Catholic Preaching

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.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. Agnes Church, New York, NY

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Extraordinary Form

July 5, 2020

1 Pet 3:8-15, Mt 5:20-24

 

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

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

* Today from the Sermon on the Mount, right after Jesus teaches us the beatitudes and gives us our vocation as Salt of the Earth and Light of the World, he makes explicit for us that his standards for our behavior are very high, something he would later develop as being holy as the Lord our God is holy, being merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful, loving others as he has loved us, and ultimately striving to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. He tells us that unless our righteousness — our right relationship with God — surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of God. The scribes gave their lives to studying the word of God down to the smallest letter. The Pharisees were those who tried to live by what the Scribes taught, seeking to base their whole life on God’s word. Whereas the typical Jew prayed once a day, the Pharisees prayed three times daily. Whereas the typical Jew fasted once a year on the Day of Atonement, Pharisees fasted twice a week. Whereas the average Jew tithed just the things that they were supposed to tithe in the Mosaic law, the Pharisees gave ten percent of all they owned to God. The Scribes’ and the Pharisees’ standard of righteousness was very high, and Jesus was calling us to live by a higher standard.

* Before we get into what that higher standard is, it’s important for us to note that we are living at an age in which a call to high moral standards is not part of ordinary discourse. The standards of the world are basically that we’re supposed to be “nice,” the human equivalent of bland mushrooms in a strong cultural sauce, tolerant of everything that the world wants us to accept and intolerant of everything the world wants us to reject. Within the Church, standards in many places have been forgotten or watered down. Many reduce being Catholic to the mere fact of being baptized or received into the Church: whether we pray or play, keep or break promises, steal or sacrifice, come to Mass or sleep in, confess our sins or brag about them, are faithful to our spouse or cheat, provide for or neglect our family, forgive or settle scores, love or abuse the poor, teach the truth or tickle people’s ears, welcome or abort the littlest of Jesus’ brethren, it doesn’t matter, as long as we think we’re good people, as long as we love someone, as long as we do some good to somebody sometime somewhere, and aren’t judgmental toward anyone else — then no one will judge us either.

* Surveying today’s scene based on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, St. John Paul II said in 2001, “The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.” That high standard of ordinary Christian living, he said, is holiness. And he spoke about various of the means Christ gives us to make us holy — grace, prayer, Mass, confession, the Word of God, and putting that word into practice through charity — all means by which we allow him into our life so that he can help us from the inside to live by the high standards he sets us for us, his own, truly Christian standards.

* That brings us to the standards he describes for us today about anger and hatred. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is going much deeper than the Decalogue, interiorizing the law, going to the roots of sin in the human heart. It’s not enough not to commit adultery in the flesh, he tells us: Jesus forbids adultery in the heart through lust. Whereas the Mosaic law limited retaliation to an eye for an eye,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. Agnes Church, New York, NY

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Extraordinary Form

July 5, 2020

1 Pet 3:8-15, Mt 5:20-24

 

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

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

* Today from the Sermon on the Mount, right after Jesus teaches us the beatitudes and gives us our vocation as Salt of the Earth and Light of the World, he makes explicit for us that his standards for our behavior are very high, something he would later develop as being holy as the Lord our God is holy, being merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful, loving others as he has loved us, and ultimately striving to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. He tells us that unless our righteousness — our right relationship with God — surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of God. The scribes gave their lives to studying the word of God down to the smallest letter. The Pharisees were those who tried to live by what the Scribes taught, seeking to base their whole life on God’s word. Whereas the typical Jew prayed once a day, the Pharisees prayed three times daily. Whereas the typical Jew fasted once a year on the Day of Atonement, Pharisees fasted twice a week. Whereas the average Jew tithed just the things that they were supposed to tithe in the Mosaic law, the Pharisees gave ten percent of all they owned to God. The Scribes’ and the Pharisees’ standard of righteousness was very high, and Jesus was calling us to live by a higher standard.

