Catholic Preaching

Catholic Preaching

By Father Roger LandryReligion & SpiritualityChristianity
Download on the App Store

Catholic Preaching episodes

  • Prophets Fully With The Lord, 26th Sunday (B), September 29, 2024

    Fr. Roger J. Landry

    Missionaries of Charity Convent, Bronx
    26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B
    September 29, 2024
    Numbers 11:25-29, Ps 19, James 5:1-6, Mk 9:38-43.45.47-48

     

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

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.29.24_MCs_Homily_1.mp3

     

    The following text guided the homily: 

    • We encounter in today’s Gospel a big contrast and a huge surprise. The contrast is between those who are working for God and those who are not. As the Lord says, some are “for” Him; some are “against” Him. The surprise is that those who seem to be working for the Lord in fact might not be, and those who seem not to be laboring with and for Him in fact may be. Insofar as all desire to be working for the Lord, all of us want to hear him one day say to us, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” we need to examine what the Lord Jesus says today and apply it to our own life and actions, to see whether we indeed are working for him or against him.
    • We start with God’s collaborators. God wants all of us on his team, working for him and his kingdom. In the first reading, Moses says, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!” The Lord wants all of us to proclaim him, to spread his truth, to invite all others into the circle of his incredible love. He’s said this to us in many ways. His last words before ascending to the Father were “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News!” (Mk 16:15). He called us to be the Light of the World, reflecting the light of his truth and the warmth of his love to each one we meet (Mt 5:14). He said that those who are great in his kingdom “will keep my words and teach others to do the same” (Mt 5:19). Announcing the Gospel, as Jesus told us, is not just saying, “Lord, Lord,” but “doing God’s will” (Mt 7:21) and he wants to help us to seek, find, treasure and do his will to make disciples of all nations.
    • What we see in today’s readings is that sometimes those on the Lord’s team aren’t wearing the team uniforms and those who bear the team colors are often not actually helping the team win. In the first reading today, Eldad and Medad were not among the original seventy elders chosen to prophesy in the name of the Lord to the Israelites. But the Lord filled them with his Spirit and they began to proclaim God’s word throughout the camp. The still young and immature Joshua, who would become Moses’ successor, objected with panic, “Moses, stop them!” Imagine: Joshua wanted to have them stop preaching about the Lord! Who was working for the Lord here and who was not? Moses told Joshua there was no reason to be jealous. God, he stated, wants all to be prophets, and regularly works outside of our cozy parameters. Even those we think are not the ones chosen by the Lord to be his ambassadors might in fact be important emissaries and coworkers in the end.
    • We learn the same lesson from the Gospel. Soon after the failure of the disciples to cast out a demon from a young boy (while the Lord was being transfigured before Peter, James and John on the mountain) and after the Lord had castigated their generation for its lack of faith, the disciples caught someone who wasn’t among their number casting out demons in Jesus’ name. St. John told Jesus that he and the other disciples had tried to stop him. Who was working for the Lord in this Gospel scene and who was against him? It’s a particularly poignant question on this feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, whom we invoke to cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. The disciples were the ones who were supposed to be the Lord’s collaborators, but like Joshua 13 centuries before, they still hadn’t figured out God’s ways. Jesus had come to set prisoners free, to defeat Satan once and for all, but his still-immature disciples wanted to stop someone from casting out devils because, essentially, they were more concerned with what they thought were their exclusive prerogatives in God’s kingdom than in accomplishing his work. None of us should ever think we have a monopoly on the name, mission, message and power of Jesus. We should never find God’s action in others a threat, but rather something to marvel at and praise him for. We should of course want to help others to come to the fullness of the truth about God revealed to us by Christ in His Church. We should of course want everyone to be fully with us in the Lord’s fold. But we should rejoice that others, at whatever stage of revelation they’ve received, are corresponding to the gentle breeze of the Holy Spirit, trying to oppose the devil and do the Lord’s work. Today the whole Church repeats with Moses, “Would that all God’s people were prophets!”
    • In his gentle correction of one of the “sons of thunder,” Jesus gives St. John and all of us an important principle: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” We live in a society hyper-polarized by politics and a Church rent with so many tragic divisions. There’s a temptation, even and perhaps especially among many serious believers, to focus so much on what distinguishes us from others that we lose what unites us. Focusing on such differences, we can pull ourselves, and push others, away. In our interactions, we often begin with what we criticize rather than what we admire. We fault others for what they don’t get right rather than focus with what they do. Despite the redwoods impeding our vision, we see the specks in others’ eyes. We see this tendency in the Gospel with many of the Pharisees, literally the “separated ones.” They were constantly distinguishing themselves from others that they really lost the capacity to unite. Like one of their number in Jesus’ parable about prayer, they proudly and condescendingly gave thanks that they were not like others, who were guilty of various types of notorious sins. Jesus wants us to recognize and prioritize in others those parts that are united with him. He wants us not only not to stop them, but to encourage and assist them. He tells us today that anyone who gives us a cup of water to drink because we belong to him is ultimately cooperating with grace, is corresponding to the work and life of the kingdom, is, in short, somehow with him and therefore with us.
    • But it’s important for us not to miss the fact that not all God’s people are in fact prophets. Jesus says quite strongly that there are those who are “against” Him, those who not only do not work for him, but actively oppose him. We see many of these opponents in the Gospels: Satan in the desert; various of the Scribes and Pharisees during Jesus’ public ministry; Herod the Great at Jesus’ birth; Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas at Jesus’ death; even, for a very short time, St. Peter, whom Christ called Satan and told to get behind him when he rejected the possibility that the Lord would suffer. Those, however, were not the ones Jesus specified in this episode as those who were “against” him. He referred, rather, to those who give scandal. Those who are against him are the false prophets, who teach others, especially the young, not about how to know, love and serve the Lord but rather how to sin. Such is Jesus’ love for his children that he passionately warns everyone who harms little ones through scandal to know what punishment they should expect: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and thrown into the sea.” They would be better off drowning in the ocean, he states, than having to answer to him face to face. The word “scandal” in the original language of the Bible meant two things: something that causes another to fall and something that is an obstacle to someone’s doing good. Applied to the matters of faith, scandal is something that either causes another to sin against God or that prevents the access of another to the kingdom of God. We can easily call to mind those whose deeds lead others astray: bishops and priests who haven’t walked the walk, as we’ve seen in the recent scandals of sexual abuse and the failure of those in positions of authority to eradicate them or to tell the truth about them; celebrities from the world of music, movies and sports whose example draws the young into drugs, into using others in relationships, into the worship of status; educators, who teach young people in public schools confusing ideas about what it means to be a boy or a girl or who promote premarital sex, homosexuality, abortion and other practices totally contrary to what God wants; politicians who, rather than trying to unite and serve all, demagogically try to turn some groups against others in order to score political points or solicit votes by appealing to baser interests or fears. St. James today in the second reading describes the scandal of wealthy Christians who were living in luxury and splendor while so many were going without, who were withholding wages from workers, and who were basically living in a selfish way rather than loving their neighbor as Christ had loved them; this is a pattern that repeats itself among some Christians in every age, who rather than being a steward of God’s blessings, rather than using what they’ve received to help others and build up Christ’s kingdom, were using it fundamentally for themselves. We can likewise think about those in convents, monasteries, rectories and other religious houses who become bad leaven, whose fallen habits, like pessimism, worldliness, pride or disobedience lower the standards of those around them and make it easier for them to sin. If it were possible to buy stock in a millstone business, now would be the time to buy. But Jesus leaves us this unforgettable image not principally to threaten but to call to conversion. With similarly striking metaphors of plucking out eyes and chopping off hands and feet, he is urging us to be brutal in cutting out of our life not only what leads us to sin but what leads others to sin.
    • It’s not enough for us, however, merely to excise metastatic moral cancers. Jesus wants us to be prophets, those who announce his words and encourage people to imitate and follow him. He wants us, by our words and actions, to inspire others to live off every word that comes from God’s mouth, to treat God’s law — as we pray in today’s psalm — as perfect, trustworthy, wise, refreshing, pure, and just. He wants us to show what’s really important in life, to encourage others to pray, to love the Mass, to be grateful for confession, to learn our faith better, to sacrifice ourselves to care for the poor and needy, to use appropriate language, to be honest, to see the good in others, to forgive and give people second chances, to be faithful to the Lord in everything, to strive to become saints, and to love God with all their mind, heart, soul and strength.
    • The best way to learn to be a true and good prophet, to be “with the Lord” rather than “against” him, is to learn from Jesus himself. At Jesus’ time there was a lot of hypocrisy. He pointed to it when he said that his contemporaries should listen to the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees who sit on Moses’ seat, but not follow their example, because their example was a clear violation of the words of God they spoke. Jesus, on the other hand, was full of integrity. He never merely said, “Do what I say,” but always, “Follow me.” And he had set his goal, his eyes, on always doing the will of the Father who sent him, of leading others on the way of sanctity, which is the way of the Cross, all the way to heaven. In order to be the type of true prophet that God wants us to be, we, too, need not merely to mouth the words of the faith, but to be able to say to others, especially those who might look to us, “Follow me!,” by living not for worldly goals and ambitions but progressing resolutely on the clear path set out by Jesus and the Church he founded. We need to toss from our lives whatever is not fitting for that journey, so that others, in following our footsteps, may come to God. We begin every Mass by calling to mind all those parts of us that are not yet in communion with God, that we need to pluck out or chop off. We ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Michael and all the angels and saints to pray for not just for ourselves individually but for all those whom God wants to be with us, that he might have mercy on us, help us to eliminate those actions and habits from our life, and grow to become truly like him. That’s the way we will become God’s instruments to bring others to full communion with him and us.
    • “Would that all God’s people were prophets!” The Lord would not be calling us to be his prophets in word and deed unless he were planning to give us all the help we need to live up to that vocation and mission. He gives us that help each day in the Mass. After having heard him in Sacred Scripture, we are commissioned to be his living echoes in the world. Through worthily receiving His body and blood inside us, we become one with him and with others. It creates a spirituality reinforcing the reality that those who are not against us are with us. Through the intercession of St. Michael, let us ask the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, to heal our wounded eyes, or sinful hands, or scandalous feet, so that every part of us — and the lives of those whom he has entrusted to us — may be “with Him” in this life and in the next, as we seek to give others not just a cup of water and bring them to the cup of salvation.

      •  

      The readings for today’s Mass were: 

      Reading 1 NM 11:25-29
      The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.
      Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,
      the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;
      and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,
      were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.
      They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;
      yet the spirit came to rest on them also,
      and they prophesied in the camp.
      So, when a young man quickly told Moses,
      “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, ”
      Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said,
      “Moses, my lord, stop them.”
      But Moses answered him,
      “Are you jealous for my sake?
      Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
      Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”
      Responsorial Psalm PS 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
      R. (9a) The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
      The law of the LORD is perfect,
      refreshing the soul;
      the decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
      giving wisdom to the simple.
      R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
      The fear of the LORD is pure,
      enduring forever;
      the ordinances of the LORD are true,
      all of them just.
      R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
      Though your servant is careful of them,
      very diligent in keeping them,
      yet who can detect failings?
      Cleanse me from my unknown faults!
      R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
      From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant;
      let it not rule over me.
      Then shall I be blameless and innocent
      of serious sin.
      R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
      Reading 2 JAS 5:1-6
      Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
      Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
      your gold and silver have corroded,
      and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
      it will devour your flesh like a fire.
      You have stored up treasure for the last days.
      Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
      who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
      and the cries of the harvesters
      have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
      You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
      you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
      You have condemned;
      you have murdered the righteous one;
      he offers you no resistance.

