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- Madeline Wiseman, St. Frances Cabrini and the Eucharist, Columbia Catholic Ministry Retreat, Cabrini Shrine, October 12, 2024
Madeline Wiseman
Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Washington Heights, New YorkRetreat Talk for Columbia Catholic MinistryOctober 12, 2024https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.12.24_Madeline_Wiseman_St._Francis_Cabrini_and_the_Eucharist_1.mp3The post Madeline Wiseman, St. Frances Cabrini and the Eucharist, Columbia Catholic Ministry Retreat, Cabrini Shrine, October 12, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
32 min - Austin Carr, St. Frances Cabrini, Charity and Community, Columbia Catholic Ministry Retreat, Cabrini Shrine, October 12, 2024
Austin Carr
Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Washington Heights, New YorkRetreat Talk for Columbia Catholic MinistryOctober 12, 2024https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.12.24_Austin_Carr_St._Francis_Cabrini_Charity_and_Community_1.mp3The post Austin Carr, St. Frances Cabrini, Charity and Community, Columbia Catholic Ministry Retreat, Cabrini Shrine, October 12, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
26 min - Jack Matthews, St. Frances Cabrini and Prayer, Columbia Catholic Ministry Retreat, Cabrini Shrine, October 12, 2024
Jack Matthews
Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Washington Heights, New YorkRetreat Talk for Columbia Catholic MinistryOctober 12, 2024https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.12.24_Jack_Matthews_St._Francis_Cabrini_and_Prayer_1.mp3The post Jack Matthews, St. Frances Cabrini and Prayer, Columbia Catholic Ministry Retreat, Cabrini Shrine, October 12, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
31 min - The Word of God and Holiness, 27th Saturday (II), October 12, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Washington Heights, New YorkRetreat for Columbia University StudentsSaturday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Year IIMemorial of Blessed Carlo AcutisOctober 12, 2024Gal 3:22-29, Ps 105, Lk 11:27-28To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.12.24_Homily_1.mp3The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Every retreat is ultimately about helping us become saints. It seeks to reinvigorate the call we received at our baptism to become holy as God is holy. Here at the Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, with her body exposed underneath the altar, we have a powerful reminder that God is calling each of us, here in America, to a similar sanctity. October 12 is the feast of the first millennial saint, Blessed Carlo Acutis, who died on this day in 2006 at the age of 15. He will be canonized by Pope Francis next year. He shows us that even great holiness is attainable even for young people, provided that one responds with maturity to the gifts God gives to help us become like him. And every Saturday, like today, the Church has us remember and seek the intercession of the holiest disciple of all time, the woman God the Father chose for his Son and that Son on Calvary chose for us. Today we’re able to focus on all three of these great holy ones to inspire and help us on our journey, and we can examine in particular how the Word of God helped all three achieve the purpose for which they were made.
- In today’s Gospel, we see the importance of the Word of God in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the conversation between Jesus and an anonymous woman from the crowd who sought to praise his mother.“Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed!,” the unnamed woman called out. If any womb was blessed, it was the immaculate womb of Mary of Nazareth that tabernacled for nine months the Creator and Savior of the world! If any breasts were blessed, it would have been those that nursed and fed the one through whom God the Father gives us each day our daily bread! But Jesus wasn’t going to limit the praise of the mother whom he daily honored to her inimitable physical bonds to him as the Son of God made man. He replied to the woman by highlighting a far greater source of Mary’s blessing, something that each and every one of us not only can emulate but is called to emulate: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, in Hebrew there is no distinction between the verb “to hear” and “to obey.” If we hear the Word of God as it’s supposed to be heard, we hear it as a word to be done. A similar distinction is found in Latin. The word to hear is “audire” and the word to obey is “ob-audire,” an intensified listening, almost like eavesdropping. There is meant to be no disconnect between what we hear and what we do, but sin invades, trying to help us not to listen attentively and not to do what we hear. Jesus praises his mother for the way she approaches the Word of God. Her whole life can be summarized by how she responded to the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation: “let it be done to me according to your word.” Her whole life developed according to the Word and the will of God. St. Athanasius described that before Mary had ever conceived the Word of God in her womb, she had already conceived Him in her heart through faith. So many medieval depictions of the Annunciation and of the miraculous virginal conception of Jesus in the Incarnation show the Holy Spirit entering through Mary’s ears, to highlight this form of faithful listening. In a parallel scene, when Mary had come to see him together with many of his cousins from Nazareth, they told Jesus inside a crowded house where he was teaching and healing that his mother and relatives were outside waiting for him. Taking advantage of the teaching moment, he replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt 12:46-50). Mary is the paradigm of all those who do the will of God the Father, who hear what he asks and who act on it. To be a true brother or sister of Jesus in the family he came from heaven to earth to found, it’s not really enough just to be baptized, although that’s an essential start. We also have to listen to him as he describes for us the will of God and then, just as he did, say, mean and lovingly do the words “Thy will be done!” That’s what Mary shows us. That’s what all the saints show us. St. Gregory the Great wrote 1600 years ago, vita bonorum, viva lectio: the life of the good (of the holy ones) is a living reading of the Word of God. They allow their whole life to develop according to God’s word, just like Mary did.
- In the first reading, Saint Paul describes how the entire Old Testament, the Covenant God made with the Jews, was meant to train them not just to hear and observe the Word of God but to come to Jesus, the Word made flesh. “The law was our disciplinarian for Christ,” he says, “that we might be justified by faith.” The word “disciplinarian” in English is the word “pedagogos” in Greek. A pedagogue was a tutor who generally lived with the family of the student, supervised his homework and lessons, and took him to class with the master. The law prepared us, St. Paul was suggesting, to meet Jesus the Master, to hear what he was saying and to put it into practice. So many times throughout the Hebrew Bible we hear God say to the Jews through Moses or the Prophets, “If you hear my voice and observe the commandments I am giving you today….” All of God’s revelation was to prepare us to hear and obey.
