through the Prophet Hosea we continue to focus on the reality of the merciful dimension of God’s spousal — and today he reveals, paternal — love. Through his prophet God describes the infidelity of the people of Israel, how after he had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, rather than keeping his covenant, drawing closer to him, and seeking to become holy as he is holy, they broke his covenant, wandered far from him, and became idolatrous. “The more I called them,” God says through Hosea, “the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Ba’als and burning incense to idols. … I drew them with … bands of love, I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks, yet, though I stooped down to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.” Yet, even though God’s people had repeatedly rejected that love to commit spiritual adultery and even though it would have been fitting for God to have reacted with righteous indignation, he responded rather with mercy. “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred,” he tells us today through Hosea. “I will not give vent to my blazing anger. I will not destroy,… for I am God and not man, the Holy One present among you, [and] I will not let the flames consume you.” To symbolize God’s relationship to his people, he had Hosea marry Gomer, a prostitute, to show that God’s will was mercifully to take us back after we had engaged in infidelity with other deities, saying, as the Church heard at daily Mass on Monday, “I will espouse you to me forever … in right and in justice, in love and in mercy. I will espouse you in fidelity and you shall know the Lord” (Hos 2:17-18; 21-22).

* This was the plan of God that was fulfilled when Christ, the incarnation of divine love eventually came and identified himself as Bridegroom. As St. Paul described for us in his Letter to the Ephesians, “Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to made her holy, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word so that he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, … that she might be holy and immaculate” (Eph 5:25-27). Despite our sins, Christ not only forgave us, he not only redeemed us by taking us back, but through his merciful love, he changed us, taking our sins away, so that we in the Church might be his holy and immaculate Bride. He continues to do this work of redeeming love through the Sacraments of Baptism and Reconciliation, through the holy bath of his Word and through the one-flesh consummation of our spousal union with him in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. That’s the power of his mercy and the goal of his mercy. That’s what we are called to receive. That’s also what we’re called to live, rejoice in and proclaim.

* That brings us to today’s Gospel. The profound experience of God’s mercy is not something we can or ought to keep to ourselves. It’s a gift we’ve received that we’re called to announce to others. Today in the Gospel, Jesus sends the apostles on their first missionary journey. These would be the ones to whom on Easter Sunday evening he would entrust the power of the Holy Spirit so that just as God the Father had sent him as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, he could send them with God’s authority to forgive and retain sins in his name (see Jn 20:19-23). He was preparing them — and through them, us — to take his mercy to the ends of the earth. In this first expedition of evangelization, Jesus didn’t give them a lengthy message, just five words in St. Matthew’s Greek,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Wednesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass for the Evangelization of Peoples

July 8, 2020

Hos 10:1-3.7-8.12, Ps 105, Mt 10:1-7

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today God through the Prophet Hosea reminds Israel that it is a “luxuriant vine,” meant to bear fruit — not just the earthly fruit that God made possible from this “land flowing with milk and honey” but abundant spiritual fruit in response to God’s spousal love. But God says through Hosea that the more physical fruit they bore, the richer they became, the more pagan altars and fertility poles they built to Ba’al. Rather than sowing justice and reaping the fruit of piety, they were sowing thorns and thistles. God’s fidelity and blessing were being responded to with infidelity and evil. But rather than being consumed with righteous indignation, God is consumed with mercy: “It is the time to seek the Lord,” he says, “until he come and rain down justice upon you.” God rained that justice down in his Son, Jesus, the Just One (Is 45:8) who came to help the world, beginning with Israel, to sow justice, reap piety, and bear fruit worthy of the luxuriance with which God had endowed them. Hosea urged them to “seek the Lord,” and in the Psalm we see how that yearning was increasing, as the people prayed for the grace always to seek the Lord from their hearts.

* Today in the Gospel we see the fulfillment of that longing as that Just One whom God rained down was instituting his kingdom, calling, authorizing and sending out laborers for the harvest of his luxuriant vineyard. Yesterday, we remember, Jesus had the apostles pray to the Harvest Master, his Father, to send laborers for his harvest. Today, after they prayed and after Jesus prayed all night, God the Father responded by calling the very ones Jesus asked to pray, and he sent them out to collect the harvest that is ever white and ripe. It points to the central truth that the Lord wants all of us to pray and the Lord wants all of us to recognize that the Father is calling us, in different ways, to be those very laborers strengthened by that prayer, the divine calling, and the divine commissioning. We see various elements of that harvesting that Jesus sends us out to accomplish.