      Alleluia CF. JN 17:17B, 17A

      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      Your word, O Lord, is truth;
      consecrate us in the truth.
      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      Gospel MK 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
      At that time, John said to Jesus,
      “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
      and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
      Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
      There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
      who can at the same time speak ill of me.
      For whoever is not against us is for us.
      Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
      because you belong to Christ,
      amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
      it would be better for him if a great millstone
      were put around his neck
      and he were thrown into the sea.
      If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
      It is better for you to enter into life maimed
      than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
      into the unquenchable fire.
      And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
      It is better for you to enter into life crippled
      than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
      And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
      Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye
      than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
      where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

      The post Prophets Fully With The Lord, 26th Sunday (B), September 29, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      20 min
    • Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, September 28, 2024

      Fr. Roger J. Landry

      Conversations with Consequences Podcast
      Homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, Vigil
      September 28, 2024

       

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

      https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.28.24_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

       

      The 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, in which we will enter into a dramatic dialogue in which Saint John tells Jesus that the apostles saw someone driving out demons in his name and they tried to stop him, because he was not one of their number. Jesus replied that they shouldn’t stop him, because no one who performs a mighty deed in his name can at the same time speak ill of him. This Gospel is a fulfillment of what the Church will hear in the first reading, when two men, Eldad and Medad, were prophesying in the camp and Joshua implored Moses to stop them. Moses replied, “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” The unmistakable conclusion of both passages is that God wants all of us to be spreading our faith, to recognize that he calls us to be missionaries, to speak of him to others and seek to help others to come to friendship with him, to build their life with him.
      • I’d like to spend our time, however, on Jesus’ reply to the zealous young St. John. He gives him and all of us an important principle: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” We live in a society hyper-polarized by politics and a Church rent with so many tragic divisions. Jesus by this phrase first admits reality: some are indeed “for” him and others are “against” him. We know that eleven of the twelve apostles were for him, that Mary and Joseph were for him, that Mary Magdalene, Susanna and Joanna, the Centurion, the Syro-Phoenician woman, so many of those Jesus whom Jesus had healed who couldn’t stop talking about him even when he asked them not to, were clearly on his side. But we also know that there were many who were actively “against” Jesus, like Satan in the desert, some of the Scribes and Pharisees during Jesus’ public ministry, Herod the Great at Jesus’ birth, Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas at Jesus’ death, even, for a very short time, St. Peter, whom Christ called Satan and told to get behind him when he rejected the possibility that the Lord would suffer.
      • Yet, despite that reality of division that not only Jesus faced but because the disciple is never greater than the teacher, all his disciples will to some degree also face, the Lord underlines a principle by which he wants us, his followers, to live: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” There’s a temptation among many serious believers to focus so much on what distinguishes us from others that we lose what unites us. As we and others focus on those differences, we can pull ourselves and push others away. Often in our relations with others, we begin with what we criticize rather than what we admire. We fault others for what they don’t get right rather than commence with what they do. We see this tendency in the Gospel with many of the Pharisees, literally the “separated ones.” They were constantly distinguishing themselves from others that they really lost all capacity to unite. Like one of their number in Jesus’ parable about prayer, they gave thanks that they were not like others who are guilty of various types of notorious sins. Jesus wants us to recognize in others those parts that are united with him and not to stop them. Don’t forget that in the Gospel, St. John the Beloved was trying to stop people from casting out devils, as if Jesus’ will would have been that others should suffer diabolical possession or obsession another day. Sometimes our sense of separation, our lack of loving communion, can get us even to get upset when others are trying to exorcise evil.
      • Against this tendency to distinguish and exclude, Jesus wants us to have a different attitude, his own, who came to seek and save what was lost, to reunite the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to go out after the one and bring that person back to the 99, ultimately to reconcile all things in himself. Though he had come to set prisoners free, to defeat Satan once and for all, the still-immature disciples wanted to stop someone from casting out devils, from doing the Lord’s work because, essentially, they were more concerned with what they wanted to be their exclusive prerogatives in God’s kingdom than in accomplishing the work of the Kingdom. None of us should ever assume or believe that we have a monopoly on the name, mission, message and power of Jesus.  We should never find God’s action in others a threat, but rather something to marvel at and praise him for. We should of course want to help others to come to the fullness of the truth about God revealed to us by Christ in His Church, but we should rejoice that others, at whatever stage of revelation they’ve received, would be corresponding to the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us in the Gospel this Sunday that anyone who gives us a cup of water to drink because we belong to him is ultimately cooperating with grace, is corresponding to the work and life of the kingdom.
      • But we shouldn’t have too soft a distinction about who is doing God’s work and who isn’t, as if everyone, including us, is doing God’s work by the simple fact that we say we or think we are or have good intentions about doing so. Jesus immediately in this Sunday’s Gospel scene specifies those who are in fact against him: namely, those who give scandal, those who by their words and example teach others, especially the young, not about how to know, love and serve the Lord but rather how to sin.  Such is Jesus’ love for his children that he passionately warns everyone who harms little ones through scandal to know what punishment they should expect: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and thrown into the sea.” They would be better off drowning in the ocean, he says, than having to meet him face to face. The word “scandal” in the original language of the Bible meant two things: something that causes another to fall and something that is an obstacle to someone’s doing good. Applied to the matters of faith, scandal is something that either causes another to sin against God (i.e., fall from God) or something that prevents the access of another (an obstacle) to the kingdom of God. We can easily call to mind those whose deeds lead others astray: bishops and priests who haven’t walked the walk, as we’ve seen in the recent scandals of sexual abuse and the failure of those in positions of authority to eradicate them or to tell the truth about them; celebrities from the world of music, movies and sports whose example draws the young into drugs, into using others in relationships, into the worship of status; educators, who teach young people in public schools confusing ideas about what it means to be a boy or a girl or who promote premarital sex, homosexuality, abortion and other topics in ways that are totally contrary to what God wants; politicians who rather than trying to unite and serve all demagogically try to turn some groups against others in order to score political points or solicit votes by appealing to baser interests or fears. If it were possible to buy stock in a millstone business, now would be the time to buy.
      • But we should never focus on the speck in others’ eyes and miss the plank in our own. Each of us needs to ask whether by our words and actions we facilitate or frustrate the lessons God wants others, especially the young, to learn: does our example inspire or discourage young people to pray, come to Mass, go to confession, learn the faith, fight against sin, sacrifice ourselves to care for the poor and needy, use appropriate language, be honest, stay faithful to the Lord in terms of love, sex, marriage and family, and forgive and give people second, third and seventy-seventh chances? Do we encourage people to see the good in others or the evil? Do we inspire others to live off of every word that comes from God’s mouth or to think they’re fine if they ignore it? Are we motivating or dissuading the young to become true saints, to love God with all their mind, heart, soul and strength? The young learn from those who are older what’s really important in life and so we need to focus on what we’re teaching by our words and example.
      • At the end of the Gospel, Jesus speaks about being brutal with ourselves to cut from our life whatever leads to sin, telling us to cut off our foot or pluck out our eye if it leads us to oppose God or leads others to take scandal. If we have bad habits, the Lord wants to give us the grace and motivation to change. Elsewhere, Jesus says words that seem to be in contradiction with his phrase this Sunday. When he was challenged by those who accused him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, Jesus, after reminding them that divided kingdoms can’t stand, said, “Whoever is not with me is against me; whoever doesn’t gather with me, scatters” (Mt 12:30). The statements are not contradictory, but they do need to be harmonized. Reconciling both statements helps us to see that there are parts of us that are with the Lord and parts of us that are not with Him. Parts of us gather with him and parts of us scatter. The essential takeaway is that it is God’s will that we seek to bring all parts of ourselves into alignment with God and then to strive to bring everyone into the full communion willed by God.
      • The great opportunity we have for growing in wisdom and bringing our entire life into conformity with God happens at Mass, as we seek to enter into holy Communion with him, something that is not meant to be partial but total, and in him with each other. God wills that nothing in us will be against him but totally with him and with his Church. That’s why we begin every Mass calling to mind those parts of our life that aren’t in total agreement with God’s will and ask him for the grace of forgiveness and to help us precisely achieve that total communion. As we prepare to hear him in Sacred Scripture, and to receive His body and blood inside us, let us ask him to heal our wounded eyes, or sinful hands, or occasionally scandalous feet, so that every part of us — and the lives of those whom he has entrusted to us — may be “with Him” in this life and in the next, and so that we can all be prophets as we go out to help him oppose evil and bring not only good but God.

        •  

        The Gospel passage on which the homily was based was: 

        Gospel
        Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
        At that time, John said to Jesus,
        “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
        and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
        Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
        There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
        who can at the same time speak ill of me.
        For whoever is not against us is for us.
        Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
        because you belong to Christ,
        amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
        “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
        it would be better for him if a great millstone
        were put around his neck
        and he were thrown into the sea.
        If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
        It is better for you to enter into life maimed
        than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
        into the unquenchable fire.
        And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
        It is better for you to enter into life crippled
        than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
        And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
        Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye
        than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
        where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”

        The post Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, September 28, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

        11 min
      • A Time to Confess Christ in the Way We Serve Him in Others, 25th Friday (II), September 27, 2024

        Fr. Roger J. Landry

        Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
        Friday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
        Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul
        September 27, 2024
        Eccl 3:1-11, Ps 144, Lk 9:18-22

         

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

        https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.27.24_Homily_1.mp3

         

        The following points were attempted in the homily: 