* Before we get into what that higher standard is, it’s important for us to note that we are living at an age in which a call to high moral standards is not part of ordinary discourse. The standards of the world are basically that we’re supposed to be “nice,” the human equivalent of bland mushrooms in a strong cultural sauce, tolerant of everything that the world wants us to accept and intolerant of everything the world wants us to reject. Within the Church, standards in many places have been forgotten or watered down. Many reduce being Catholic to the mere fact of being baptized or received into the Church: whether we pray or play, keep or break promises, steal or sacrifice, come to Mass or sleep in, confess our sins or brag about them, are faithful to our spouse or cheat, provide for or neglect our family, forgive or settle scores, love or abuse the poor, teach the truth or tickle people’s ears, welcome or abort the littlest of Jesus’ brethren, it doesn’t matter, as long as we think we’re good people, as long as we love someone, as long as we do some good to somebody sometime somewhere, and aren’t judgmental toward anyone else — then no one will judge us either.

* Surveying today’s scene based on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, St. John Paul II said in 2001, “The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.” That high standard of ordinary Christian living, he said, is holiness. And he spoke about various of the means Christ gives us to make us holy — grace, prayer, Mass, confession, the Word of God, and putting that word into practice through charity — all means by which we allow him into our life so that he can help us from the inside to live by the high standards he sets us for us, his own, truly Christian standards.

* That brings us to the standards he describes for us today about anger and hatred. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is going much deeper than the Decalogue, interiorizing the law, going to the roots of sin in the human heart. It’s not enough not to commit adultery in the flesh, he tells us: Jesus forbids adultery in the heart through lust. Whereas the Mosaic law limited retaliation to an eye for an eye,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) (Vigil)

July 4, 2020

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.4.20_Landry_Con_Con_II.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.

* Jesus is going to give us one of the most incredible invitations we’ve ever received and, if we say yes to it, one of the most unbelievable guarantees. The God-man, our Savior, will say: “Come to me, all you who labor and find life burdensome.” That’s the invitation. “Come to me all you who are working hard but can’t see to fully get your head above water to feel secure; come to me all you who are burdened with anxieties of family life, work, age or health; come to me all you who are weighed down by sorrows, who are going through life with heavy hearts because you’ve lost a loved one or are worried about the health of someone close to you; come to me all you who are pressed down by your sins and the harm sins always bring to our lives and to the lives of those around us; all of you, COME.” After this invitation, he gives us the extraordinary promise: “And I will refresh you.” Think about what Jesus is saying: “All of you who have problems with human life — every single one of you — come to me, and I will renew you, bring you back to life, make you see the blessing in what you see as a burden.” That’s what he said to his listeners two thousand years ago — who must have been shocked by so categorical a promise — and that’s what he says to each one of us this weekend. Any there any takers? Don’t all of us need Jesus’ help to bear heavy burdens?

* To understand better Jesus’ amazing offer, we first have to look at whom Jesus is summoning and whom he isn’t. Jesus addresses his invitation to those who are “labor” and are carrying heavy burdens. He is not calling to himself in this way those who are lazy, who pass the buck, who don’t roll up their sleeves and work up a sweat. He’s not inviting those who are seeking a comfortable, easy life. When Jesus says “follow me!,” he’s not intending to lead us to a beach resort or a superyacht; he’s going to lead us along the same path he trod, which was a hard-working path all the way Calvary. Jesus is speaking, rather, to those who are working hard, who are striving to take responsibility for their own life, for the life of their loved ones, for society and the Church, who are pushing themselves in love to the limit. Jesus had told us once to pray to the Harvest Master, his Father, “to send LABORERS into his vineyard” (Mt 9:38), not BODIES into his vineyard. The way to salvation and the salvation of others in that vineyard is through responding to all his gifts with faith, love, fatigue and perspiration. It’s those who labor, and they alone, whom he promises to refresh.