- We see that response in the lives of the saints. Pope Benedict focused on this connection in his apostolic exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church, Verbum Domini. He wrote, “The interpretation of sacred Scripture would remain incomplete were it not to include listening to those who have truly lived the word of God: namely, the saints. … The most profound interpretation of Scripture comes precisely from those who let themselves be shaped by the word of God through listening, reading and assiduous meditation.” We see that in St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. We see in the beautiful mosaic on the wall of the sanctuary, “The Word of God is my mission,” because the Word of God summarized her whole life and work, which was a living reading, a compelling commentary, on St. Paul’s words to the Philippians, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:3). She sought to help her religious sisters in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to have a similar confidence in Christ the Master flowing from basing their whole life on the Rock of his Word. Blessed Carlo Acutis has a similar confidence in the Word of God. He read the Bible every day, together with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and urged his catechetical students similarly to try to read a small part of the Word of God each day. He called the Bible his “compass.” Because of his love for the Word of God, his heart began to burn each day at Mass, like the burning hearts of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, making him recognize and hunger increasingly for Jesus in the “Breaking of Bread” each day. It’s what fueled his prayer and inspired his charity. If, as he famously said, “The Eucharist is My Highway to Heaven,” the Word of God was his onramp to the highway and his GPS for the journey, as he listened to the Master, hungered to receive him, and then was filled with a woe to proclaim the astounding reality of Christ’s presence among us to his peers and then to the whole world.
- Today, on his feast day, as we approach the altar enshrining the relics of St. Frances Cabrini, Mary, the Queen of Saints, is praying for us to echo her and their, “Let it be done to me according to your word!” We seek with Mary, Frances and Carlo to act on the Word that has been announced to us, by lovingly obeying it and allowing it to lead us to Jesus the Master. If Mary’s wombs and breasts were lauded because of their physical connection with Jesus, what will people say about our hands and mouths, our whole being? Jesus wants to help make us like Him and does so through the Word of God and the Word made flesh. We see in Mary’s, Frances Cabrini’s and Carlo Acutis’ lives what happens when we cooperate fully, as we prepare to hear Jesus words, “This is my Body!,” “This is the chalice of my Blood,” and “Do this in memory of me,” observe them, and let our whole existence develop according to them!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1gal 3:22-29Brothers and sisters:Scripture confined all things under the power of sin,that through faith in Jesus Christthe promise might be given to those who believe.Before faith came, we were held in custody under law,confined for the faith that was to be revealed.Consequently, the law was our disciplinarian for Christ,that we might be justified by faith.But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a disciplinarian.For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.For all of you who were baptized into Christhave clothed yourselves with Christ.There is neither Jew nor Greek,there is neither slave nor free person,there is not male and female;for you are all one in Christ Jesus.And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants,heirs according to the promise.Responsorial Psalmps 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7R. (8a) The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.or:R. Alleluia.Sing to him, sing his praise,proclaim all his wondrous deeds.Glory in his holy name;rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.or:R. Alleluia.Look to the LORD in his strength;seek to serve him constantly.Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.or:R. Alleluia.You descendants of Abraham, his servants,sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!He, the LORD, is our God;throughout the earth his judgments prevail.R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.or:R. Alleluia.Gospellk 11:27-28While Jesus was speaking,a woman from the crowd called out and said to him,“Blessed is the womb that carried youand the breasts at which you nursed.”He replied, “Rather, blessed are thosewho hear the word of God and observe it.”The post The Word of God and Holiness, 27th Saturday (II), October 12, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
25 min - Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, October 12, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences PodcastHomily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, VigilOctober 12, 2024To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.12.24_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3The following text guided the homily:
- 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, as we eavesdrop on his famous dialogue with the young adult whom Christian tradition has dubbed the Rich Young Man.
- The Rich Young Man was a good man. He had kept the commandments of the Lord from a young age. He was concerned about the deepest and most important questions, like the one he asked Jesus, “What good must I do to inherit eternal life?” He already had some faith in Jesus, coming to him not just as a rabbi who knew a lot but as a “Good Teacher,” whose whole bearing intrigued him to approach and ask about the way he should live in order to live for ever. He also recognized that, despite all his material wealth, despite even his moral goodness, there was something missing in his life. His heart yearned for more. He knew he was called to something greater. The life God intends for us consists, he realized, in so much more than merely not breaking the Decalogue. And so he asked in St. Matthew’s account of the same scene, “What do I lack?” Jesus looked at him with love and gave him the challenging, brutally honest, direct answer to his question, “You lack one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me!” It was a highly paradoxical answer. What he lacked was precisely thathe had too much. He lacked total detachment from substitutes so that he could attach himself to the Absolute. He had previously lived a good life, but Jesus was now calling him to greatness. “If you wish to be perfect,” Jesus indicated. He already had some faith in Jesus as a “good Teacher” who was reflecting the goodness of God alone, but Jesus was now calling him to an upgrade in faith, a total commitment. He had previously kept the “second tablet” of the Ten Commandments, all about love of neighbor, but now Jesus was calling him to a much more radical following of both tablets of Decalogue: to love his neighbor to the point of using all his possessions to care for them and to loving God to the point of accounting him more valuable than all his stuff and following him on the path of total self-giving love.
- Therese of Lisieux, whose feast we celebrated at the beginning of this month, taught that we grow in the spiritual life by subtraction, not by addition. When a novice once sighed in her presence, saying, “When I think of everything I still have to acquire!,” the Little Flower replied, “You mean, tolose! … You are wanting to climb a great mountain and the good God is trying to make you descend it; he is waiting for you at the bottom in the fertile valley of humility.” The Rich Young Man needed to learn this lesson, how to grow through subtraction, how to become great through humility and dependence on God, how to have it all through giving oneself away. Unfortunately, he wasn’t ready for the challenge that spiritual perfection requires because he had so many possessions that owned him. He looked at the path of holiness as something he could add on to what he already had, whereas it was an emptying precisely so that Christ could fill him. The Lord is always asking us to let go of many of his gifts in order through using them for others to help us to recognize that the greatest gift of all is the divine Giver.