        • In today’s first reading, the sacred author of Ecclesiastes says that there’s a time, a “kairos,” for everything under the heavens, and lists several of them. He shows time more or less as the undulating waves of opposites, from night to day, without end, without direction, almost in a circle of endless repetition. This is what life may seem to those who live their life without God: everything can seem pointless, where the human person accomplishes nothing from all his labors and sufferings in life, a vanity of vanity. But the author then shifts gears and says that God “has put the timeless into their hearts, without man’s ever discovering.” God has placed his eternal self within us in a way that far exceeds our knowledge or comprehension. That’s one of the reasons why Ecclesiastes is within the canon of Sacred Scripture because, through all its pessimism and cynicism of a life without God, there’s a recognition of a yearning within, a cor inquietum or restless heart like Augustine, for something lasting, meaningful, indeed eternal. It’s a longing for God and the things of God. That longing was fulfilled with the appearance of Jesus as the Messiah of God in the “fullness of time,” as St. Paul describes in his Letter to the Galatians.
        • We see in some sense the revelation of that deep inner longing in today’s Gospel. Jesus asked a question about what the people were saying about him not because he was curious but because he wanted to lead them on a journey of faith to recognize that the long-awaited time had really come. After Peter, however, moved by God the Father, had courageously confessed his faith in Christ, Jesus announced the type of Messiah he would be and how that fullness of time would be manifested: he would suffer and die in order to bring us salvation, he would summon us to be co-redeemers with him precisely through entering into his suffering, his death, and his resurrection. This is the Messiah we are called in every time and in eternity to confess. In his Passion, we have a shift from death to life, from darkness to light, from sin to salvation, but one that is not cyclical but ultimately linear. There is a time to die but also a time to rise and the advantage that comes from all this toil is eternal reward. This happens, as the Psalm indicates, when we build our life on God as our rock, mercy, fortress, stronghold, deliverer and trustworthy shield. Even though man’s life is like a breadth and his days on earth like a passing shadow, the Lord notices him and takes thought of him, and comes to make his days not a passing shadow but an eternal life. There is indeed “an appointed time for everything,” but in birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing, rending and sowing, silence and speech, God’s grace is given to unite those moments to God so that they may all enhance the way we build our life on God as a stable, secure Rock and thereby confess him to be the long awaited Messiah and Savior, the “same yesterday, today and forever.”
        • Someone who confessed Christ and who lived constantly aware that it was the acceptable time to recognize and love him when he was poor, hungry, thirsty, naked, on the move, imprisoned or sick is the great saint the Church celebrates today: St. Vincent de Paul (1580-1660). His early years were a time of both acceptance and rejection. He was the son of poor farmers in southwestern France, the third of six children. His parents struggled simply to make ends meet, but when Vincent’s father recognized how precociously intelligent his son was, he and the family sacrificed many of their animals to provide him an education through the Franciscan Recollects and later the University of Toulouse. Vincent wasn’t particularly grateful, though. One day when his father made a long journey on foot to visit him in his tattered peasant clothing, Vincent didn’t even go out to greet him because he was so embarrassed by his father’s poverty. Vincent’s ambition at the time was to become a priest not fundamentally because he thought it was his vocation, but because he thought that it might bring him fame and notoriety; he knew that if he played his cards right, he might receive benefices for rich churches and abbeys that would provide him enough income to permanently get his family out of the poverty that embarrassed him so. Because of his genius and motivation, he raced through university and was ordained a priest at the shockingly young age of 19, even though canon law required one to be 25. He wasted no time vainly trying to climb the ecclesiastical ladder. He became a chaplain to Queen Margaret of Valois and moved to Paris. As a brilliant “baby priest,” he quickly earned the reputation as a talented preacher, which gained him further entrée into French high society.
        • But the Lord gave him two experiences that led him to a time of conversion. The first happened in 1605, six years into his priesthood. After having gone to Marseilles to acquire an inheritance — another sign of where he was placing his treasure — he boarded a ship to Narbonne that was captured by African pirates who brought him to Tunis, where he was a slave for two years. God eventually arranged for his escape when he was able to persuade the wife of an ex-priest, who to preserve his own life had converted to Islam, to seek to convert her husband, give up their illicit arrangement and head back to France. And her conversion was an occasion of his. After his release, Vincent never forgot the misery these slaves were experiencing. He resolved to help them somehow, someway in the future. He would. There were about 25,000 poor slaves on the Barbary Coast, mostly Christian. He would send many priests and brothers to attend to their spiritual needs and never ceased to raise money to ransom them; by the time of his death, he had purchased the freedom of over 1,200. That’s more than Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. The second experience was a further crucifixion of his ego and pursuit of the esteem of others. After he had returned to Paris, his roommate was robbed of 400 crowns. Convinced that Vincent was the thief, he maliciously accused him to the police and to everyone else. Whereas earlier Vincent may have trusted in his own abilities to defend his reputation and gone on the attack of his accuser’s credibility, now he trusted only in divine Providence, who had just freed him from slavery. “God knows the truth,” he said calmly, as he bore the calumny for six months until the true thief confessed. He recognized that then was a time of sanctity, of trust, of silence in which he was cured of the vanity of placing his treasure in human respect.
        • From that point forward, he was free to seek God’s interests in everything, and even though he would continue to walk in and out of French high society, he lived it as a time of charity, with his heart firmly on what the Lord wanted, on God’s glory, rather than fleeting this worldly success. He began from that period to welcome Christ and his poverty fully into his life. He was recruited by the powerful Count of Joigny, Philip de Gondi, to become chaplain to his family and tutor to his children. This was the assignment of the former Vincent’s dreams, but it was now a task that he twice laid down in order to become a pastor in rural areas in great need of conversion. Both times, however, Count de Gondi — who with his family loved Vincent — prevailed upon him to return. The latter time Count de Gondi enticed him by promising that one of his tasks would be to teach the Gospel to the peasants throughout their expansive territory who were in ignorance and moral disarray. Count de Gondi, who was prefect of the French penal system, also arranged for Vincent to be named almoner and chaplain to the convicts in the galleys, which allowed Vincent to bring not just spiritual but material comfort to these prisoners across France. The more work he did among the poor and the outcasts, the more he became aware of how much work needed still to be done. He knew that organization was crucial. He began to recruit priests to help him in the work of preaching the Gospel to the poor; these clerics, drawn by Vincent’s example, became the first members of the Congregation of the Mission. With the help of St. Louise de Marillac, he established the Daughters of Charity, to work in the many hospitals he was founding to care for the sick, incurable, orphaned, aged and abandoned. To help in the relief of the indigent, he instituted the Ladies of Charity, a group of wealthy women who would use their social connections to raise the funds needed not merely for the immediate care of the poor, but for their long-term education and training. In Paris these Ladies helped to run a soup kitchen that fed a staggering 16,000 hungry people a day. For them, every day was a day of love, as it should be for every Christian.
        • Vincent saw how much the Church’s urgent charitable mission in France had been frustrated by incompetent and often immoral priests and bishops, clergy who were scandals to people and led them often to reject what God was wanting them to accept through the Church Christ founded. Rather than preaching and healing, rather than confessing Christ by their words and deeds, they were scandalizing and wounding. At the time, it was still not required for candidates to the priesthood to go to seminary. So he began to work with the Archbishop of Paris, Count de Gondi’s brother, to ensure that before a man was ordained, he would need to participate in spiritual exercises with Vincent and the priests of his Congregation. At first these retreat courses took two weeks; they eventually extended to two years. Through them Vincent began to form most of the young priests of France. Later, the Vincentians established full-scale seminaries all over France to ensure both that priests knew the Catholic faith well enough to fight against Jansenism and other heresies, but lived it enough to care for the poor and the needy. His work with priests made him ever more aware of the difference between holy, competent bishops and ecclesiastical disasters. In these years after the Protestant Reformation, it was clear that great bishops were needed and bad appointees with inadequate spiritual qualifications could not be tolerated. He therefore used his considerable influence with the king, who at the time wielded enormous power in the appointment of bishops, to set up a Council of Conscience to ensure that those nominated for the episcopacy were worthy of the office. The king made Vincent the head of the Council and so Vincent had as big an impact on the formation of the French episcopacy as he did the French priesthood. It was a time of renewal for the Church throughout.
        • After Peter’s confession as the Messiah in the Gospel, Jesus told the apostles “not to tell this to anyone.” It wasn’t the kairos yet for them to tell everyone they met directly about the Messiah’s coming. Later it would be the time for them to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. But both were done in obedient love of the one who entered time so that we might enter eternity. Today at Mass, as we prepare in time to receive within the “Timeless One,” we ask him for the grace to recognize, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation,” and seize this time to love and, like St. Vincent,  confess him with constant faith, hope and love.

          •  

          The readings for today’s Mass were:

          Reading 1 ECCL 3:1-11
          There is an appointed time for everything,
          and a time for every thing under the heavens.
          A time to be born, and a time to die;
          a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
          A time to kill, and a time to heal;
          a time to tear down, and a time to build.
          A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
          a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
          A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;
          a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
          A time to seek, and a time to lose;
          a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
          A time to rend, and a time to sew;
          a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
          A time to love, and a time to hate;
          a time of war, and a time of peace.
          What advantage has the worker from his toil?
          I have considered the task that God has appointed
          for the sons of men to be busied about.
          He has made everything appropriate to its time,
          and has put the timeless into their hearts,
          without man’s ever discovering,
          from beginning to end, the work which God has done.
          Responsorial Psalm PS 144:1B AND 2ABC, 3-4
          R. (1) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
          Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
          my mercy and my fortress,
          my stronghold, my deliverer,
          My shield, in whom I trust.
          R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
          LORD, what is man, that you notice him;
          the son of man, that you take thought of him?
          Man is like a breath;
          his days, like a passing shadow.
          R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
          Alleluia MK 10:45
          R. Alleluia, alleluia.
          The Son of Man came to serve
          and to give his life as a ransom for many.
          R. Alleluia, alleluia.

          Gospel LK 9:18-22

          Once when Jesus was praying in solitude,

          and the disciples were with him,
          he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
          They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah;
          still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’”
          Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
          Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”
          He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.

          He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly

          and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
          and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

          The post A Time to Confess Christ in the Way We Serve Him in Others, 25th Friday (II), September 27, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

          22 min
        • Christian Anthropology: The Human Person in the Modern World, Leonine Forum NYC Chapter, September 26, 2024

          Fr. Roger J. Landry

          Leonine Forum New York Chapter
          IESE Business School, Manhattan
          September 26, 2024

           

          To listen to an audio recording of tonight’s talk, please click below: 

          https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.26.24_Leonine_Forum_Christian_Anthropology_1.mp3

           

          To download a copy of tonight’s slides, please click below: 

          Leonine Forum 2024 Christian Anthropology Man in the Modern World

           

           

          The post Christian Anthropology: The Human Person in the Modern World, Leonine Forum NYC Chapter, September 26, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

          1 hr 26 min
        • Vanity, Eternal Meaning, and Newness, 25th Thursday (II), September 26, 2024

          Fr. Roger J. Landry

          Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
          Thursday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
          Memorial of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs
          September 26, 2024
          Eccl 1:2-11, Ps 90, Lk 9:7-9

           

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

          https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.26.24_Homily_1.mp3

           

          The following points were attempted in the homily: 

          • Today we begin three days pondering the Book of Ecclesiastes, a book with an oversized recognition in popular culture because of the Byrds’ 1965 hit, “Turn!, Turn!, Turn!,” which went to #1 on the Billboard Charts. There has been debate over the course of time as to whether this book is inspired and therefore whether it should be part of Sacred Scripture. Is everything a “vanity of vanities?” Is there “nothing new under the sun?” Does man “profit nothing” from all his labor? Is everything just cyclical, where what has been will recur and what has been done will be done again? Is there no remembrance of men of old and no hope that others will remember us? The Christian faith is ready to reject what these questions imply, but before we do, we should ask again why the Church would consider this text nevertheless inspired. The fundamental reason is because it shows the meaningless of a life without reference to God and eternal life and shows the longing of all created reality for the radical newness that the kingdom of God will bring.
          • St. Paul talked about this vanity of a life without the Risen Christ in a passage we had a week ago at daily Mass: “For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” The Exultet each Easter proclaims the same truth: “Our birth would have been no gain had we not been redeemed!” Jesus himself mentions it in the image of building an earthly grain bin, or in placing our treasure in the things of this world, or in trying to take our possessions through the eye of the needle.
          • We see an image of the vanity of earthly life and the newness that happened with the resurrection in today’s Gospel, where there are several references to raising from the dead. The paranoid Herod Antipas worried that Jesus was John the Baptist or one of the other prophets risen from the dead, but for him and for the people of his day, to be risen basically meant resuscitated, only to die anew. If John were really resuscitated, the Herod could just chop off his head again at a lustful whim. But Jesus’ resurrection really was something new, something that gave meaning to suffering, crucifixion and death. It was truly a new life that gave all things meaning. In response to Ecclesiastes’ pessimism that we can never really say truthfully, “See this is new!,” Christ, risen from the dead, says in Revelation, “Behold, I make all things new!” We sing about this newness at the Easter Vigil in the Praeconium: “Our birth would have been no gain had we not been redeemed!” But we have been redeemed. We have been raised! We have been made new through baptism and now live, as St. Paul says in the eighth reading at the Easter Vigil, newness of life (Rom 6:4).
          • Today the Church celebrates the feast of SS. Cosmas and Damian, twin brothers who show us the meaningfulness of a Christian life lived together with the Risen Christ who makes all things new. They were doctors and eventually martyrs under Diocletian. They were called anargyroi, “penniless ones,” or “non-mercenaries,” because they never charged for their medical services at a time when many doctors were charlatans taking people’s entire savings on one invented “remedy” after another. That gave them an opening to care for their patients’ souls as they were caring for their bodies, to explain why they were so generous, because of the generosity they received from the Divine Physician, and to introduce them to the One who could not only prolong their life on earth but help them live forever, and to introduce them to the means — Baptism, the Eucharist, the living Word of God and other divine gifts — that can help everything they might do have eternal meaning.
          • Every time we go up to the altar of God, Jesus seeks to rejuvenate us (Ps 43:4), to make us new, to give us a new heart and a new life, one that will live forever. Even though it may seem that nothing is new under the Sun and that in the liturgical cycle we just repeat everything from year to year, it’s actually a spiral that is meant to lead us ever more deeply into eternity. As we prepare to receive within Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, we ask Him for the grace to so transform us that we may, like SS. Cosmas and Damian, bring the hope of new life to those who are struggling through what seems like a meaningless existence by introducing them to God so that they might have his life to the full!