* The second group of people whom Jesus is not calling is the proud, the arrogant, those who already think they know it all. He says in the Gospel, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to little ones.” Those who are “wise and learned” in the their own eyes don’t capture what Jesus is revealing or value his invitation because they don’t think they need it. It’s only the “little ones,” those who are humble, those who know how much they need the Lord, who know the worth of what Jesus wants to give them. Jesus himself is “meek and humble of heart,” and in order to understand what he wants to reveal,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Mass for Independence Day

Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal and Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati

July 4, 2020

Amos 9:11-15, Ps 85, Mt 9:14-17

 

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

 

To following points were made in today’s homily: 

* Today as the United States marks its 244th birthday as a nation and we focus, on independence day, on freedom, not only on the historical liberation from King George III and the United Kingdom but on what our freedom is for, what Madison described as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We Christians can deepen these aims of freedom expressed in the Declaration by the Biblical ideas of zoe (not just biological life but the higher life of the soul that Christ came to give us to the full), freedom (Christ has set us free precisely so that we might love God and others by his standard), and the pursuit of happiness (which is far more than pleasure, and meant to last far more than even 244 years, through the pursuit of holiness). The United States of America was formed with this deeper context in mind, to allow for the possibility of fulfilling it. But for that to be achieved, we need a revolutionary spirit in every generation, the courage of many of our founding fathers to be willing to risk their lives for this ideal, and to remember what so many of them remarked, that if we’re going to have a republic conceived in liberty remain, the citizens must use their liberty in a particular way, tied to responsibility. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, as John Adams once wrote, and it is fit for no other. So today is a good today, helped by today’s readings, to ponder that reality.

* In today’s first reading, we finish a week-long prayerful examination of the Prophet Amos. He was sent by God from Tekoa south of Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judah to prophesy in the Kingdom of Israel to the north about the rampant injustice taking place there, the infidelity of the professional priests and prophets, of businessmen, of average Joshuas and Miriams. Throughout the book Amos constantly points out the failure of the people to live justly. They were prosperous and had begun to live for money, marginalizing God, selling off needy people for goods, oppressing the poor, taking advantage of the helpless, men were using women for pleasure. They needed a deep conversion and Amos was unsparing. Many were frightened as a result. Today we get to the last five verses, which foretell the consolation that awaits if they turn back to the Lord and to justice and charity in their relations with others. Through Amos God promises mercy, to “raise up the fallen hut of David … and rebuild it as in the days of old.” He promises that “the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the vintager, him who sows the seed; the juice of grapes shall drip down the mountains, and all the hills shall run.” Those are incredible images, saying that people will not be able to plant or crush grapes fast enough and that there will be tremendous fruit and joy, like grapes running down a mountain.

* In the Gospel, we see how all of this would be fulfilled. Jesus uses two images to describe how his people need to receive and respond the fulfillment of Amos’ prophecies. The first image is that of a patch. He says no one sews a new patch on an old set of clothing, because the new patch when it shrinks will tear the old fabric. Jesus has come not to patch up the difficulties in Judaism, but rather to give us new clothing. He has come to clothe us in himself. He has come to give us a baptismal garment, which is the garment that the sons and the daughters of the wedding chamber — whom he refers shouldn’t be mourning but celebrating,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Mass for Independence Day

Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal and Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati

July 4, 2020

Amos 9:11-15, Ps 85, Mt 9:14-17

 

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

 

To following points were made in today’s homily: 

* Today as the United States marks its 244th birthday as a nation and we focus, on independence day, on freedom, not only on the historical liberation from King George III and the United Kingdom but on what our freedom is for, what Madison described as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We Christians can deepen these aims of freedom expressed in the Declaration by the Biblical ideas of zoe (not just biological life but the higher life of the soul that Christ came to give us to the full), freedom (Christ has set us free precisely so that we might love God and others by his standard), and the pursuit of happiness (which is far more than pleasure, and meant to last far more than even 244 years, through the pursuit of holiness). The United States of America was formed with this deeper context in mind, to allow for the possibility of fulfilling it. But for that to be achieved, we need a revolutionary spirit in every generation, the courage of many of our founding fathers to be willing to risk their lives for this ideal, and to remember what so many of them remarked, that if we’re going to have a republic conceived in liberty remain, the citizens must use their liberty in a particular way, tied to responsibility. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, as John Adams once wrote, and it is fit for no other. So today is a good today, helped by today’s readings, to ponder that reality.