- The Rich Young Man got from Jesus the clear, direct answer to the question that was erupting from the depths of his being, buthe didn’t like it. In fact, St. Mark tells us, “His face fell and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” When given a choice between Jesus and his money, the young man chose the money, and went away sad, because he was still lacking something, that, with all his wealth, left him self-consciously imperfect and incomplete. This young man couldn’t give up the wealth to follow the Creator of every earthly treasure. Without a doubt, he was thinking he could both have his money and what he was lacking. But Jesus said very clearly at another time, “You cannot serve two masters. You will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Mt 6:24).
- We can similarly be trapped by our own hanging on to our money. Jesus this Sunday uses the image of a needle and says that we’ll never be able to pass through the eye of the needle into the kingdom of heaven as long as we’re still grasping onto the fruit of our labor. It’s not that material wealth or possessions are bad in themselves; in fact they’re blessings. The harm comes when we start to become attached to them, when they begin toown us rather than our stewarding them as gifts of God. St. Paul tells us that it is the love of money, not money itself, that is the root of all evil, because we begin to worship the ancient golden calf, because, when push comes to shove, we begin to place our faith, hope, love and security in material possessions and the things of this world more than we do in God. The person who puts his treasure in earthly mammon isn’t necessarily one we’d define as evil. He may even keep the ten commandments like the Rich Young Man said he did from his youth. The lover of wealth might even consider God really important, but for him, God is not really God. God is not the most important thing in his life. Like with the Rich Young Man, when it comes to the time when he has to make a choice, to part with his money or to serve Christ, he can’t let go of his money. He chooses his money. And, like the Rich Young Man, he will remain sad, because happiness is something that even all the money in the world cannot buy. That’s why Jesus says, not once but twice in this Sunday’s Gospel, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
- So what is a rich man and woman — and almost all of us are rich in relation to the vast majority of people in the world today, not to mention those who have lived in previous centuries — to do? Jesus’ disciples were “exceeding astonished” at the severity of Christ’s statement and asked, “Then who can be saved?” We ourselves can ask, “Do any of us have a chance, or are we like camels before a microscopic hole?” Jesus stresses in the Gospel that God makes it possible for us to be saved. Jesus shows us the way, but those looking for an easy way are going to be disappointed: “Go, sell what you have, give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
- Some preachers have done harm to people by trying to water-down the stark and challenging three-fold imperative of Jesus. But other preachers have perhaps done more harm, because they have interpreted what Jesus said in a univocal way, saying that what the Lord is asking of us, with all our responsibilities, is to go down to the local pawn shop, get rid of all our stuff, and then go give it in lump sums to individual poor people, or the St. Vincent de Paul Society, or the Catholic Charities Appeal, the local Food Pantry, or the Salvation Army. It all comes down to what the Lord means by “selling what you have.” What he’s getting at is spending our money, putting all our resources at the service of love of others. There are many ways to give this money away. We give it away when we use it to support — not spoil — the members of our family. We give it away, when, if we’re a business owner, we use our capital to create jobs so that people can have work and support themselves and their loved ones or when we pay not just a fair wage but a generous wage to our loyal employees, so that they can make ends meet more easily. We give it away when we give it to the Church Christ founded to support the apostolic works of God, especially like the spread of our faith through the Missions or through the support of Catholic education. We give it away when we see that our overworked waitress is pregnant and give her an extremely generous tip. And we give it away, obviously, when we make it a priority in life to seek out Christ in the person of the poor and needy around us, those in the streets, those families struggling financially to survive, those worthy causes that every month wonder how they’re going to pay their bills. It is by emptying ourselves of all greed, of giving ourselves and what God has given us out of love to others, that we become capable of receiving what the Lord wants to give us. In order for the material wealth we have not to become millstones bringing us down, but rather blessings bringing us an eternal treasure, we have to transfer the funds, not to a Swiss bank account, not to the Cayman Islands, butto heaven, by putting these blessings, directly or indirectly, into the hands of Christ disguised in others. There are so many opportunities for us to transfer those funds. But we have to ask God intelligently in prayer, “How, Lord, should I best spend the material blessings you have given me?”
- Someone who showed us how to live this way is Blessed, soon to be Saint, Carlo Acutis, whose feast the Church remembers on Saturday, October 12, who died on that day just 18 years ago in 2006 at the age of 15. He’s most famous, rightly, for the ardor of his Eucharistic love, calling the Eucharist “My highway to heaven,” living a truly Eucharistic life, and trying to bring his friends, classmates, neighbors to appreciate the wondrous gift of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and even the whole world, through his Eucharistic miracles of the world exhibit, which continues to crisscross the globe. Carlo sought to pattern his life on the Lord’s charity in the Eucharist, giving his body, blood and his possessions away to others. “Life is a gift,” he said, “because as long as we are on this planet, we can increase our charity.” He was able to do what the Rich Young Man in the Gospel didn’t. To the homeless, he would spend his allowance buying them sleeping bags, blankets and thermoses so that he could fill them with warm drinks with food to bring to them. When he was very young, he brought his whole piggy bank to school to give to students who needed it more. He would turn down the offer for new clothes or sneakers and ask that the money instead go to the poor. He used every opportunity he could to use what God, his parents and others had given him to love those around him. “Money is nothing more than shredded paper,” he said. “What counts in life is the nobility of the soul, that is, the way we love God and neighbor.” He’s praying for us to adopt with him this Eucharistic form of Christian life.
- At Mass this Sunday, the Lord will give us a choice, a choice between his wisdom and worldly wisdom, between an earthly treasure and an eternal treasure, which moths can’t destroy, rust corrode, or IRS agents tax and take away. The apostles left everything to follow the Lord, putting their whole lives at God’s service. The saints like Carlo Acutis have followed suit. The hard working people who sacrificed so much to build most of our parishes have been all in. What’s our response going to be as Jesus invites us, like he did the Rich Young Man, onto the path of perfection and holiness? May we learn from the mistake of the Rich Young Man and the choice of the apostles how to give away everything in following the Lord so that we may experience 100-fold in this life and eternal life that Jesus promises.