            •  

            The readings for today’s Mass were:

            Reading 1 ECCL 1:2-11
            Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
            vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
            What profit has man from all the labor
            which he toils at under the sun?
            One generation passes and another comes,
            but the world forever stays.
            The sun rises and the sun goes down;
            then it presses on to the place where it rises.
            Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north,
            the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
            All rivers go to the sea,
            yet never does the sea become full.
            To the place where they go,
            the rivers keep on going.
            All speech is labored;
            there is nothing one can say.
            The eye is not satisfied with seeing
            nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.What has been, that will be;
            what has been done, that will be done.
            Nothing is new under the sun.
            Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!”
            has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
            There is no remembrance of the men of old;
            nor of those to come will there be any remembrance
            among those who come after them.
            Responsorial Psalm PS 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 AND 17BC
            R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
            You turn man back to dust,
            saying, “Return, O children of men.”
            For a thousand years in your sight
            are as yesterday, now that it is past,
            or as a watch of the night.
            R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
            You make an end of them in their sleep;
            the next morning they are like the changing grass,
            Which at dawn springs up anew,
            but by evening wilts and fades.
            R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
            Teach us to number our days aright,
            that we may gain wisdom of heart.
            Return, O LORD! How long?
            Have pity on your servants!
            R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
            Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
            that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
            Prosper the work of our hands for us!
            Prosper the work of our hands!
            R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
            Alleluia JN 14:6
            R. Alleluia, alleluia.
            I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
            no one comes to the Father except through me.
            R. Alleluia, alleluia.

            Gospel LK 9:7-9

            Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening,

            and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying,
            “John has been raised from the dead”;
            others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”;
            still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.”
            But Herod said, “John I beheaded.
            Who then is this about whom I hear such things?”
            And he kept trying to see him.

            The post Vanity, Eternal Meaning, and Newness, 25th Thursday (II), September 26, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

            16 min
          • Two Essential Elements for the Proclamation of the Gospel, 25th Wednesday (II), September 25, 2024

            Fr. Roger J. Landry

            Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
            Wednesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
            Votive Mass for the Evangelization of Peoples
            September 25, 2024
            Prov 30:5-9, Ps 119, Lk 9:1-6

             

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

            https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.25.24_Homily_1.mp3

             

            The following points were attempted in the homily: 

            • Today in the Gospel Jesus sends out the Apostles to “proclaim the Kingdom of God” by word and deed. In the first reading from the Book of Proverbs we see two essential elements for that proclamation in every age. The credibility of the messenger depend on them.
            • In the first reading today, the third and last time we will hear from the Book of Proverbs at daily Mass in the entire two-year daily Mass lectionary, the sage who prays turns to God and begs, “Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me.” The first is truthfulness: “Put falsehood and lying far from me.” This is echoed in the Psalm when we pray, “Remove from me the way of falsehood, and favor me with your law” and “Falsehood I hate and abhor.” Earlier in the passage we have an allusion to Eve, when Proverbs says, “Add nothing to his words, lest he reprove you and you will be exposed as a deceiver.” That was at the root of Eve’s sin. She added to the word of God, who had instructed her and Adam not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good or Evil, but as we see in Genesis, when she told the Serpent what God had commanded, she added, “and neither shall you touch it.” That happened because either she wasn’t paying close attention or was an embellisher. In either case she failed to appreciate the importance of each word God had said and didn’t say. She failed to recognize that “every word of God is tested.” When Christ sends us out he sends us out to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand, he sends us as disciples of the One who “came to give witness to the Truth,” of Him who ultimately is the Truth. His Kingdom is a kingdom of truth, of light, of saying “yes” when we mean “yes” and “no” when we mean “no.” Jesus praised Nathanael for being “an Israelite without guile,” and he wants us all to be without guile. The devil is the “father of lies,” who always wants to get us to add or subtract to God’s word, to do anything except live off of every word that comes from the Father’s mouth. The credibility of the proclamation of the Gospel is shot when people doubt the truthfulness of the messenger. Those who announce the Kingdom of God must demonstrate total transparency and verifiable truthfulness. They must be icons of Christ the Truth incarnate. Otherwise no one may believe anything they say, including the Gospel. This is one of the reasons why the whole Church must pray, “Put falsehood and lying far from me.”
            • The second thing that the sage asks is, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only the food I need, lest, being full, I deny you, saying, ‘Who is the Lord?,’ or, being in want, I steal and profane the name of my God.” The request is for a total trust in God’s providence, for we cannot serve both God and mammon. If we have more than we need, the trust we need to have in God’s care can disappear as we place our faith, hope and love in mammon and what mammon can obtain. But he’s also not asking for destitution, for nothing whatsoever. He’s asking us for what Jesus taught us to pray: “Give us today our daily bread.” Jesus is describing that trust in God’s providence necessary in those who proclaim God’s kingdom when he instructs the apostles in today’s Gospel, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.” They needed to proclaim by how they dressed, walked, ate and slept that they trusted in God who promised to care for them more than for the lilies and sparrows. Jesus himself didn’t even have a pillow to lay his head. Together with the apostles, they often didn’t have even meager supplies for meals before Jesus’ miracles. Over the course of time, however, one of the corruptions that can enter the Church is too much dependence on money. We focus more on all that’s needed to maintain what we have rather than relying on God’s riches and then going out to preach. We know that the Church requires some money, for we can’t be Good Samaritans if we can’t pay innkeepers. But sometimes, as Pope Francis says more generally about the economy, money can begin to rule. Similarly the wealth of the Church can sometimes scandalize people. It’s hard to proclaim the Gospel to the poor, as the aphorism says, when one arrives in a Rolls Royce. That’s why the Church as a whole, and each of us, must never ease to pray, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only the food I need.”
            • Today as we celebrate this Mass, we turn to God the Father who gives us neither poverty nor riches but the food we need, Who announces to us his tested word so that we can abide in truth far from falsehood and lying. And then he sends us out, fed by Christ his Son, to continue to announce proclaim his kingdom with fidelity.

              •  

              The readings for today’s Mass were: 

              Reading 1 PRV 30:5-9
              Every word of God is tested;
              he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
              Add nothing to his words,
              lest he reprove you, and you will be exposed as a deceiver.
              Two things I ask of you,
              deny them not to me before I die:
              Put falsehood and lying far from me,
              give me neither poverty nor riches;
              provide me only with the food I need;
              Lest, being full, I deny you,
              saying, “Who is the LORD?”
              Or, being in want, I steal,
              and profane the name of my God.
              Responsorial Psalm PS 119:29, 72, 89, 101, 104, 163
              R. (105) Your word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.
              Remove from me the way of falsehood,
              and favor me with your law.
              R. Your word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.
              The law of your mouth is to me more precious
              than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
              R. Your word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.
              Your word, O LORD, endures forever;
              it is firm as the heavens.
              R. Your word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.
              From every evil way I withhold my feet,
              that I may keep your words.
              R. Your word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.
              Through your precepts I gain discernment;
              therefore I hate every false way.
              R. Your word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.
              Falsehood I hate and abhor;
              your law I love.
              R. Your word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet.
              Alleluia MK 1:15
              R. Alleluia, alleluia.
              The Kingdom of God is at hand;
              repent and believe in the Gospel.
              R. Alleluia, alleluia.
              Gospel LK 9:1-6
              Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority
              over all demons and to cure diseases,
              and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God
              and to heal the sick.
              He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey,
              neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money,
              and let no one take a second tunic.
              Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.
              And as for those who do not welcome you,
              when you leave that town,
              shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.”
              Then they set out and went from village to village
              proclaiming the Good News and curing diseases everywhere.

              The post Two Essential Elements for the Proclamation of the Gospel, 25th Wednesday (II), September 25, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

              18 min
            • Hearing and Acting on the Word of God, Like Our Lady of Mercy, 25th Tuesday (II), September 24, 2024

              Fr. Roger J. Landry

              Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
              Tuesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
              Memorial of Our Lady of Mercy
              September 24, 2024
              Prov 21:1-6.10-13, Ps 119, Lk 8:19-21

               

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

              https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.24.24_Homily_1.mp3

               

              The following points were attempted in the homily: 

              • Last Saturday, if we didn’t have the proper Gospel for the Feast of St. Matthew of the Apostle, we would have heard Jesus preach to us the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, which is a means by which to assess our receptivity and responsiveness to Christ’s words and work in our life. Today we see a beautiful illustration of that parable in the reference to Jesus’ mother, who not only conceived the Word-made-flesh in her womb, but conceived the Word of God in faith. When the people told Jesus that his mother and his relatives (there’s no separate word in Aramaic and Hebrew to distinguish siblings from cousins) were outside wishing to see him, he replied, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” This was not a violation of the fourth commandment or a denigration of his mother, but, like we’ll hear later in St. Luke’s Gospel in the scene of the anonymous woman from the crowd blessing the mother who bore and nursed him, Jesus was giving the real secret to his mother’s greatness: she was the first of all those who would “hear the word of God and act on it,” someone whose whole life developed secundum verbum tuum,  in accordance with God’s word. Jesus came from heaven to earth to found a family and that family would be constituted by loving obedience to God’s will, in communion with Jesus’ obedience. St. John in his prologue focused on the connection between these two realities as well: that Jesus came unto his own, but his own did not receive him, but to those who did receive him, he gave power to become children of God. As we accept Jesus by his own grace, like Mary did, he constitutes and confirms us as children of God.
              • So the first thing we need to ponder today is how we hear and act on the word of God. In Hebrew there is no distinction between “hear” and “obey.” It’s the same word. To hear God is to will to obey him. To listen to him and then to question the truthfulness or goodness or helpfulness of what he says would be contradictory. There wasn’t fully developed by this time St. Paul’s later distinction about the difficulty of doing the good — of not doing the good we desire or not avoiding the sin we detest (Rom 7:19) — but I think it’s still helpful for us to have an attitude that when we listen to God’s word, we listen to it as words to be done. That’s what it means to receive the word on good and fruitful soil. That’s what it means to hear the word of God and obey it.
              • In the Psalm today, we see the attitude we should have before God’s word: We want to walk in the Lord’s law, to understand the way of his precepts, to meditate on his wondrous deeds, to choose the way of truth, to observe his law and keep it with all our heart, to delight in the path of God’s commands and to keep his law continually. This is a life without blame, we say at the beginning of the Psalm. This is the path on which God himself wants to guide us. God’s word is the GPS of our life, and so much more.
              • In the first reading — the second of only three days in two years in which the Church ponders the Book of Proverbs — I’d like to focus on two of the most relevant pearls of wisdom. The first is, “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” The way we please the Lord most is not by “knowing” but by “doing” what is right and just, by living in right relationship with him and others. The Lord wants to praise us like he praised Mary for hearing and acting on God’s word. The second passage is, “The just man appraises the house of the wicked: there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin.” At the end of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus talked about the two houses, he said that the wise man builds on the rock of hearing his word and acting upon it, while the foolish one builds upon the sand of hearing his word and not acting on it. The just man is the one who recognizes that the wicked may have built an earthly mansion but, because it has no firm foundation, it will collapse when the storms of life come. The just man is able to foresee that ruin from his house built of stone by firmly rooting himself in God’s word. Today we’re called to follow our Lady and become wise like her through doing what we hear Jesus say, doing what is right and just, walking in the law of the Lord, choosing the way of truth and observing it with 100 percent of our mind, heart, soul and strength.
              • The second application of today’s Gospel reading is about communion. Jesus says about the family that he has come from heaven to earth to form that it will be a fruit of hearing and doing the Lord’s word. The communion he prayed for during the Last Supper — that we all may be one as the Father and he are one by the Holy Spirit — will come from obedience to God. There is no other way to have the true union for which God has made us all long. Without this shared desire to know and do God’s word and will, there may be a superficial harmony, but there will never be a communion that will last — and when there’s clear disobedience, there may very well be great division. During my time as a high school chaplain, there was great division among the faculty that overflowed into the school. Pretty much everyone recognized it, knew it was a big problem and lamented it. But they didn’t really want to confront the source of it: that there was huge division with regard to people’s approach to the Catholic faith. Some strove to live it; others pretended to stand above it, criticizing it and trying to change it. Part of the reason for this situation in a Catholic high school was because in previous decades some of the priests from the religious order who had served in the school had formed the faculty basically in a theology of dissent that when my Diocese took over, there were huge struggles whenever people talked about fidelity to the teaching of the Church about Mass, confession, the Ten Commandments, etc. At a faculty meeting in which the question of the divisions among the faculty arose, I said that if we really wanted a familial union at the school, it would start by building all that we were doing on two books: the Bible and the Catechism. Some immediately agreed; others angrily rejected the suggestion. It was sad. The lack of communion was flowing from a lack of “one faith.” I have seen the same thing when parishes, or presbyterates, religious houses, or seminaries or families are divided by those who are faithful disciples and others who do not teach in doctrinal communion or live in moral communion. Today Jesus is helping all of us to recognize his great desire for unity and that the deep desire for it that he has planted within us will be fulfilled only by our and others’ hearing and doing the word of God.
              • As Jesus mentions in the Gospel, our Lady is someone who shows us how to live this way and as mother is praying for us to live this way. Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of Mercy. It’s always had a special meaning for me not only because I love our Lady and am so grateful for her motherly mercy for me in various ways I’m aware of and in the many ways she’s prayed for me before I even knew I had a need. It also has great meaning because the prayers for the Mass, approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, were written from the contemplative heart and scholarly head of one of my great friends, Sr. Esther Mary Nickel, of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. To turn to “Our Lady of Mercy” is to understand her not just as “Mother of Mercy,” as we pray in the Salve Regina, but also as “Daughter of Mercy,” “Spouse of Mercy,” “Disciple of Mercy, “Apostle of Mercy,” “Virgin most merciful,” and so many other angles. She is one who heard the words of mercy throughout Sacred Scripture as words to be interiorized and lived. We see how deeply they impacted her entire world view in her Magnificat, when her soul joyfully proclaimed the greatness of the Lord whose “mercy is from age to age,” who helped Israel his servant, “remembering his mercy,” and who out of mercy looked on her lowliness and blessed her such that all generations would recognize the great things he has done for her, who has lifted up the lowly and filled the hungry with good things. She experienced God’s mercy at the Annunciation when God’s plans were fulfilled. She saw God’s mercy on full display on Calvary. She instigated his public manifestations of his merciful love in Cana. And she’s praying now that we will hear as efficaciously as she did Jesus’ words about mercy, come to him to receive it, build our life on it, and help others to build their lives on it.
              • Today as we under her watchful gaze celebrate this Mass, the Lord wants us to do what is “right and just,” to “do this in memory” of him, to sow his word in our ears, minds and generous hearts, so that we, like Mary, can become his “mother” in the faith, conceiving that word within and allowing it to grow until we give birth to it in loving deeds; so that we, as his siblings, might imitate and cooperate with his holy obedience. As Jesus sows himself within us today, we ask him to help us to stay united as one Body, one Spirit, in him, and, like Mary, mercifully run out to help others enter into a similar two-fold communion!