* The first is to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, or literally “has approached.” The Kingdom is present because the King has arrived. The Kingdom of God is, in short, God. It’s where he reigns. To proclaim the Kingdom at hand is to say, “God is here” and “We need to let him reign in our lives.” Jesus sent out the 12 and he sends out us to proclaim, not merely with our words but with the way we live, that we’re not alone, that God is alive, that is he is with us, and that letting him reign in our lives has made all the difference in saving us and joyfully transforming us. The kingdom of God is one of fruitful spousal love.

* As part of the proclamation that God is among us, Jesus sends the 12 out with his authority to expel demons and heal every disease and illness. It must have blown them away to hear and receive this commission of the Lord’s authority. He was sending them out, in other words, with far more than a message to announce; he was sending them with deeds to accomplish. These deeds were signs that the kingdom had come, that the Messiah had arrived, and that the time for change was now. The Church in every age needs to be signs of that exorcism, no longer letting the prince of this world, the father of lies, have any dominion over us and bringing people to Jesus to experience that same liberation. Likewise we need to be the nurses of the Divine Physician and,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Wednesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass for the Evangelization of Peoples

July 8, 2020

Hos 10:1-3.7-8.12, Ps 105, Mt 10:1-7

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today God through the Prophet Hosea reminds Israel that it is a “luxuriant vine,” meant to bear fruit — not just the earthly fruit that God made possible from this “land flowing with milk and honey” but abundant spiritual fruit in response to God’s spousal love. But God says through Hosea that the more physical fruit they bore, the richer they became, the more pagan altars and fertility poles they built to Ba’al. Rather than sowing justice and reaping the fruit of piety, they were sowing thorns and thistles. God’s fidelity and blessing were being responded to with infidelity and evil. But rather than being consumed with righteous indignation, God is consumed with mercy: “It is the time to seek the Lord,” he says, “until he come and rain down justice upon you.” God rained that justice down in his Son, Jesus, the Just One (Is 45:8) who came to help the world, beginning with Israel, to sow justice, reap piety, and bear fruit worthy of the luxuriance with which God had endowed them. Hosea urged them to “seek the Lord,” and in the Psalm we see how that yearning was increasing, as the people prayed for the grace always to seek the Lord from their hearts.

* Today in the Gospel we see the fulfillment of that longing as that Just One whom God rained down was instituting his kingdom, calling, authorizing and sending out laborers for the harvest of his luxuriant vineyard. Yesterday, we remember, Jesus had the apostles pray to the Harvest Master, his Father, to send laborers for his harvest. Today, after they prayed and after Jesus prayed all night, God the Father responded by calling the very ones Jesus asked to pray, and he sent them out to collect the harvest that is ever white and ripe. It points to the central truth that the Lord wants all of us to pray and the Lord wants all of us to recognize that the Father is calling us, in different ways, to be those very laborers strengthened by that prayer, the divine calling, and the divine commissioning. We see various elements of that harvesting that Jesus sends us out to accomplish.

* The first is to proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, or literally “has approached.” The Kingdom is present because the King has arrived. The Kingdom of God is, in short, God. It’s where he reigns. To proclaim the Kingdom at hand is to say, “God is here” and “We need to let him reign in our lives.” Jesus sent out the 12 and he sends out us to proclaim, not merely with our words but with the way we live, that we’re not alone, that God is alive, that is he is with us, and that letting him reign in our lives has made all the difference in saving us and joyfully transforming us. The kingdom of God is one of fruitful spousal love.