The Gospel on which the homily was based was:
GospelMk 10:17-30 or 10:17-27As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good?No one is good but God alone.You know the commandments: You shall not kill;you shall not commit adultery;you shall not steal;you shall not bear false witness;you shall not defraud;honor your father and your mother.”He replied and said to him,“Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,“You are lacking in one thing.Go, sell what you have, and give to the poorand you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”At that statement his face fell,and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
“How hard it is for those who have wealthto enter the kingdom of God!”The disciples were amazed at his words.So Jesus again said to them in reply,“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needlethan for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,“Then who can be saved?”Jesus looked at them and said,“For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.All things are possible for God.”Peter began to say to him,“We have given up everything and followed you.”Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sistersor mother or father or children or landsfor my sake and for the sake of the gospelwho will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:houses and brothers and sistersand mothers and children and lands,with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.”The post Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, October 12, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
10 min - Living and Proclaiming the Faith in Communion, 27th Friday (II), October 11, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, ManhattanFriday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Year IIMemorial of Pope St. John XXIIIOctober 11, 2024Gal 3:7-14, Ps 111, Lk 11:15-26To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.11.24_Homily_1.mp3The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Today’s Gospel was the first Gospel I ever had the privilege to proclaim and today’s readings were the first ones about which I ever preached, 26 years ago (October 9 that year), the day after I was ordained a deacon. I’ve always thought that God was very good to me in giving me these readings because they’re not particularly easy to preach on, and so from the first time I ever had the chance to act on what I was instructed at my diaconal ordination, to “Believe what you read [and] teach what you believe,” I had to do so explicitly with far greater dependence on God, far greater cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Whenever I have had the chance to proclaim and preach, therefore, on the readings of the 27th Friday of Ordinary Time, Year II, it always reminds me of the summons God gives to turn to him for light! With that help, I’d like to focus on two huge lessons from today’s readings and then tie them to the saint the Church remembers today, Pope St. John XXIII.
- The first lesson is about faith. In today’s reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the apostle talks to us about faith, saying that those who have faith are children of Abraham. St. Paul was writing this to the Christians he had evangelized on his first and second journeys, but whose faith had then been reprogrammed by Judaizing Christians coming from Jerusalem, those who thought that in order to be a good Christian, you first had to be a perfect Jew. They didn’t realize that the Mosaic Law was a gift to prepare God’s people for the advent of the Messiah, who would bring the law to perfection. St. Paul will call the Mosaic Law, as we’ll see tomorrow, a pedagogue or tutor, someone who at his time would travel with a student to class before the master or professor, and then, after class, go over all of the lessons. St. Paul was stressing throughout this letter as well as his letter to the Romans that we are saved by God through faith: salvation is God’s work that we receive through the gift of faith. The Judaizers, like the Pharisees of which he once was one, thought we were saved by our actions of fidelity to God’s law. We Christians know that we’re judged by our actions, but not saved by them. The big takeaway, however, is not just why the Judaizing Christians were wrong. The great takeaway is how we’re supposed to live. We’re supposed to live by faith, just like Abraham. We’re constantly being asked by God to make journeys of faith like Abraham did at 75, leaving Ur of the Chaldeans, his security, his life as he knew it until then and journey to a place God would show him. God didn’t tell him the destination, but Abraham trusted in him enough to go. God promised that he would become the father of many nations and showed him the stars of the sky as a confirmation of how many descendants he’d have, but the text of Genesis is clear that he was asked to look into the heavens when the sky was blue, not dark, because dusk came afterward. Abraham knew the stars were there, but couldn’t see them, which is a good image of what faith means, a certainty without seeing with worldly eyes. He didn’t know that he would have to wait 25 years for the fulfillment of that promise, but he continued to believe. He didn’t realize that he would be asked to sacrifice the fulfillment of that promise, Isaac, 13 years after his birth, but he did so with incredible faith, knowing, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, that God would raise him from the dead if he should be sacrificed. The Lord is calling each of us to a faith like this, to leave our comfort zones, to follow him, to count the stars even when we can’t see them, to trust even when he asks us to sacrifice what’s dearest. As St. Paul writes at the end of this passage, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”
- The second great lesson from today’s readings is about communion in the Church. In the Gospel, we see the opposition Jesus faced by those who refused to believe in him or his works. By this point, Jesus had already worked all of the miracles foretold by Isaiah (61) that would mark the advent of the Messiah: he had proclaimed the Gospel to the poor, healed the sick, made the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the lame walk. He had liberated the captives from the clutches of the devil by countless exorcisms. He had fed multitudes. He had walked on water. He had done so much. The people who didn’t believe in him couldn’t credibly deny the facts, but they could try to give them another interpretation: they claimed Jesus wasn’t working them by God’s power but by the devil’s, an attempt to justify their lack of faith in him and their opposition. Jesus, in his words to them, spoke about the work of the devil and the main thrust of his own saving work. The work of the devil is to divide and the main focus of Jesus’ work is to save us and sanctify us by bringing us into communion with God and in Him with others. Christ during the Last Supper prayed for a unity among us resembling the Trinity. He did that through his incarnation, life, passion, death and resurrection. We prayed in the Gospel verse about that when Jesus would be lifted up on the Cross, he would draw all men to himself — and out of the clutches of the evil one. We remember from St. Mark’s Gospel the two essential aspects involved in life with Jesus: he calls us to be with him and to send us out (3:14). The devil wants to divide us from Jesus and prevent our going out as effective, ardent apostles. And he normally seeks to achieve both objectives by division, dividing us from genuine love of neighbor and thereby separating us from God. This is exactly the opposite of what Christ seeks: to gather us to him and to send us out to gather others. And then he gives everyone a choice to gather with him or to scatter. He said that Satan wouldn’t do exorcisms because he would then be defeating himself. It’s only God who does them. God comes in Christ as the “stronger man” to conquer the power of Satan and take his “spoils,” knowing that his “spoils” would be souls Jesus would take out of the devil’s hand. Jesus warned his critics at the end of the Gospel to see that God had freed them through the Old Covenant from the domination of the evil one, but that a worse fate could await them if they cease to live by faith. The devil could return with seven demons and the new state would be worse than the one even before they had been given the Covenant. The whole thrust of Jesus’ words were to help us to respond to Jesus’ desire to gather us into his family and to send us out to gather with him.