                •  

                The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                Reading 1 PRV 21:1-6, 10-13
                Like a stream is the king’s heart in the hand of the LORD;
                wherever it pleases him, he directs it.
                All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes,
                but it is the LORD who proves hearts.
                To do what is right and just
                is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
                Haughty eyes and a proud heart–the tillage of the wicked is sin.
                The plans of the diligent are sure of profit,
                but all rash haste leads certainly to poverty.
                Whoever makes a fortune by a lying tongue
                is chasing a bubble over deadly snares.
                The soul of the wicked man desires evil;
                his neighbor finds no pity in his eyes.
                When the arrogant man is punished, the simple are the wiser;
                when the wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.
                The just man appraises the house of the wicked:
                there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin.
                He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor
                will himself also call and not be heard.
                Responsorial Psalm PS 119:1, 27, 30, 34, 35, 44
                R. (35) Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
                Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
                who walk in the law of the LORD.
                R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
                Make me understand the way of your precepts,
                and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds.
                R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
                The way of truth I have chosen;
                I have set your ordinances before me.
                R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
                Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
                and keep it with all my heart.
                R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
                Lead me in the path of your commands,
                for in it I delight.
                R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
                And I will keep your law continually,
                forever and ever.
                R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
                Alleluia LK 11:28
                R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                Blessed are those who hear the word of God
                and observe it.
                R. Alleluia, alleluia.

                Gospel LK 8:19-21

                The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him

                but were unable to join him because of the crowd.
                He was told,
                “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside
                and they wish to see you.”
                He said to them in reply,
                “My mother and my brothers
                are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

                For the prayers of the insert of Our Lady of Mercy for the Roman Missal, please click here. 

                The post Hearing and Acting on the Word of God, Like Our Lady of Mercy, 25th Tuesday (II), September 24, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                20 min
              • Hearing and Radiating like St. Pio of Pietrelcina, 25th Monday (II), September 23, 2024

                Fr. Roger J. Landry

                Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
                Monday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
                Memorial of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
                September 23, 2024
                Prov 3:27-34, Ps 15, Lk 8:16-18

                 

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

                https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.23.24_Homily_1.mp3

                 

                The following points were attempted in the homily: 

                • Today’s Gospel, from the passage immediately after Jesus gave us the Parable of the Sower and the Seed (which we would have heard on Saturday if we didn’t have the proper Gospel for the Memorial of St. Matthew), can be summarized by Jesus’ words, “Take care how you hear.” It points to an approach to the entire spiritual life, introduces us to the importance of today’s liturgy of the Lord, and summarizes one of the things that made today’s saint so great. So let’s examine the three images Jesus gives us that can help us to determine whether we’re receiving his Word and Him on good soil:
                  • He tells us, “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lamp stand so that those who enter may see the light.” In other words, if we’re listening correctly, we’re hearing what he seeks to implant as “words to be done.” It’s not supposed to remain hidden or private, but is meant to illumine the world. If we’re not listening with this apostolic dimension, we’re not going to bear abundant fruit.
                  • He adds, “There is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.” Jesus tells us that even though sometimes we can fake as if we’re paying close attention, our going through the exterior motions will eventually be exposed. Likewise if we’re fighting to give our full wits to his words, even if we’re struggling to comprehend or live them, that effort, too, will be known.
                  • He then concludes, “To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” This is a law of physical exercise, musical growth, and intellectual progress: we use it or we lose it. To the one who gives the word both ears as well as the mind and the heart, he will become more and more fruitful; but to the one who is not really hanging on every word, he’ll lose eventually even that superficial adherence.
                  • A great means by which we can look at whether we’re listening with these qualities is by turning to today’s first reading, which is one of only three day in two years we have passages from the Book of Proverbs. It can help us to see whether we’re really living by the word of God in deeds, because all of these Proverbs are anticipations of what we regularly hear in the Gospel.
                    • The Book of Proverbs first tells us, “Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim when it is in your power to do it for him. Say not to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give,’ when you can give at once.” This means that we should listen with alacrity to God when he speaks to us through others. If we think we can delay, then we won’t be prompt in our discipleship, like the first disciples were in leaving their boats immediately to follow Jesus. This is ultimately a version of the “Silver Rule,” not to do unto others what we don’t want to happen to us. It’s also an application of St. James’ commentary on the Sermon on the Mount that we have to care for the brother we see rather than blow him off saying we’ll pray for him and “good luck.”
                    • Next Proverbs tells us, “Plot no evil against your neighbor, against one who lives at peace with you. Quarrel not with a man without cause, with one who has done you no harm.” When we’re listening to the word of God, it will transform us into peacemakers,  true children of God, not only people who do not plot evil or quarrel for no good reason, but peace builders. The Word of God will help us to love our neighbor, pray for our persecutors and do good to the one who does evil to us.
                    • Third, we’re told, “Envy not the lawless man and choose none of his ways: To the Lord the perverse one is an abomination, but with the upright is his friendship.” Sometimes we can envy those who have gotten away with things that are wrong, but this passage reminds us that the upright are friends of God. When we listen to the word of God, we’re listening to a friend. This is ultimately what Jesus says to us in encouraging us to adopt his standards, rather than those of others, to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herodians. It’s also a commentary on what he says during the Last Supper when he calls us his friends if we do what he commands.
                    • Finally, the passage reminds us, “The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but the dwelling of the just he blesses. When dealing with the arrogant, he is stern, but to the humble he shows kindness.” God wants to bless our “dwelling,” our life, and he will show his kindness when we’re humble enough to receive his help. We begin by humbling accepting God’s word within as a great blessing.
                    • Someone who really did listen to the word of God aright and become a lamp shining in the midst of the world is the great saint whom we celebrated today, St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Padre Pio generously refused no one who asked him for the help he could provide and didn’t delay till the morrow. Though he was known to have a quick temper, he plotted no evil and sought to live with peace. He was a friend of God whose life was blessed by him, whose city of origin and city where he labored and died have been similarly blessed. Because he was humble, the Lord showed him enormous kindness. When we think about Saint Pio, it’s easy to think about his more unique gifts, like the sacred stigmata with which he was marked for fifty years, his capacity to read souls, the gift of bilocation, the working of miracles, and the prediction of the future. But I always think back to what St. Paul VI said about him when he visited San Giovanni Rotondo after his death. He praised Padre Pio not for those inimitable qualities but for what all of us can emulate: “He said Mass humbly, … heard confessions from dawn to dusk … and was a man of prayer and suffering.” He was in short a man whom of the Word of God, who put Jesus’ words into practice: “Do this in memory of me” in the Mass and “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”; “Receive the Holy Spirit: those whose sins you forgive are forgiven them” in the Sacrament of Confession; “Stay awake and pray” and “When you pray,” and so many of the attributes of humble, persevering prayer in Jesus’ name; and finally, “Deny yourself, pick up your Cross every day and follow me,” which is what he did in his suffering. He exercised each of these gifts and, through them, grew to have more of them. Let’s learn from him how to build greater spiritual muscles through each of these, trying to imitating he he acted on the word of God each contained and became a light to others.
                    • The Mass was the real source of his life, in which he sought to align his whole life to the Word of God proclaimed and to the Word made Flesh received. His daily Mass used to last a few hours, as he united himself to the Lord’s prayer from the Upper Room and from the Cross. Despite the crowds who attended each day, the local ecclesiastical authorities for a time banned him from celebrating the Mass publicly because they thought three hours was scandalously too long. (I wonder whether the same well-meaning but myopic authorities would have tried to hurry Jesus, too, during the agonizingly slow 3-6 hours he took to offer his body and blood on the Cross!) But St. Pio knew he was hearing Christ preach in the Mass and welcoming him into his hands on the altar, and he wasn’t going to place anything else ahead of entering into that moment. He sought to help everyone else learn from his reverence how the Mass should fill us with awe and lead us to glorify God.
                    • Through his indefatigable work in the Confessional, from dawn until dusk, he sought to announce to people Jesus’ words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel,” “Your sins are forgiven,” and “Go and sin no more.” To all who flocked to him, he held up the ideal of holiness, repeating to them: “Jesus has no interest outside of sanctifying your soul.” Confession is when the entire sacramental economy exists just for each of us, as we begin to experience what Saint Paul exclaimed to the Galatians, the “Christ died for me and gave his life up for me.” And by the time he gave to individual penitents, St. Pio showed each of them just how valuable they were to God.
                    • Padre Pio was a man of prayer who urged others to pray, founding prayer groups all over the world, so that they could learn how to hear God whispering to them in personal prayer. Even after long grueling hours in the confessional, he himself would spend much of the night in prayer. He once described himself as “only a poor friar who prays” and encouraged lay people to come together to pray in small groups, tens of thousands of which still exist across the globe under his celestial patronage. “In books we seek God,” he said, but “in prayer we find him. Prayer is the key that opens God’s heart.”
                    • And he was a man of suffering who taught the world about the meaning of suffering together with the Lord’s sufferings, particularly through his stigmata. Two years before his priestly ordination, Padre Pio referred to this unique pathway of the Cross when he wrote, “In order to succeed in reaching our ultimate end we must follow the divine Head, who does not wish to lead the chosen soul on any way other than the one he followed; by that, I say, of abnegation and the Cross.” Christ does not call everyone to bear the stigmata, but he does call everyone to pick up his Cross daily and follow him along the way of the Cross. It is under the Cross, Padre Pio said, that “one learns to love.”  It is for that reason, he said, “Calvary is the hill of the saints.” Padre Pio was united to Christ on the Cross in more ways than by the stigmata. For decades he suffered from the suspicions and calumny of many in his order who were confused by and perhaps envious of his divine predilection. He bore all these hardships humbly, with religious obedience, as a “crucible of purification.” When St. John Paul II visited his tomb, he said, “The life and mission of Padre Pio prove that difficulties and sorrows, if accepted out of love, are transformed into a privileged way of holiness, which opens onto the horizons of a greater good, known only to the Lord.” Similarly, he helped others to share in it through his founding of the Casa del Sollievo della Sofferenza as a first-rate hospital to care for those who were seriously ill, with paralysis and so many other diseases. It continues that mission until this day as he helps everyone live by St. Paul’s invitation to make up what is lacking in us of the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his Body, the Church (Col 1:24).
                    • In all of these ways, St. Pio took care how he heard. In each, he routinely received “more” from the Lord than he previously said. The Church after him has placed his example on a lamp stand to illumine all of us in our own approach to the Mass and confession, to prayer and suffering. Here at Mass the Lord does not refuse us his help or delay it until tomorrow. Here he seeks to make us his friends and bless us, and through us, our homes, our workplaces, our classrooms. If we’re humble enough to grasp that we’re not worthy to receive him, he will show us the greatest kindness of all, and strengthen us as we seek to take care of what we hear and act on what the Lord says. The fruitfulness of his response to God’s word help us to see what’s possible when we fully align ourselves with God’s words. They inspire us to “take care what [we] hear,” just as much as he did, as we prepare now to “do” Jesus’ words “in memory of” him.