* As part of the proclamation that God is among us, Jesus sends the 12 out with his authority to expel demons and heal every disease and illness. It must have blown them away to hear and receive this commission of the Lord’s authority. He was sending them out, in other words, with far more than a message to announce; he was sending them with deeds to accomplish. These deeds were signs that the kingdom had come, that the Messiah had arrived, and that the time for change was now. The Church in every age needs to be signs of that exorcism, no longer letting the prince of this world, the father of lies, have any dominion over us and bringing people to Jesus to experience that same liberation. Likewise we need to be the nurses of the Divine Physician and,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

July 7, 2020

Hos 8:4-7.11-13, Ps 115, Mt 9:32-38

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* In the Gospel today, Jesus carries out an exorcism. He had come into the world to cast out the power of Satan and inaugurate the Kingdom of God. This possessed man had been brought to him by friends. Satan had silenced him. When Jesus cast out the devil, the formerly mute man spoke and then everyone else spoke, glorifying God and saying that they had never seen such marvels. But the Pharisees also spoke, saying that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the devil. They did not realize that they were under the sway of the devil to proffer such a lie. The Gospel goes on to show Jesus’ passion and compassion, going to all the towns and villages, teaching, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and curing every disease and illness. Everything about his public ministry can be summarized by St. Matthew’s phrase, “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.” Jesus was sick to his stomach with mercy because we were mangled and alone. He commented that the harvest is abundant but needs laborers and begs the disciples to pray for laborers. We’ll see tomorrow that he calls twelve of those disciples to be among those laborers.

* In first reading, we encounter anew the work of the devil, we see how God’s people in the Kingdom of Israel at the time of Hosea, in the middle of the 700s BC, were being manipulated by the evil one and were lost without the Lord as their Shepherd. The father of lies always seeks to implant his lies and to destroy the spousal covenant God has made with his people, just like he sought to divide by his lies Adam and Eve, whose communion of persons in love was created to be the image of God. We  focused yesterday on the spousal imagery in Hosea 2 and how every sin against God is a one of spiritual adultery against the Covenant God has made with us. And today in the eighth chapter we get a list of those sins of infidelity. Right before today’s passage begins, God told Hosea to put a trumpet to his lips to announce how they’ve violated his spousal covenant and God begins by saying, “While to me they cry out, ‘O God of Israel, we know you,’ the men of Israel have thrown away what is good.” They claim to know the Lord, but they really don’t and show that they don’t by giving into the unfaithfulness described. Since they don’t treat God as their leader, “they made kings, but not by my authority; they established princes, but without my approval,” and they sought security not in God but in Assyria. Because they were not worshipping him as he had shown them how, “with their silver and gold they made idols for themselves, to their own destruction,” like the “calf of Samaria,” replicating the golden calf made by the Israelites in the desert, “gods,” to quote today’s psalm, that have mouths that don’t speak, eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear, noses that don’t smell, hands that don’t feel, feet that don’t walk. It says that “their makers shall be like them,” meaning they will become lifeless through the worship of gods that cannot give life. God continues through Hosea and says they look to Ephraim, rather than to God, for love. They treat God’s ordinances, he says, as if a stranger gave them. All of this was full of emptiness: “The stalk of grain that forms no ear can yield no flour,” he tells them. And they would experience the destruction of what they were choosing: “Whe...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

July 7, 2020

Hos 8:4-7.11-13, Ps 115, Mt 9:32-38

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* In the Gospel today, Jesus carries out an exorcism. He had come into the world to cast out the power of Satan and inaugurate the Kingdom of God. This possessed man had been brought to him by friends. Satan had silenced him. When Jesus cast out the devil, the formerly mute man spoke and then everyone else spoke, glorifying God and saying that they had never seen such marvels. But the Pharisees also spoke, saying that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the devil. They did not realize that they were under the sway of the devil to proffer such a lie. The Gospel goes on to show Jesus’ passion and compassion, going to all the towns and villages, teaching, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and curing every disease and illness. Everything about his public ministry can be summarized by St. Matthew’s phrase, “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.” Jesus was sick to his stomach with mercy because we were mangled and alone. He commented that the harvest is abundant but needs laborers and begs the disciples to pray for laborers. We’ll see tomorrow that he calls twelve of those disciples to be among those laborers.