* In today’s first reading, we finish a week-long prayerful examination of the Prophet Amos. He was sent by God from Tekoa south of Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judah to prophesy in the Kingdom of Israel to the north about the rampant injustice taking place there, the infidelity of the professional priests and prophets, of businessmen, of average Joshuas and Miriams. Throughout the book Amos constantly points out the failure of the people to live justly. They were prosperous and had begun to live for money, marginalizing God, selling off needy people for goods, oppressing the poor, taking advantage of the helpless, men were using women for pleasure. They needed a deep conversion and Amos was unsparing. Many were frightened as a result. Today we get to the last five verses, which foretell the consolation that awaits if they turn back to the Lord and to justice and charity in their relations with others. Through Amos God promises mercy, to “raise up the fallen hut of David … and rebuild it as in the days of old.” He promises that “the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the vintager, him who sows the seed; the juice of grapes shall drip down the mountains, and all the hills shall run.” Those are incredible images, saying that people will not be able to plant or crush grapes fast enough and that there will be tremendous fruit and joy, like grapes running down a mountain.

* In the Gospel, we see how all of this would be fulfilled. Jesus uses two images to describe how his people need to receive and respond the fulfillment of Amos’ prophecies. The first image is that of a patch. He says no one sews a new patch on an old set of clothing, because the new patch when it shrinks will tear the old fabric. Jesus has come not to patch up the difficulties in Judaism, but rather to give us new clothing. He has come to clothe us in himself. He has come to give us a baptismal garment, which is the garment that the sons and the daughters of the wedding chamber — whom he refers shouldn’t be mourning but celebrating,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle

July 3, 2020

Eph 2:19-22, Ps 117, Jn 20:24-29

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* A couple of years ago I had the privilege as a Missionary of Mercy to concelebrate Mass with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Divine Mercy Sunday. The Gospel for the Feast  always includes today’s Gospel and Pope Francis began his homily by commenting on St. John’s mentioning that Thomas was called Didymus, for twin. That almost certainly means that he had a twin and Pope Francis said that we can interpret all of that spiritually, that we’re meant to be a twin of Thomas, that he is meant to be our “twin brother.” And so today we can focus on what we can learn from the faith of our twin.

* It’s a pity in many ways that St. Thomas, who left everything to follow the Lord Jesus, who gave his entire life for the Lord and died in witness to faith, is called “Doubting Thomas” as much as he is called “Saint.” He is the most famous doubter in history! But his doubts were not unique among the first disciples and apostles. With the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, none of the early disciples believed after the resurrection. The women went to anoint a corpse. The disciples in Emmaus were talking to an anonymous Wayfarer about a Jesus whom they thoroughly believed was dead. When Mary Magdalene and these Emmaus disciples went to inform the other apostles that they had seen Jesus, the apostles didn’t believe them. That’s why Jesus, when he appeared to them as St. Mark reminds us through St. Peter, “rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised” (Mk 16:14). Faith, as we know, is the belief in something on the basis of a belief in someone giving witness. They had a double-distrust that led to their lack of faith in Jesus’ resurrection. First they distrusted the witness of Mary and the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, thinking that they were just too gullible. But more importantly they distrusted in Jesus’ words that he would rise on the third day. Thomas’ distrust was not qualitatively different at all, just quantitatively: he didn’t believe his fellow apostles’ testimony either.

* We’ll get to his doubts a little bit more shortly, but what I’d like to do first is to talk about what St. Thomas teaches us precisely about faith. He doubts are a blessing for us because they open us up to what we need to know for our faith to be strengthened. I’d like to focus on the three recorded sayings of St. Thomas in the Gospel and what we can learn from each of them.

* The first is his statement during the Last Supper when Jesus was talking about his needing to go away but then come back again. Jesus stated, “Where I am going, you know the way.” That’s when Thomas, who had the guts to say what others were thinking but were perhaps too timid to ask, blurted out, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?” His was what St. Anselm, basing himself on St. Augustine, would later call fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding. He believed in the Lord, but wanted to understand better what Jesus was saying. We, too, need to be willing to ask questions of the Lord. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman once said that a thousand questions don’t constitute a single doubt. St. Thomas Aquinas’ whole method in the Summa was to question aspects of the faith, to raise all of the objections to truths of faith, in order to understand the faith better. As a biologist, I can’t wait to meet Jesus face to face and get a definitive answer to how he got the Y-chromosome, a question that Fr. Mendel, the servant of God Jerome Lejeune and probably many others have already asked him!