- These two focuses in the readings, on growth in faith, and gathering Christ’s family together, are both important ways by which we can gratefully celebrate this feast of Pope St. John XXIII. He died on June 3, 1963, but we celebrate his feast day today, October 11, the day he, responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, convened the Second Vatican Council. The Second Vatican Council was an attempt to launch a new Pentecost, to open the windows of the Church for the Holy Spirit to come in with his tongues of fire to propose the Gospel in a compelling way to the people of today so as to bring people together. Throughout his ministry, he sought to unite us to Christ in a Church and world that was growing increasingly polarized as a result of two world wars, various genocides and the cold war, as a result of a growing separation between north and south, between rich and poor, developed and developing. He sought to try to gather people together in communion with the “Stronger Man” and the full strength of the Good Shepherd’s love. We can focus on a few ways he did so.
- The first was by maintaining a strong communion with the Lord through a life of personal holiness. He knew he couldn’t gather others for Christ unless he were intimately united with him. From the time he was a 14-year-old in a high school seminary, he saw that in order to bear fruit in his life, he needed to live by a “Rule of life,” a set of spiritual practices that would help him grow in conformity to Christ, and he kept them his entire life. After his death, his former secretary said that John’s “Rules of Life” were truly rules for life. “He copied them out by hand, in minute writing, kept them always by him and constantly observed them, even when he was pope,” Cardinal Loris Capovilla said. They were the blueprint for John’s growth in sanctity in correspondence to God’s grace, his means of growing stronger through communion with the Stronger Man.
- The second way he gathered was through tenderness. He was called “Il Papa Buono,” the Good Pope, in his lifetime because of the way he tenderly loved others with a father’s heart and encouragement. The night before the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he told parents in his memorable “moonlight speech” to the throngs who had assembled in St. Peter’s Square to go home, hug their kids and say, “This is a hug from the Pope.” People never forgot it, because it showed the affection of God through his vicar and icon. He showed God the Father’s love for his family.
- Third, he focused on the need for mercy, which heals the wounds that divides and seeks to establish true reconciliation. The purpose for convening the Council, he said on this day in 1962, was “that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously,” noting that “the substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another.” He thought our age needed a special presentation of the faith with regard to the errors of the day. The faith was the same but we needed to present it in a more compelling way in response to modern questions if people were going to be saved by faith. He stated that most Councils were called to oppose errors, saying, “Frequently she has condemned them with the greatest severity. Nowadays however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. … The Catholic Church, raising the torch of religious truth by means of this Ecumenical Council, desires to show herself to be the loving mother of all, benign, patient, full of mercy and goodness.” That is the means in the modern world, he thought, that the Church could be best a sign of unity and an instrument of God’s peace. That would be the best way to communicate the faith. Today is an opportunity to focus on our role in the transmission of the truth of the faith overflowing in communal love.
- The great work of gathering us to Christ, of uniting us in communion, happens here at Mass where Jesus, the Stronger Man, seeks to make us one body, one spirit with Him and others. It’s here that we receive the help we need to defeat the devil’s attempted sabotage of our lives. It’s here that we remember each day with joy that we are the disciples of the one who has defeated the devil and conquered even death and sin. It’s here that our faith is strengthened by the Word of God, received faithfully in the communion of the Church, and where we commit ourselves anew to holiness and to the work of gathering with Christ into a “United Kingdom” that will stand strong into eternity.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 GAL 3:7-14Brothers and sisters:Realize that it is those who have faithwho are children of Abraham.Scripture, which saw in advance that Godwould justify the Gentiles by faith,foretold the good news to Abraham, saying,Through you shall all the nations be blessed.Consequently, those who have faith are blessedalong with Abraham who had faith.For all who depend on works of the law are under a curse;for it is written, Cursed be everyonewho does not persevere in doing all the thingswritten in the book of the law.And that no one is justified before God by the law is clear,for the one who is righteous by faith will live.But the law does not depend on faith;rather, the one who does these things will live by them.Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,for it is written, Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,that the blessing of Abraham might be extendedto the Gentiles through Christ Jesus,so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.Responsorial Psalm PS 111:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6R. (5) The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heartin the company and assembly of the just.Great are the works of the LORD,exquisite in all their delights.R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.Majesty and glory are his work,and his justice endures forever.He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;gracious and merciful is the LORD.R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.He has given food to those who fear him;he will forever be mindful of his covenant.He has made known to his people the power of his works,giving them the inheritance of the nations.R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.Alleluia JN 12:31B-32R. Alleluia, alleluia.The prince of this world will now be cast out,and when I am lifted up from the earthI will draw all to myself, says the Lord.R. Alleluia, alleluia.Gospel LK 11:15-26When Jesus had driven out a demon, some of the crowd said:
“By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,he drives out demons.”Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.But he knew their thoughts and said to them,“Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid wasteand house will fall against house.And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,by whom do your own people drive them out?Therefore they will be your judges.But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.When a strong man fully armed guards his palace,his possessions are safe.But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,he takes away the armor on which he reliedand distributes the spoils.Whoever is not with me is against me,and whoever does not gather with me scatters.“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone,it roams through arid regions searching for restbut, finding none, it says,‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order.Then it goes and brings back seven other spiritsmore wicked than itself who move in and dwell there,and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.”The post Living and Proclaiming the Faith in Communion, 27th Friday (II), October 11, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
26 min - The Missionary Dimension of Priestly Eucharistic Life, Clergy Day for the Priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, October 10, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Clergy Days for the Archdiocese of PhiladelphiaSt. Helen Church, Blue Bell PennsylvaniaOctober 10, 2024To listen to an audio recording of the first of two clergy days, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.10.24_Missionary_Dimension_of_Priestly_Eucharistic_Life_1.mp3To download a PDF of the slides of the presentation, please click below:
Missionary Dimension of Priestly Eucharistic Life
The post The Missionary Dimension of Priestly Eucharistic Life, Clergy Day for the Priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, October 10, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
1 hr 2 min - Faithful Perseverance in Prayer, Life and Faith, 27th Thursday (II), October 10, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
IESE Business School, New York CityLeonine Forum New York City ChapterOctober 10, 2024Gal 3:1-5, Lk 1:69-75, Lk 11:5-13To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.10.24_Homily_1.mp3The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Yesterday when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he began by teaching them that the secret of prayer is to approach God as a loving Father. Once we do, almost everything flows. We begin to seek the glory and sanctification of his name, the building of his kingdom and the doing of his will not only because we love Him but also because we know that, as his sons and daughters, we share that name, are heirs of that kingdom, and his will is to help us to become saints. Once we relate to him as a Loving Father than we trust in his providence to give us each day what we need and in his mercy to forgive us when we err because he loves us more than he detests the sins that hurt us and wound our relationship with him. When we relate to him as a Loving Father we trust him not to put us in a position in which we’ll fail the ultimate test but to challenge us and help us to meet those challenges that are beyond what we think are possible.