* In first reading, we encounter anew the work of the devil, we see how God’s people in the Kingdom of Israel at the time of Hosea, in the middle of the 700s BC, were being manipulated by the evil one and were lost without the Lord as their Shepherd. The father of lies always seeks to implant his lies and to destroy the spousal covenant God has made with his people, just like he sought to divide by his lies Adam and Eve, whose communion of persons in love was created to be the image of God. We  focused yesterday on the spousal imagery in Hosea 2 and how every sin against God is a one of spiritual adultery against the Covenant God has made with us. And today in the eighth chapter we get a list of those sins of infidelity. Right before today’s passage begins, God told Hosea to put a trumpet to his lips to announce how they’ve violated his spousal covenant and God begins by saying, “While to me they cry out, ‘O God of Israel, we know you,’ the men of Israel have thrown away what is good.” They claim to know the Lord, but they really don’t and show that they don’t by giving into the unfaithfulness described. Since they don’t treat God as their leader, “they made kings, but not by my authority; they established princes, but without my approval,” and they sought security not in God but in Assyria. Because they were not worshipping him as he had shown them how, “with their silver and gold they made idols for themselves, to their own destruction,” like the “calf of Samaria,” replicating the golden calf made by the Israelites in the desert, “gods,” to quote today’s psalm, that have mouths that don’t speak, eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear, noses that don’t smell, hands that don’t feel, feet that don’t walk. It says that “their makers shall be like them,” meaning they will become lifeless through the worship of gods that cannot give life. God continues through Hosea and says they look to Ephraim, rather than to God, for love. They treat God’s ordinances, he says, as if a stranger gave them. All of this was full of emptiness: “The stalk of grain that forms no ear can yield no flour,” he tells them. And they would experience the destruction of what they were choosing: “Whe...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Memorial of Saint Maria Goretti

July 6, 2020

Hos 2:16-18.21-22, Ps 145, Mt 9:18-26

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Last week we examined in the first reading God’s word through the Prophet Amos, given in the 8th century BC to the people of the Kingdom of Israel in the north of the Holy Land. His preaching was fundamentally about the breakdown of morals, of justice, of love for God and neighbor, among those in the Kingdom and God’s call to conversion.Monday through Friday this week we will consider his contemporary, Hosea, who was preaching shortly thereafter to the people of the same Kingdom. Whereas Amos preached fundamentally about morals, through Hosea God preached about fundamental issues of spirituality, how they looked at God, received what he was giving, and responded. The fundamental image God has Hosea use is that of spousal love. He has Hosea marry a prostitute, Gomer, to symbolize how the people of the Kingdom have given themselves over to the cult of Ba’al, a worship of sex, but that God, through the prophetic ôt he inspired in Hosea’s marrying Gomer, was showing that he would take her back. Later, Gomer would engage in adultery, not being able to remain faithful to Hosea, just as the people of the Kingdom were not faithful to God, but even then, God willed to take Israel back. That’s the setting for today’s passage. Speaking in the future tense, God says about Israel, in touching, spousal words, “I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt. On that day, says the LORD. She shall call me ‘My husband,’ and never again ‘My baal.'” This is a play on words, because “Ba’al” was understood to be a word for “husband” in the cult of Ba’al, but husband as master and ruler, not as lover. God was saying something far more. “I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord.” Throughout these words, God, as he did through Isaiah, revealed his love as spousal, a thing of choice, as a thing that involved a commitment for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer. It was true, just, loving, merciful, faithful and forever. He would forgive even spiritual adultery. And he was indicating that our relationship with Him in return should be marked not just with reverence for a Creator, God and Lord, but also by spousal affection for someone who has chosen us to be his despite our unworthiness. Our whole Christian life must be marked by the sense of being loved by God and loving him back.

* We see the particular love of God incarnate in Jesus Christ in his care for Jairus, for his daughter, and for the woman with the hemorrhage. They were not just people, but people loved with special care.  Jesus responded immediately to Jairus’ petition and went with him hastily, perseveringly, strengthening him with faith even after he received news that his daughter was dead. He indicates to him the life-giving reality of our spousal relationship with God. Similarly, Jesus called the little girl by name and gave her a foretaste of his resurrection. He asked that she be given something to eat, showing his care to provide even the most basic needs. With the anonymous woman, he wanted to meet her so that he could give her out of love the gift of salvation by faith, so that she would know that she was loved personally, not just anonymously.