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle

July 3, 2020

Eph 2:19-22, Ps 117, Jn 20:24-29

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* A couple of years ago I had the privilege as a Missionary of Mercy to concelebrate Mass with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Divine Mercy Sunday. The Gospel for the Feast  always includes today’s Gospel and Pope Francis began his homily by commenting on St. John’s mentioning that Thomas was called Didymus, for twin. That almost certainly means that he had a twin and Pope Francis said that we can interpret all of that spiritually, that we’re meant to be a twin of Thomas, that he is meant to be our “twin brother.” And so today we can focus on what we can learn from the faith of our twin.

* It’s a pity in many ways that St. Thomas, who left everything to follow the Lord Jesus, who gave his entire life for the Lord and died in witness to faith, is called “Doubting Thomas” as much as he is called “Saint.” He is the most famous doubter in history! But his doubts were not unique among the first disciples and apostles. With the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, none of the early disciples believed after the resurrection. The women went to anoint a corpse. The disciples in Emmaus were talking to an anonymous Wayfarer about a Jesus whom they thoroughly believed was dead. When Mary Magdalene and these Emmaus disciples went to inform the other apostles that they had seen Jesus, the apostles didn’t believe them. That’s why Jesus, when he appeared to them as St. Mark reminds us through St. Peter, “rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised” (Mk 16:14). Faith, as we know, is the belief in something on the basis of a belief in someone giving witness. They had a double-distrust that led to their lack of faith in Jesus’ resurrection. First they distrusted the witness of Mary and the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, thinking that they were just too gullible. But more importantly they distrusted in Jesus’ words that he would rise on the third day. Thomas’ distrust was not qualitatively different at all, just quantitatively: he didn’t believe his fellow apostles’ testimony either.

* We’ll get to his doubts a little bit more shortly, but what I’d like to do first is to talk about what St. Thomas teaches us precisely about faith. He doubts are a blessing for us because they open us up to what we need to know for our faith to be strengthened. I’d like to focus on the three recorded sayings of St. Thomas in the Gospel and what we can learn from each of them.

* The first is his statement during the Last Supper when Jesus was talking about his needing to go away but then come back again. Jesus stated, “Where I am going, you know the way.” That’s when Thomas, who had the guts to say what others were thinking but were perhaps too timid to ask, blurted out, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?” His was what St. Anselm, basing himself on St. Augustine, would later call fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding. He believed in the Lord, but wanted to understand better what Jesus was saying. We, too, need to be willing to ask questions of the Lord. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman once said that a thousand questions don’t constitute a single doubt. St. Thomas Aquinas’ whole method in the Summa was to question aspects of the faith, to raise all of the objections to truths of faith, in order to understand the faith better. As a biologist, I can’t wait to meet Jesus face to face and get a definitive answer to how he got the Y-chromosome, a question that Fr. Mendel, the servant of God Jerome Lejeune and probably many others have already asked him!

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Thursday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass of the Mercy of God

July 2, 2020

Amos 7:10-17, Ps 19, Mt 9:1-8

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today in the Gospel, we see the priority of mercy in Jesus’ saving mission. Friends bring their paralyzed pal to Jesus obviously with faith and hope that Jesus could and would cure his paralysis. But Jesus instead forgives him his sins. Some scholars will argue that this is because Jewish mentality was that every physical illness was the result of some type of sin and that Jesus was addressing the cause and not just the symptoms. But the likelier reason is because Jesus wanted to demonstrate that he had come as far more than a free wonder-doctor curing sick bodies, but had come precisely to heal the whole person, soul and body, and especially of the worst illness of all, which would be the cancer of sin and the communion it attacks with God, others and within oneself. Pope Francis said in 2013 in a homily based on this Gospel that everything Jesus did was connected to his mission of mercy: “When Jesus healed a sick man he was not only a healer. When he taught people — let us think of the Beatitudes — he was not only a catechist, a preacher of morals. When he remonstrated against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he was not a revolutionary who wanted to drive out the Romans. No, these things that Jesus did, healing, teaching and speaking out against hypocrisy, were only a sign of something greater that Jesus was doing: he was forgiving sins.” He went on to say, basing himself St. Paul’s words in today’s Gospel verse, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation,” that reconciling the world in Christ in the name of the Father “is Jesus’ mission. Everything else — healing, teaching, reprimands — are only signs of that deeper miracle which is the re-creation of the world. Thus reconciliation is the re-creation of the world; and the most profound mission of Jesus is the redemption of all of us sinners. And Jesus did not do this with words, with actions or by walking on the road, no! He did it with his flesh. It is truly he, God, who becomes one of us, a man, to heal us from within.” It was only to prove that he had the authority on earth to forgive sins that Jesus cured the paralysis. He had already given him a far greater gift!