- Today Jesus continues his responding to our request to teach us how to pray by illustrating for us how to persevere in prayer. He gives us a parable based on middle eastern customs of hospitality. Especially during the summer months when the sun is most brutal, many Jews would travel at night and so it was not unheard of that a guest would arrive at your home — in the days before not only phones, texts and emails but also before a postal system that was affordable and efficient — unannounced at night, famished after a long journey. Because bread was baked normally in the morning, it’s possible that all the bread had already been eaten. That’s why you’d go to your neighbors to ask if they had anything to share. The second thing to understand about middle eastern culture is that their doors were open all day long but when they were shut and locked, that meant that the entire family and all their animals had gone to bed. They’d sleep together in an interior part of the house to stay warm during the typical middle eastern radiational cooling at night. To get up to answer the door when a neighbor was knocking at midnight meant that one would likely be stepping on one’s children, one’s animals and waking everyone up. It’s understandable that one would want to wait to share bread until the morning. But Jesus says that because of the perseverance of the neighbor, “I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.” Jesus mentions this as a lesson in prayer precisely in order to contrast that motivation with one of God. He was saying, “If a neighbor would eventually give in because of harassment, think about how God will respond out of love?” That led Jesus to say, “I tell you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.” Notice that he doesn’t say that one will receive, find or have the door opened immediately. He also doesn’t say that one will receive and find exactly what one expected to find. But he does promise God will respond, precisely because God is a loving Father who always responds first and foremost by giving himself. That’s why Jesus said, “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” God sends the Holy Spirit not just to those who ask for the Holy Spirit but for those who ask, seek, or knock for anything, and he does so precisely because he loves us and provides what we really need beyond what we desire or explicitly request.
- The question we need to ask and answer, however, is: Why doesn’t God answer our prayers immediately if he loves us? Why does he want us to persevere in knocking like the neighbor for bread? Why does he want us to spend hours, days, months even years seeking in order to find? He does so precisely so that we may learn how to persevere in life. Pope Francis asked in an Angelus meditation several years ago why God wants us to pray with perseverance. “Why does God want this? Doesn’t he already know what we need? … This is a good question that makes us examine an important aspect of the faith: God invites us to pray insistently not because he is unaware of our needs or because he is not listening to us. On the contrary, he is always listening and he knows everything about us lovingly.” But because we pray as we live and live as we pray, he wants to develop in us through prayer the type of perseverance we need to remain faithful in life. “On our daily journey, especially in times of difficulty, in the battle against the evil that is outside and within us,” Pope Francis continued, “the Lord is not far away, he is by our side. We battle with him beside us, and our weapon is prayer which makes us feel his presence beside us, his mercy and also his help. But the battle against evil is a long and hard one; it requires patience and endurance. … Indeed persevering prayer is the expression of faith in a God who calls us to fight with him every day and at every moment in order to conquer evil with good.” Persevering prayer helps us to learn the persevering faith we have to have to fight the good fight so as to win.
- We see the importance of this virtue of faithful perseverance in today’s first reading, when St. Paul sternly corrects the Christians in Galatia for their lack of endurance in the life according to the Holy Spirit to which Paul introduced them. They had instead gone over to a false gospel that taught that they would be saved not by grace, not by God, not by faithful response to God’s help, but rather by their own participation in the Jewish “works of the law” such as circumcision, dietary practices and the like. St. Paul didn’t mince words when he said, “O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you — literally given you the evil eye — before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” Did they not realize, he was saying, that they were saved by what Christ accomplished on the Cross? ” I want to learn only this from you,” he continued. “Did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? … Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?” They had failed to live according to God, beseeching his help in prayer, receiving the Holy Spirit he always sends, counting on the graces Christ won for us on Calvary. Instead they began to focus on their own works. Sometimes we’re as “stupid” as the Galatians, but Paul wants to give us the wisdom that he received from his faithfully persevering dependence on God in prayer and in life. And he wants us to imitate that faithful endurance.
- Tonight at the Leonine Forum as we ponder the role of faith and reason in understanding and living Catholic Social Teaching, we recall that many who once believed in Church teaching in a variety of areas do not persevere. They go over to “another Gospel,” whether that’s the “pseudo-Gospel” of might-makes-right, or of the sexual revolution, or of the technocratic paradigm that everything we can do we ethically can do, or of consumerism, or of environmental worship over stewardship, or of nationalism (in contrast to authentic patriotism). It’s key for us perseveringly to use the gift of both reason and revelation to grow stronger in faith so that not only we might grow stronger in faith and help others continue to grow in faith and wisdom as well.