                      •  

                      The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                      Reading 1 PRV 3:27-34
                      Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim
                      when it is in your power to do it for him.
                      Say not to your neighbor,
                      “Go, and come again,
                      tomorrow I will give,”
                      when you can give at once.
                      Plot no evil against your neighbor,
                      against one who lives at peace with you.
                      Quarrel not with a man without cause,
                      with one who has done you no harm.
                      Envy not the lawless man
                      and choose none of his ways:
                      To the LORD the perverse one is an abomination,
                      but with the upright is his friendship.
                      The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked,
                      but the dwelling of the just he blesses;
                      When dealing with the arrogant, he is stern,
                      but to the humble he shows kindness.
                      Responsorial Psalm PS 15:2-3A, 3BC-4AB, 5
                      R. (1) The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
                      He who walks blamelessly and does justice;
                      who thinks the truth in his heart
                      and slanders not with his tongue.
                      R. The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
                      Who harms not his fellow man,
                      nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
                      By whom the reprobate is despised,
                      while he honors those who fear the LORD.
                      R. The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
                      Who lends not his money at usury
                      and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
                      He who does these things
                      shall never be disturbed.
                      R. The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
                      Alleluia MT 5:16
                      R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                      Let your light shine before others,
                      that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
                      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

                      Gospel LK 8:16-18

                      Jesus said to the crowd:

                      “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel
                      or sets it under a bed;
                      rather, he places it on a lampstand
                      so that those who enter may see the light.
                      For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible,
                      and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.
                      Take care, then, how you hear.
                      To anyone who has, more will be given,
                      and from the one who has not,
                      even what he seems to have will be taken away.”

                      The post Hearing and Radiating like St. Pio of Pietrelcina, 25th Monday (II), September 23, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                      22 min
                    • Jesus’ Call To Seek True Greatness, 25th Sunday (B), September 22, 2024

                      Fr. Roger J. Landry

                      Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
                      25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
                      September 22, 2024
                      Wis 2:12.17-20, Ps 54, James 3:16-4:3, Mk 9:30-37

                       

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

                      https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.22.24_CCM_Homily_1.mp3

                       

                      The following text guided today’s homily: 

                      • We are made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, he has created us to be great. This is expressed powerfully at the beginning of Eucharistic Prayer IV, in which the Church prays, “We give you praise, Father most holy, for you are great and you have fashioned all your works in wisdom and in love. You formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care, so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all creatures.” God is great, formed us according to his image, and gave us the world so that we become great like him through serving him and exercising and sharing in his dominion. When God calls us to be holy as he is holy, merciful as he is merciful, perfect as he is perfect, he is summoning us to be, in short, like him, and, therefore, great like he is great.
                      • The problem for us after the Fall is that this call to spiritual greatness can be diverted or suppressed. The last thing that the evil one wants is for us to become truly like God. He instead wants to tempt us to pretend that we’re gods ourselves or to convince us that we are so corrupted that we would never become like God, so why should we even try. The evil one, in other words, wants to pervert our zeal to become like God or take that zeal away altogether.
                      • That’s why today’s readings are so important. We see the ugliness of ambition gone bad. We also see how Jesus delineates the way he has come to purify our ambition, so that we might become truly great as he created us to be, redeemed to be, and sent the Holy Spirit to help us to become. This is important for us to grasp because we live in a culture in which so many strive to make the Guinness Book of World Records, sometimes even for the silliest of things, and don’t strive to be inscribed in the eternal hall of fame. Insofar as at Columbia, we are surrounded by many who are ambitious for worldly things — for possessions and worldly riches; for honor, fame, degrees and influence; for pleasure and the things, experiences and even persons who can provide it; and for power and for the exalted positions where it can be exercised — it is so important for us to learn from the Lord how to be truly great. For even if we obtain every form of worldly greatness but lack the greatness to which God calls us, everything we have will ultimately be in vain, but if we fail to achieve what the world thinks is important but become great in what matters to God, then everything will be worth it.
                      • Let’s begin with ambition for greatness gone bad. We see it on ugly display in today’s Gospel. Last week, as you recall, after Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus described to him and the apostles the type of Messiah he would be, that he would “suffer greatly, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” Today, as they were journeying from Caesarea Philippi in the north back to Galilee, Jesus returned to the theme. He stated, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death, the Son of Man will rise.” His upcoming betrayal, crucifixion and death were obviously very much on Jesus’ mind and he wanted it clearly on the apostles’ radar, too.Jesus was about to become the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Book of Wisdom from today’s first reading, when he, the Just One, would be beset and reviled because in his goodness he was obnoxious to the envious, because his very being reproached them for their transgressions of the law. Just as the Book of Wisdom foretold, he would be tortured and condemned to a shameful death, in fact, the most shameful death of all, crucifixion.
                      • We would have expected, when Jesus was talking about this to his twelve closest friends, his companions who had spent the previous two years doing everything with him, that they would have been concerned, and specifically concerned about him. Instead of asking him any questions, listening to him, or consoling him, they started, rather, arguing about which one of them was the greatest. This wasn’t an isolated incident, but a disturbing pattern. Whenever, in fact, Jesus spoke about his upcoming crucifixion, it seemed always to bring out the worst in the apostles.
                        • As we saw last week, when Jesus told them about it for the first time, St. Peter, the newly named rock, took Jesus aside and tried to rebuke him. In St. Matthew’s recollection, he said to Jesus, “No such thing should ever happen to you!,” thereby earning for himself the worst name change in Biblical history, the name Satan, for trying to lead rather than to follow Jesus, for thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do, for essentially denying that suffering and death, even Jesus’, could be salvific.
                        • Later, when Jesus would announce yet again that the chief priests and the scribes would condemn him to death, deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked, spat upon, scourged and crucified, James and John, two of the three closest of the disciples, came up to him and immediately asked him to do whatever they asked. Then, without wasting any time, they told him what they wanted: to sit one on his right and the other on his left as he entered his kingdom. The other apostles were outraged at their chutzpah, not because of the way they were trying to use Jesus, not because they were tone deaf in bringing their petition to him when they did, but because they beat them to the request for the spots they all openly desired but didn’t have the temerity to request.
                        • And perhaps the worst example occurred during the Last Supper. After Jesus indicated to them, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me,” the apostles got into yet another dispute over which of them was the greatest. Rather than thinking about who would be the despicable traitor who would imminently sell Jesus out, they were more concerned to the point of argumentation about who among them would be numero uno. They did not recognize at the time that, because their flesh was weak, all of them would end up betraying Jesus within hours at his arrest in the Garden. They didn’t recognize that they were already betraying him during the Last Supper.
                        • To get a sense of the ugliness of the apostles’ egocentric jockeying for position, imagine that a father came to his children and told them that the doctor had just given him two weeks to live and, instead of consoling him, instead of even showing that he cared about him and would be sad to see him die, they immediately shifted the attention to who would get the house, the car and the investments. That’s what was happening in these scenes. It’s significant that the apostles only began to argue about which one of them was the greatest after Jesus predicted his betrayal, suffering and death. It suggests that, as soon as they heard Jesus’ words about his death, their minds and hearts turned immediately to which one of them would be in charge after he was gone. It’s ridiculous, sad and disgusting.
                        • These were all examples of what St. James would describe in today’s second reading as “jealousy and selfish ambition,” flowing from “coveting” and “envy” that leads us obsessively to “ask wrongly” in order to satisfy our “passions.” The apostles were seeking their own interests, not those of the Lord. They were using him, not loving him. Selfish ambition, jealousy, envy, coveting, the apostle says, can totally corrupt not only our relationship with others, leading as St. James indicates, leading to all types of “conflicts,” “fights” and even on a global scale “war,” but it can also corrupt our relationship with God, in which God doesn’t even hear our prayers because we’re asking for things according to our worldly “passions,” begging God to satisfy our desires for pleasure, power, possessions and honor, rather than to hallow his name, his kingdom to come and his will be done. What happened with the apostles, and what was happening among the first Christians to whom St. James was writing, is a perennial warning to the Church, to the disciples of every age, to us at Columbia, today. Just as he did for the apostles, Jesus has told us over and again that he will be betrayed, mocked, tortured, and ignominiously crucified and on the third day raised. It’s no longer a foretelling but a fact. If it were ugly for them to elbow each other for worldly advancement, ignoring the reality and meaning of Jesus’ upcoming passion, death and resurrection, how much uglier is it for us now to remain only at the level of worldly desires. The Son of God became man was crucified not so that we might ambitiously seek the things of this world like everyone else does. He died and rose so that we might live a new life, in the world but not of it, seeking first the kingdom of God and God’s holiness, recognizing that everything else of true value will be given us besides. He was murdered on Golgotha and rose not so that we could be mediocre in faith and in life, but so that we could be great.
                        • It’s important to remember that Jesus never tried to eliminate his followers’ ambition as if all ambitious is selfish and jealous. Rather, he sought to purify their worldly ambition and direct it toward true greatness. There’s a huge difference between a passion for self-aggrandizement and a holy zeal for the things of God and his kingdom. Saint Paul told us in his First Letter to the Corinthians, which we heard at daily Mass on Wednesday, “Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts,” and said that those supreme endowments are not things like prophetic words, faith to move mountains, or heroic feats of enduring suffering; they are faith, hope and especially a charity that is patient, kind, not arrogant or rude. The patron saint of conversion from worldly ambition to holy ambition, in my opinion, ought to be Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Prior to the Battle of Pamplona in 1521, when he had his leg shattered by a cannon ball, he vainly sought worldly honor on the battlefield and in the royal courts. After convalescing for many months, studying the life of Christ and reading the lives of many saints, he recognized the vanity of his previous pursuits and was filled with a sacred ambition and asked, “Why can’t I do what” Saint Dominic and Saint Francis have done? He became, instead, ambitious to do everything for God’s greater glory. We don’t have to wait for a cannon ball to strike to experience the same conversion.
                        • In today’s Gospel, Jesus told the apostles that the path of holy ambition was that of cruciform self-giving: “If anyone wishes to be first,” he stated, “he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” To be great we must excel in loving service. To illustrate exactly the type of selfless service he was describing, lest we interpret it according to our comforts, he took a child and said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” An infant is someone who cannot reward us, or even thank us, for changing his diapers, or feeding or clothing her. A baby will not even remember later the sacrifices we’ve made. We cannot engage with an infant in a quid pro quo. While it’s true that whenever we love, we receive more than we give, and that those who love children receive so many blessings in return, Jesus’ point is that we need to love those who cannot reward us. That’s the type of service we’re called to give. That’s the kind of ambition to which we’re supposed to aspire. An ambition not for the first place in the eyes of the world but the first place in the eyes of God, one in which we’re not just not envious of others’ success but out of love try to help others succeed.
                        • There’s a second way that the evil one tries to disfigure the image of God in us and the divine call to live up to the greatness of our image. He doesn’t just try to pervert it to selfish and worldly ends, but he also tries to extinguish it, normally through the vice of sloth or acedia, whereby little by little we lose all ambition good and bad, natural and supernatural, until we basically begin to waste our life away with no goals at all. Some stay in their bedrooms playing videogames or scrolling through social media, or smoke one joint after another, or hope to just live off parents or others with no desire to get a job or make a useful contribution. Their parents, grandparents, siblings and true friends all just want them to find something, almost anything, for which they’ll leave the darkness of the cave for the light shining in the world. But sometime the evil one can try to extinguish ambition by convincing people that it’s a bad thing, a selfish thing, even sinful. We see this sometimes in the Church when people begin to regard all ambition as a failure in humility. In religious communities, people with particular talents who would like to use them for the Church are treated as if they are proud or seeking to be singular. I once had a bishop who thought that my hard work and zeal to spread the faith were basically just selfish ambition and made me a bad priest.
                        • Jesus, however, routinely returned to greatness and described the characteristics of genuine Christian greatness. It’s clear that he wants to be truly ambitious for the things of God, to strive eagerly after the greatest spiritual gifts. Jesus mentions in the Gospels the path to greatness four different times. Let’s examine briefly these four complementary paths so that we might become great according to Jesus’ categories.
                          • First, Jesus wants us to be great in faith. He praised the Syro-Phoenician mother and the Roman Centurion for their great faith and longed that all in Israel would emulate it. All the more, he wants us, his Christian followers, to have great faith, to be great in believing in him and what he says and does, great in entrusting our whole existence to him.
                          • Second, Jesus wants us to be great in humility. In response to the disciples’ question, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?,” Jesus called a child over and said, “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” To be “great in humility,” though paradoxical, is not contradictory. Just as a child is totally dependent on his or her parents, so Jesus wants us to become great in our filial dependence. The temptation is for us to think we don’t need God, that we’re self-sufficient. The chief sin of the prodigal son in Jesus’ famous parable was to treat the Father as if he were superfluous, or even as if he were already dead, so that he might get the inheritance immediately. The son forgot that a far more important treasure than half the father’s wealth was a relationship with him. Jesus indicates for us that the path to greatness is to become great in recognizing our need for, and receiving with gratitude, all God our Father wants to give. This is a greatness in humility we see in our Lady, who in her Magnificat, praised God for looking upon the “humility of his maidservant” while grasping, simultaneously, that “all generations will call me blessed.” Her soul, spirit and whole life were capable of magnifying and rejoicing in God precisely because of her humility. God wants us to be great in the same way.
                          • Third, Jesus wants us to be ambitious in our total imitation of his self-sacrificial love. “Whoever would be first among you must be the servant of all,” he tells us today. He wants us to be the first to serve, the first to volunteer, the first to help when needed. Later on in St. Mark’s Gospel he spoke directly of the contrast between earthly and worldly ambition when he said, “You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:43-45). He wants us to be ambitious to serve others not to be served by them, even to the point of giving our life to rescue them. After he washed the feet of the apostles during the Last Supper, he said: “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (Jn 13). We have so many opportunities to become great through unselfish charity in this way. Jesus wants us to seize them. We’ll hear at the end of Mass about some of these opportunities to become great in this way.
                          • Lastly, Jesus wants us to be great in living by his truths and passing them on to others. He tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, “Whoever keeps these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.” Jesus wants us to excel by living the faith and sharing it by our example and by our words. We think of great missionaries like Saint Paul, the North American Martyrs, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and others. We think about religious sisters and brothers who taught so selflessly generations of Catholic school students instilling within them the knowledge and love of God. We think about so many catechists who patiently pass on the faith to children, teens and adults. We think about parents, grandparents and godparents, who make it their priority to pass on the faith. We think about truly apostolic friends who seek to share with those they care about the faith they care about the most. Jesus wants his disciples to become great apostles, great missionaries, great friends, great priests and religious and great parents, by excelling in sharing our faith and inviting others to treasure it and come to true and lasting greatness by means of it.
                          • The great way we recalibrate our ambitions is to live a truly Eucharist life. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus goes beyond what he did on Calvary. He humbles himself so much as to become our very spiritual nourishment, seeking to transform us on the inside so that with him, we may give our body and blood, our sweat and tears, all we are and have out of love for God the Father and for others. When we seek what Jesus teaches and gives us each day in the Eucharist, when we receive him as he deserves and desires, God can make us great not at others’ expense but precisely through our lovingly lifting them up. The Eucharist is where we learn to receive Jesus with love and in receiving him to recognize and receive him in children and everyone else whom he sends us. This Sacrament of Love teaches us how to love. And so, as we prepare to receive the fruits of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering, death and resurrection, let us ask our Eucharistic Lord for the grace to convert all our ambitions into holy ones, to fill us with a hunger for what really matters and to give us the help he knows to act on that holy ambition for the greatest spiritual gifts and with him change the world.