* The key for us is to cooperate with Jesus’ mission. Tomorrow, if we didn’t have the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, we would have the Gospel of Jesus’ calling St. Matthew and his fellow sinners, and his words to the Pharisees who were complaining about Jesus’ keeping company with sinners just like the Scribes were complaining about his “blasphemously” forgiving sins, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. … I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” To receive Jesus, to receive his greatest miracle, we have to recognize we’re sick in need of a doctor. We have to recognize we’re sinners. Today we have three examples of those who didn’t.

* The first were the Scribes in the Gospel. They were opposed to Jesus’ mission of the forgiveness of sins. They objected ostensibly based on the truth that only God can forgive sins against God. But after Jesus demonstrated through healing the paralyzed man that he had divine authority to do so, they still refused to accept him, eventually ascribing such behavior to the evil one.

* The second are Jesus’ fellow Nazarenes. There’s a very subtle reference at the beginning of today’s Gospel that Jesus,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Thursday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Votive Mass of the Mercy of God

July 2, 2020

Amos 7:10-17, Ps 19, Mt 9:1-8

 

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

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Today in the Gospel, we see the priority of mercy in Jesus’ saving mission. Friends bring their paralyzed pal to Jesus obviously with faith and hope that Jesus could and would cure his paralysis. But Jesus instead forgives him his sins. Some scholars will argue that this is because Jewish mentality was that every physical illness was the result of some type of sin and that Jesus was addressing the cause and not just the symptoms. But the likelier reason is because Jesus wanted to demonstrate that he had come as far more than a free wonder-doctor curing sick bodies, but had come precisely to heal the whole person, soul and body, and especially of the worst illness of all, which would be the cancer of sin and the communion it attacks with God, others and within oneself. Pope Francis said in 2013 in a homily based on this Gospel that everything Jesus did was connected to his mission of mercy: “When Jesus healed a sick man he was not only a healer. When he taught people — let us think of the Beatitudes — he was not only a catechist, a preacher of morals. When he remonstrated against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he was not a revolutionary who wanted to drive out the Romans. No, these things that Jesus did, healing, teaching and speaking out against hypocrisy, were only a sign of something greater that Jesus was doing: he was forgiving sins.” He went on to say, basing himself St. Paul’s words in today’s Gospel verse, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation,” that reconciling the world in Christ in the name of the Father “is Jesus’ mission. Everything else — healing, teaching, reprimands — are only signs of that deeper miracle which is the re-creation of the world. Thus reconciliation is the re-creation of the world; and the most profound mission of Jesus is the redemption of all of us sinners. And Jesus did not do this with words, with actions or by walking on the road, no! He did it with his flesh. It is truly he, God, who becomes one of us, a man, to heal us from within.” It was only to prove that he had the authority on earth to forgive sins that Jesus cured the paralysis. He had already given him a far greater gift!

* The key for us is to cooperate with Jesus’ mission. Tomorrow, if we didn’t have the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, we would have the Gospel of Jesus’ calling St. Matthew and his fellow sinners, and his words to the Pharisees who were complaining about Jesus’ keeping company with sinners just like the Scribes were complaining about his “blasphemously” forgiving sins, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. … I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” To receive Jesus, to receive his greatest miracle, we have to recognize we’re sick in need of a doctor. We have to recognize we’re sinners. Today we have three examples of those who didn’t.

* The first were the Scribes in the Gospel. They were opposed to Jesus’ mission of the forgiveness of sins. They objected ostensibly based on the truth that only God can forgive sins against God. But after Jesus demonstrated through healing the paralyzed man that he had divine authority to do so, they still refused to accept him, eventually ascribing such behavior to the evil one.

* The second are Jesus’ fellow Nazarenes. There’s a very subtle reference at the beginning of today’s Gospel that Jesus,