- Tonight at Mass, we ask, we seek, we knock and we open ourselves to the manifold ways God responds, as God the Father prepares to send us both his Son as well as the Holy Spirit in response to the constant petitions of the Church at Mass. We ask him likewise to grant us the graces of perseverance in faith, in reason, in prayer, and in the moral life so that we might believe, announce, enflesh and share the fruits of Catholic social teaching in an age that in many ways have gone over to another Gospel than the one Christ has given us, so that they might believe in again.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1gal 3:1-5O stupid Galatians!Who has bewitched you,before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?I want to learn only this from you:did you receive the Spirit from works of the law,or from faith in what you heard?Are you so stupid?After beginning with the Spirit,are you now ending with the flesh?Did you experience so many things in vain?–if indeed it was in vain.Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to youand works mighty deeds among youdo so from works of the lawor from faith in what you heard?Responsorial Psalmlk 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75R. (68) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.He has raised up for us a mighty savior,born of the house of his servant David.R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.Through his holy prophets he promised of oldthat he would save us from our enemies,from the hands of all who hate us.R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.He promised to show mercy to our fathersand to remember his holy covenant.R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:to set us free from the hands of our enemies,free to worship him without fear,holy and righteous in his sightall the days of our life.R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; He has come to his people.Gospellk 11:5-13Jesus said to his disciples:“Suppose one of you has a friendto whom he goes at midnight and says,‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journeyand I have nothing to offer him,’and he says in reply from within,‘Do not bother me; the door has already been lockedand my children and I are already in bed.I cannot get up to give you anything.’I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loavesbecause of their friendship,he will get up to give him whatever he needsbecause of his persistence.“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;seek and you will find;knock and the door will be opened to you.For everyone who asks, receives;and the one who seeks, finds;and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.What father among you would hand his son a snakewhen he asks for a fish?Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?If you then, who are wicked,know how to give good gifts to your children,how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spiritto those who ask him?”The post Faithful Perseverance in Prayer, Life and Faith, 27th Thursday (II), October 10, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
18 min - Praying Together To God the Father and Living Like Brothers and Sisters, 27th Wednesday (II), October 9, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Corpus Christi Church, ManhattanWednesday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Year IIMemorial of St. John Henry NewmanOctober 9, 2024To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.9.24_Homily_1.mp3The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Yesterday we pondered the example of Mary of Bethany sitting at Jesus’ feet, allowing him to feed her. She had chosen the better part and the one thing necessary, the activity more important than all others. Today we see Jesus sitting at the feet of his Father in prayer. His example of prayer led the disciples to ask him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John [the Baptist] taught his disciples.” Jesus had already taught them much about prayer by his parables describing the need to pray with perseverance, patience, humility, purity of intention, faith, without show and in his name. He had taught them much by his example of prayer, constantly going out at night or early in the morning to pray. But they were asking for some direct instruction, for Jesus to open up to them the mystery of intimacy with God.
- It’s noteworthy that Jesus didn’t reply to their request by teaching them a posture of prayer, telling them to kneel, close their eyes and fold their hands. He didn’t instruct them to go through breathing exercises or other techniques to empty themselves of distractions. He didn’t indicate how to listen to God, like Eli taught Samuel to say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” He didn’t give them a meditation method. He didn’t even given them a formula of vocal prayer, something seen by the fact that Luke’s rendition of the Lord’s Prayer is different from Matthew’s, a sign that Jesus wasn’t passing out “magic words” as much as trying to pass on an attitude, a whole approach to prayer; he wasn’t imparting a quid ores (a what you are to say when you pray) but a qualis ores (a who you are as you pray), as St. Augustine was wont to say. And what was that approach?
- Everything can be summarized by the first word he taught them: Abba! He taught them to turn not to some cosmic life-force way out in the heavens, or to some slavemaster or judge or apathetic Creator, but to a “Father.” This is the open secret to what Jesus teaches us about prayer. We see his own prayers: “I give you praise, Father, … for having revealed these things to the merest of children.” “I thank you, Father, for having heard me. I know that you always hear me.” “Father, glorify your name!” “Father, take this chalice away from me!” “Father, forgive them!” “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.” Jesus’ prayers were all to the Father, to whom he turned with great trust and love. In teaching us how to pray, Jesus was trying to form us to enter into his own divine filiation and to pray with loving confidence. He told us in the Sermon on the Plain that if earthly parents aren’t sadists but know how to give good things to their children, so God the Father won’t give us a stone when we ask for bread, or a poisonous eel when we ask for fish, but will give himself — the Holy Spirit — no matter what we ask for. To pray as Jesus taught is to enter into that relationship of love with the Father. Everything else Jesus taught us about prayer flows from that.
- He instructs us to pray, “Hallowed by thy name,” and “Thy Kingdom come,” which means that we are seeking God’s glory not our own, his kingdom not ours. St. Matthew’s inclusion of Jesus’ words “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is just a magnification of seeking God’s kingdom and the glory of his name. Jesus is helping us to remember that prayer should first be about God, not about ourselves.
- But precisely because prayer is about God and he loves and cares for us, Jesus gives us some indications about how we should bring our needs to God in prayer. When we grasp that God is a loving Father, we should trust in his Providence. He knows what we need even before we ask it and he cares for us more than the lilies of the field or the sparrows in the sky. So Jesus says we should ask, “Give us each day our daily bread.” We don’t ask for security in material possessions or big grain bins. Instead, we trust in him to provide every day out of love. We trust in him not to forget us. And unlike the Jews in the desert who complained about the daily Manna, we’re called to be satisfied with the Father’s continued provisions. For most of us, the Father responds to that prayer not by raining down what looks like coriander seed, but by giving us the conditions by which we can grow or buy food through the talents and opportunities he’s given us and by using those same gifts in union with God’s fatherly love to help care for those who are hungry. Jesus is helping us to relate to God the Father in his providential care. The word for “daily” is “epiousios,” which means “super-substantial,” which for the Fathers of the Church always pointed to Jesus in the Eucharist, the daily True Manna that the Father gives us.
- Then he helps us to relate to him with regard to his mercy, teaching us to say, “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” We’re all prodigal sons and daughters, but the Father never ceases to forgive us. Jesus wants us to relate to God in those terms and never to forget that, first, we need his mercy, and then second, we’re supposed to become like him in sharing that mercy with others. If we don’t see ourselves as in need of his mercy, we can’t relate to him because we don’t know who he is or who we are. And if we’re not sharing that mercy with others, then our hearts will be closed to receive God’s mercy, too, for as Jesus indicated in the parable of the two debtors, what others owe us on account of their sins against us is nothing compared to the debts we owe God for our sins against him. But he wants to envelope us in that mercy.