                            •  

                            The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                            Reading 1
                            Wis 2:12, 17-20
                            The wicked say:
                            Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
                            he sets himself against our doings,
                            reproaches us for transgressions of the law
                            and charges us with violations of our training.
                            Let us see whether his words be true;
                            let us find out what will happen to him.
                            For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him
                            and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
                            With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test
                            that we may have proof of his gentleness
                            and try his patience.
                            Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
                            for according to his own words, God will take care of him.
                            Responsorial Psalm
                            Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8
                            R. (6b) The Lord upholds my life.
                            O God, by your name save me,
                            and by your might defend my cause.
                            O God, hear my prayer;
                            hearken to the words of my mouth.
                            R. The Lord upholds my life.
                            For the haughty men have risen up against me,
                            the ruthless seek my life;
                            they set not God before their eyes.
                            R. The Lord upholds my life.
                            Behold, God is my helper;
                            the Lord sustains my life.
                            Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
                            I will praise your name, O LORD, for its goodness.
                            R. The Lord upholds my life.
                            Reading 2
                            Jas 3:16—4:3
                            Beloved:
                            Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
                            there is disorder and every foul practice.
                            But the wisdom from above is first of all pure,
                            then peaceable, gentle, compliant,
                            full of mercy and good fruits,
                            without inconstancy or insincerity.
                            And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
                            for those who cultivate peace.
                            Where do the wars
                            and where do the conflicts among you come from?
                            Is it not from your passions
                            that make war within your members?
                            You covet but do not possess.
                            You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
                            you fight and wage war.
                            You do not possess because you do not ask.
                            You ask but do not receive,
                            because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

                            Alleluia
                            Cf. 2 Thes 2:14
                            R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                            God has called us through the Gospel
                            to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
                            R. Alleluia, alleluia.

                            Gospel
                            Mk 9:30-37
                            Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
                            but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
                            He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
                            “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
                            and they will kill him,
                            and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
                            But they did not understand the saying,
                            and they were afraid to question him.
                            They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
                            he began to ask them,
                            “What were you arguing about on the way?”
                            But they remained silent.
                            They had been discussing among themselves on the way
                            who was the greatest.
                            Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
                            “If anyone wishes to be first,
                            he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
                            Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
                            and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
                            “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
                            and whoever receives me,
                            receives not me but the One who sent me.”

                            The post Jesus’ Call To Seek True Greatness, 25th Sunday (B), September 22, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                            31 min
                          • Saving Rather Than Selfish Ambition, 25th Sunday (B), September 22, 2024

                            Fr. Roger J. Landry

                            Convent of the Missionaries of Charity Convent, Bronx, NY
                            25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
                            September 22, 2024
                            Wis 2:12.17-20, Ps 54, James 3:16-4:3, Mk 9:30-37

                             

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

                            https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.22.24_MCs_Homily_1.mp3

                             

                            The following text guided today’s homily: 