- The final petition is, “Do not subject us to the final test.” We recognize our weakness and ask God not to test us beyond our strength, to the ultimate test. We know that God often tests us in order to help us grow. Every time we’re tempted to impatience, for example, but behave as patiently toward others as God is toward us, we grow in patience. We pass the test. Likewise every time we sacrifice for others and overcome our selfishness, we grow in the virtue of generosity and become more and more like God who lets us rain fall on the fields of the good and bad. In humbly asking God not to test us beyond our strength, we are precisely acknowledging that, because he will never refuse prayers made in Jesus’ name, whatever tests we do face are passable when we’re weak enough to rely on God’s strength (Phil 4:13). It’s a beautiful summary of the entire attitude Jesus instructions us to assume in the dialogue of persons that is prayer. We’re asking God’s grace to relate to him as beloved sons and daughters, to seek his glory and kingdom, to trust he will always provide what we truly need and never turn his merciful heart away from us when we sincerely beg him for mercy. To pray is to enter into this love of the Father!
- Once we begin to pray as Jesus taught us, then it is easier to live as Jesus lived, because we pray as we live and live as we pray (CCC 2725). Our prayer should overflow into our life. That’s what today’s first reading is essentially about, in St. Paul’s conflict with St. Peter, St. Barnabas and the Judaizing Christians who had come down from Jerusalem. Once we begin to pray, “Father,” and especially “Our Father,” that’s meant to have consequences in our whole approach to life. We begin to look at each as the other really is, as a spiritual brother or sister, as a beloved fellow son or daughter of the same Father. So when Peter (Cephas) and Barnabas stopped eating with their Gentile brothers and sisters in Antioch out of not wanting to be criticized by those from Jerusalem who thought that in order to be a good Christian, you first needed to be a good Jew and eat only kosher food and live separately from the uncircumcised, Paul opposed them publicly. We need to learn that lesson. We’ll hear on Saturday morning St. Paul’s saying, “For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you… were baptized into Christ. … There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.” When we’ve entered into Jesus’ sonship, we become spiritual siblings and therefore earthly distinctions of separation shouldn’t perdure. Our spiritual bonds are stronger than race, or sex, or class or social conventions. But we need to live that way.
- Someone who did live that way is the holy one we celebrate today, Saint John Henry Newman. Cardinal Newman was a man of prayer who eventually came to realize that Jesus wanted us all praying as one in communion, as Jesus himself begged the Father during the Last Supper. He sought himself, and to teach others, how to hallow God’s name, seek his kingdom and do his will, to hunger for the supersubstantial Bread come down from heaven, for divine mercy and protection. He wasn’t afraid to give fraternal corrections to those whom he thought needed it, but at the same time, he was a meek man who sought to reconcile with those who were open. He is someone whose life shows us the integrity of someone who prays, “Thy will be done!,” and follows that will wherever it leads, and it led him ultimately to the Catholic Church and then, ex umbris et imaginibus ad veritatem, from the shadows and images into the truth that sets us free and remains forever.
- Today, as we ponder Jesus’ call to pray to the Father as a family, we come to pray the Mass and the Mass is one long prayer to God the Father through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit who helps us to cry out “Abba!” It was in the first Mass — from the Last Supper to Calvary — in which Jesus begged for the glorification of his Father’s name, inaugurated his kingdom, gave us our daily supersubstantial nourishment, died to take away the sins of the world, prayed that the Father would keep us from the evil one, and expressed his desire that all of us would be as united as he and the Father are united. Today let us dare — like St. John Henry Newman — to enter into this prayer of Jesus at the altar as he continues to teach us both how to pray and how to live!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1gal 2:1-2, 7-14Brothers and sisters:After fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas,taking Titus along also.I went up in accord with a revelation,and I presented to them the Gospel that I preach to the Gentiles–but privately to those of repute–so that I might not be running, or have run, in vain.On the contrary,when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised,just as Peter to the circumcised,for the one who worked in Peter for an apostolate to the circumcisedworked also in me for the Gentiles,and when they recognized the grace bestowed upon me,James and Cephas and John,who were reputed to be pillars,gave me and Barnabas their right hands in partnership,that we should go to the Gentilesand they to the circumcised.Only, we were to be mindful of the poor,which is the very thing I was eager to do.And when Cephas came to Antioch,I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.For, until some people came from James,he used to eat with the Gentiles;but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself,because he was afraid of the circumcised.And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him,with the result that even Barnabaswas carried away by their hypocrisy.But when I saw that they were not on the right roadin line with the truth of the Gospel,I said to Cephas in front of all,“If you, though a Jew,are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew,how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”Responsorial Psalmps 117:1bc, 2R. Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.Praise the LORD, all you nations,glorify him, all you peoples!R. Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.For steadfast is his kindness toward us,and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.R. Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.Gospellk 11:1-4Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,one of his disciples said to him,“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”He said to them, “When you pray, say:Father, hallowed be your name,your Kingdom come.Give us each day our daily breadand forgive us our sinsfor we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,and do not subject us to the final test.”The post Praying Together To God the Father and Living Like Brothers and Sisters, 27th Wednesday (II), October 9, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
7 min - Taking the Eucharistic Jesus Out Into the World: Lessons from the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine, October 8, 2024
Fr. Roger Landry, Marina Frattaroli and Zoe Dongas
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine, Washington Heights, New YorkPresentation on the Seton Route of the National Eucharistic PilgrimageOctober 8, 2024To listen to an audio recording featuring the introduction by Julia Attaway, Director of the Cabrini Shrine, Fr. Roger Landry, Marina Frattaroli and Zoe Dongas from the Seton Route perpetual pilgrims, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/10.8.24_Landry_Frattaroli_Dongas_On_The_Road_With_Jesus.mp3The post Taking the Eucharistic Jesus Out Into the World: Lessons from the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine, October 8, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
1 hr 26 min
About Catholic Preaching
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Father Roger J. Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who works for the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York.
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