                            • Today’s Gospel will hopefully never cease to shock us. Jesus is talking for the second time about his upcoming suffering. We had the first last week, when Jesus, after Peter confessed him to be the Messiah, described what type of Messiah he would be. It’s clear not only how much his upcoming suffering and death were on Jesus’ mind but how much he wanted it on the apostles’ radar. He was about to be betrayed into the hands of those who would mock, scourge, crucify and kill him. He was about to become the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Book of Wisdom from today’s first reading, when some would beset and revile the Just One because in his goodness he was obnoxious to them, because his very being reproached them for their transgressions of the law. Just as the Book of Wisdom foretold, they were going to torture and condemn him to a shameful death, in fact, the most shameful death of all, crucifixion.
                            • We would have expected, when Jesus was talking about this to his twelve closest friends, who had spent the previous two years with him, that they would have been concerned about him. Instead of paying attention to what he had now emphasized twice with them, instead of consoling him, they started, rather, arguing about which one of them is the greatest. This wasn’t an isolated incident, but a disturbing pattern. Whenever, in fact, Jesus spoke about his upcoming crucifixion, it seemed always to bring out the worst in the apostles.
                              • As we saw last week, when Jesus told them about it for the first time, St. Peter, the newly named rock, took Jesus aside and tried to rebuke him, earning for himself in return the worst rebuke in the Bible, the name Satan, for trying to lead rather than to follow Jesus, for thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do, for essentially denying that suffering and death, even Jesus’, could be salvific.
                              • Later, when Jesus would announce yet again that the chief priests and the scribes would condemn him to death, deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked, spit upon, scourge and crucify him, James and John, two of the three closest of the disciples, came up to him and immediately asked him to do whatever they asked. What they wanted was to sit one on his right and the other on his left as he entered his kingdom — oblivious to the fact that those spots were already pre-ordained by the Father for a good and bad thief. Immediately after that chutzpah, the other apostles, recognizing what the sons of Zebedee had done, got indignant at them, not because of the way they were trying to use Jesus, but because they were not gutsy enough themselves to ask for the spots they all openly desired but didn’t have the temerity to request.
                              • And perhaps the worst example of all occurred during the Last Supper. After Jesus indicated to them, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me,” the apostles got into yet another dispute over which of them was the greatest. Rather than thinking about who would be the despicable traitor about to sell Jesus out, they were more concerned to the point of argumentation about who among them would be numero uno. They did not recognize at the time that, because their flesh was weak, all of them would end up betraying him when he would be arrested. They didn’t recognize that they were alreadybetraying him during the Last Supper.
                              • To get a sense of the ugliness of the apostles’ egocentric jockeying for position, imagine that a father came to his children and told them that the doctor had just given him two weeks to live and, instead of consoling him, instead of even showing that he cared about him, they immediately shifted the attention to who would get the house and the car. That’s what was happening in these scenes. It’s sad, ridiculous and frankly disgusting. These were all examples of what St. James would describe in today’s second reading as “jealousy and selfish ambition,” flowing from “coveting” and “envy” that leads us obsessively to “ask wrongly” in order to satisfy our “passions.” The apostles were seeking their own interests, not those of the Lord. They were using him, not loving him. What happened with them is a perennial warning to the Church, to the disciples of the Lord.
                              • Jesus, however, never tried to eliminate his followers’ ambition as if all ambitious is selfish and jealous. Jesus, rather, sought to purify their worldly ambition and direct it toward true greatness. There’s a huge difference between a passion for self-aggrandizement — an ego-indulging hunger for riches, honor, pleasure and power, an insatiable desire not just to be the best but to be acknowledged as the best — and a holy zeal for the things of God and his kingdom. Saint Paul told us in his First Letter to the Corinthians, which we heard on Wednesday this week, “Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts,” and said that those supreme endowments are not things like prophetic words, faith to move mountains, or heroic feats of enduring suffering; they are faith, hope and especially a charity that is patient, kind, not arrogant or rude. The patron saint of conversion from worldly ambition to holy ambition is probably Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Prior to the Battle of Pamplona, when he had his leg shattered by a cannon ball, he vainly sought worldly honor on the battlefield and in the royal courts. After convalescing for many months, studying the life of Christ and reading the lives of many saints, he was filled with a sacred ambition and asked, “Why can’t I do what” Saint Dominic and Saint Francis have done? He became, instead, ambitious to do everything for God’s greater glory. St. Francis Xavier, his former roommate and fellow founding Jesuit, had the ambition to bring whole nations to the Lord. St. Teresa of Avila had the ambition to reform the Carmelites so that it might sing forever of God’s mercy and glory. Saint Teresa of Calcutta, in response to the Lord’s request, had the ambition to satiate Jesus’ infinite thirst for souls.
                              • Jesus told the apostles that the path of holy ambition was that of cruciform self-giving: “If anyone wishes to be first,” he stated, “he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” To be great we must excel in loving service. And to illustrate exactly the type of selfless service he was describing, lest we interpret it according to our comforts, he took a child and said, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” An infant is someone who cannot reward us, with whom we cannot engage in a quid pro quo. A little child is not even able to thank us, for changing his diapers, or feeding or clothing her, or more. While it’s true that whenever we love, we receive more than we give, and that those who love children receive so many blessings in return, Jesus’ point is that we need to love those who cannot reward us. That’s the type of service we’re called to give. That’s the kind of ambition to which we’re supposed to aspire. An ambition not for the first place in the eyes of the world but the first place in the eyes of God, one in which we’re not merely not envious of others’ success but out of love try to help others succeed.
                              • In the Gospel, Jesus spoke several times about true greatness and described the characteristics of Christian greatness. It’s important for us not only to purify selfish ambition to sacred ambition, but to be truly ambitious for the things of the Lord, to strive eagerly after the greatest spiritual gifts. In some circles in the Church, ambition is considered per se evil, and out of a false sense of humility, some no longer set goals and fail to use their freedom and talents to try to do something beautiful for the Lord. No, the Lord created us for a certain type of greatness through the way we receive his love, respond to his love, and then try to reciprocate his love. In the Gospel, Jesus mentions the path to greatness five different times. Let’s examine the five things he urges us to do and today respond to his help to respond to this call to greatness.
                                • First, Jesus wants us to be great in faith. He praised the Syro-Phoenician mother and the Roman Centurion for their great faith and longed that all in Israel would emulate it. All the more, he wants us, his followers, to have great faith. And we should aspire to it, begging him, “Lord, increase my faith!”
                                • Second, Jesus wants us to be great in humility. In response to the disciples’ question, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?,” Jesus called a child over and said, “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” To be “great in humility,” though paradoxical, is not contradictory. Just as a child is totally dependent on his or her parents, so Jesus wants us to become great in our filial dependence. The temptation is for us to think we don’t need God, that we’re self-sufficient. The chief sin of the prodigal son was to treat the Father basically as if he were superfluous, or even as if he were already dead, so that he might get the inheritance now. He forgot that a far more important treasure than half the father’s wealth was a relationship with him. Jesus indicates for us that the path to greatness is to become great in recognizing our need for, and receiving with gratitude, all God wants to give.
                                • Third, Jesus wants us to be ambitious in our total imitation of his self-sacrificial love. “Whoever would be first among you must be the servant of all,” he tells us today. Later on in St. Mark’s Gospel he spoke directly of the contrast between earthly and worldly ambition when he said, “You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:43-45). Jesus wants us to respond to his grace to grow in the desire to give our life to ransom others from slavery and death, just as he did. During the Last Supper, after he washed the disciples’ feet, he told them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (Jn 13). We have so many opportunities to become great through unselfish charity in this way. This is a particular path of greatness open to the Missionaries of Charity.
                                • Fourth, Jesus wants us to be ambitious to be saints. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, echoing the prophets’ call for us to be holy as the Lord, our God, is holy, to be merciful as our Father is merciful, so that we might fully become the image and likeness of the God who created us.
                                • Fifth, Jesus wants us to be great in living by his truths and passing them on to others. “Whoever keeps these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven,” he tells us in the Sermon on the Mount. He wants us to excel in sharing the faith by our example and by our words. He came to light a fire on the earth and is longing for it to be enkindled. We think of great missionaries like Saint Paul and Saint Francis Xavier, the North American Martyrs, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and others. We think about religious sisters and brothers who taught so selflessly generations of Catholic school students instilling within them the knowledge and love of God. We think about so many catechists who patiently pass on the faith to children, teens and adults. We think about parents, grandparents and godparents, who make it their priority to pass on the faith. We think about truly apostolic friends who seek to share with those they care about the faith they care about the most.
                                • Are we striving to become truly great in these ways Jesus indicates or according to worldly categories? Are we thinking as God does or as human beings do? We can wear the priestly vestments or religious habits, but have the desires of our heart been as transformed as our clothing? The reality is that, just as he did with the apostles, Jesus has told us over and again that he will be betrayed, mocked, tortured, and ignominiously crucified and on the third day raised. It was ugly for them, in anticipation of what he would endure, to elbow each other for worldly advancement, ignoring the reality and meaning of his passion, death and resurrection. I would argue, knowing what Jesus has endured for us and our salvation, that it is much uglier for us now to remain only at the level of worldly desires. The Son of God became man not so that we might ambitiously seek the things of this world while just doing the minimum spiritually. He died and rose not so that we could remain inert and accomplish very little for him and his kingdom by striving to do very little. Jesus died and rose so that we might live new lives, in the world but not of it, seeking first the kingdom of God and God’s holiness, recognizing that everything else of true value will be given us besides.
                                • The great way we recalibrate our ambitions is to live a truly Eucharist life. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus goes beyond what he did on Calvary. He humbles himself so much as to become our very spiritual nourishment, seeking to transform us on the inside so that with him we may give our body and blood, our sweat and tears, all we are and have out of love for God the Father and for others. When we seek what Jesus gives and teaches us each day in the Eucharist, when we receive him as he deserves and desires, God can make us great not at others’ expense but precisely through lovingly lifting them up. The Eucharist is where we learn to receive Jesus with love and in receiving him to recognize and receive him in children and everyone else he sends us. This Sacrament of Love teaches us how to love. And so, as we prepare to receive the fruits of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering, death and resurrection, let us ask our Eucharistic Lord for the grace to be filled with a hunger for what really matters and for all the help he knows we need to act on that holy ambition for the greatest spiritual gifts.

                                  •  

                                  The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                                  Wis 2:12, 17-20

                                  The wicked say:

                                  Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
                                  he sets himself against our doings,
                                  reproaches us for transgressions of the law
                                  and charges us with violations of our training.
                                  Let us see whether his words be true;
                                  let us find out what will happen to him.
                                  For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him
                                  and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
                                  With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test
                                  that we may have proof of his gentleness
                                  and try his patience.
                                  Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
                                  for according to his own words, God will take care of him.

                                  Responsorial Psalm
                                  Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8

                                  R. (6b)    The Lord upholds my life.

                                  O God, by your name save me,
                                  and by your might defend my cause.
                                  O God, hear my prayer;
                                  hearken to the words of my mouth.
                                  R. The Lord upholds my life.
                                  For the haughty have risen up against me,
                                  the ruthless  seek my life;
                                  they set not God before their eyes.
                                  R. The Lord upholds my life.
                                  Behold, God is my helper;
                                  the Lord sustains my life.
                                  Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
                                  I will praise your name, O LORD, for its goodness.
                                  R. The Lord upholds my life.

                                  Reading II
                                  Jas 3:16—4:3

                                  Beloved:

                                  Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
                                  there is disorder and every foul practice.
                                  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure,
                                  then peaceable, gentle, compliant,
                                  full of mercy and good fruits,
                                  without inconstancy or insincerity.
                                  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
                                  for those who cultivate peace.

                                  Where do the wars

                                  and where do the conflicts among you come from?
                                  Is it not from your passions
                                  that make war within your members?
                                  You covet but do not possess.
                                  You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
                                  you fight and wage war.
                                  You do not possess because you do not ask.
                                  You ask but do not receive,
                                  because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

                                  Alleluia
                                  Cf. 2 Thes 2:14

                                  R. Alleluia, alleluia.

                                  God has called us through the Gospel
                                  to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
                                  R. Alleluia, alleluia.

                                  Gospel
                                  Mk 9:30-37

                                  Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,

                                  but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
                                  He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
                                  “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
                                  and they will kill him,
                                  and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
                                  But they did not understand the saying,
                                  and they were afraid to question him.

                                  They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,

                                  he began to ask them,
                                  “What were you arguing about on the way?”
                                  But they remained silent.
                                  They had been discussing among themselves on the way
                                  who was the greatest.
                                  Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
                                  “If anyone wishes to be first,
                                  he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
                                  Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
                                  and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
                                  “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
                                  and whoever receives me,
                                  receives not me but the One who sent me.”

                                  The post Saving Rather Than Selfish Ambition, 25th Sunday (B), September 22, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                                  24 min

                                About Catholic Preaching

                                From the publisher's feed

                                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.

                                More shows like Catholic Preaching

                                Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies by Bishop Robert Barron

                                Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

                                4,970 Listeners

                                Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz by Ascension

                                Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz

                                6,234 Listeners

                                The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture by Bishop Robert Barron

                                The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

                                5,713 Listeners

                                The Thomistic Institute by The Thomistic Institute

                                The Thomistic Institute

                                811 Listeners

                                St. Josemaria Institute Podcast by St. Josemaria Institute

                                St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

                                597 Listeners

                                First Things Podcast by First Things

                                First Things Podcast

                                717 Listeners

                                Pints With Aquinas by Matt Fradd

                                Pints With Aquinas

                                6,745 Listeners

                                All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri by Ascension

                                All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri

                                1,353 Listeners

                                The Counsel of Trent by Catholic Answers

                                The Counsel of Trent

                                2,616 Listeners

                                Catholic Daily Reflections by My Catholic Life!

                                Catholic Daily Reflections

                                554 Listeners

                                Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast) by Ascension

                                Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

                                839 Listeners

                                Godsplaining by Dominican Friars Province of St. Joseph

                                Godsplaining

                                1,276 Listeners

                                Catholic Saints by Augustine Institute

                                Catholic Saints

                                1,214 Listeners

                                Catholic Bible Study by Augustine Institute

                                Catholic Bible Study

                                779 Listeners

                                Chris Stefanick Catholic Show by Chris Stefanick | Real Life Catholic

                                Chris Stefanick Catholic Show

                                444 Listeners