Catholic Preaching

Catholic Preaching

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Catholic Preaching episodes

  • God’s Comfort, Patience and Summons, Second Sunday of Advent, December 10, 2023

    Fr. Roger J. Landry

    Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
    Second Sunday in Advent, Year B
    December 10, 2023
    Is 40:1-5.9-11, Ps 85, 2 Pet 3:8-14, Mk 1:1-8

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

    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.10.23_Homily_1.mp3

     

    The following text guided the homily: 

    • “Comfort, give comfort to my people,” God tells Isaiah today in the first reading. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Proclaim to her that …her guilt is expiated. … Go up on to a high mountain [and] cry out at the top of your voice … ‘Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God. … Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom and leading the ewes with care.”
    • The message of Advent is a message of consolation. God is coming with power to expiate our guilt. He’s coming as a Shepherd to feed us, to gather us into his arms, to go in search for us when we’re lost and carry us back on his shoulders. He came in history ultimately to die for us as a Good Shepherd laying down his life to save the lives of his sheep. But this action of God toward us is not the only movement of Advent: we need to be ready for this coming of the Lord, go out to meet him, receive what he gives and be so transformed by him that we will follow him all the way to the eternal sheepfold. Awake, alert and grateful, we need to open ourselves to the gift of expiation he offers, the consolation he came, still comes, and will come definitively into the world to bring.
    • The one sent to help us to get ready to receive this gift is St. John the Baptist. Every year on the second and third Sundays of Advent, the Church leads us on pilgrimage to the Jordan River, so that we might enroll anew in St. John the Baptist’s school, hear his message and put it into action in our life. John was chosen by God the Father from all eternity to get his people ready to receive His Son, who when John was preaching was already in a sense walking toward the Jordan River to inaugurate his public ministry. Advent literally means “coming toward” and St. John the Baptist has the mission to get us ready to go out to embrace the Lord who is coming to us in history in Bethlehem, in mystery especially through the Sacraments, and in majesty on the clouds of heaven. And the way John seeks to help us to get ready to embrace Jesus who is coming is through is deep, total, sincere conversion.
    • In the Second Reading today, St. Peter talks to us about patience. Normally, in Advent, we focus on patiently waiting in hope for the fulfillment of God’s presence. But the patience about which he speaks is God’s patience. “The Lord,” he says, “is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” He does not delay his promise as some regard ‘delay,’ Peter says, as if he’s not ready. He delays because we’re not yet ready. We have not yet come to repentance. That’s why the annual work of St. John the Baptist is so important.
    • Mark tells us that John the Baptist appeared in the desert “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” and the people were responding in huge numbers. The whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized “as they acknowledged their sins.” Dressed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey, he was penitentially proclaiming a message of repentance and reparation not just with his words but with his body language. St. Mark sees him as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy from the first reading, “I am sending my messenger ahead of you to prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths.’” John was not the one crying out in the desert, but the voice, the loudspeaker, the sound system, of the “one crying out in the desert.” The one crying out was the very person to whom John referred at the end of today’s Gospel, the “one mightier than I” who “is coming after me,” whose sandals he was not worthy to stoop and loosen, the one who would “baptize with the Holy Spirit.” That Word for whom John was the voice is Jesus himself. This is why it’s no surprise that John the Baptist’s words of repentance fore-echoed Jesus’ own first words, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” John was preparing the way for Jesus because he was announcing the need for conversion and for faith, which are the prerequisites for receiving Jesus’ salvation, for becoming Jesus’ disciples, for receiving the loving consolation he wants to give us.
    • John’s description of the process of conversion as “preparing the way of the Lord and making straight his paths” is very instructive. In the ancient world, the roads were a mess. Every time there was a battle, the roads would be attacked and bridges destroyed, to try to stop the advance of the enemy. The weather took its toll as well, leading to all types of serious potholes and other obstacles. Any time a dignitary would be coming, they would have either to fix the roads or build new ones so that the rolling caravan accompanying the VIP could arrive without delay and without hassle. The application of the metaphor is that in order to embrace Jesus at his coming, we need to prepare a way by making our crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth, and even charting paths through the mountains of pride and the valleys of a shallow prayer life and spiritual minimalism. As we know from ubiquitous construction projects on our highways today, building new roads isn’t easy, cheap or quick! It requires a tremendous amount of hard work, long days and long nights. That’s what’s required to straighten out our paths. We won’t be able to receive the depth of God’s comfort, we won’t be able to embrace Jesus our Good Shepherd in a new life as he comes to gather us in his arms, unless we actually do this work.
    • When we talk about the conversion God sends John the Baptist to help us to make, I think back to the powerful homily given during the Great Jubilee of 2000 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, to a group of Catechists who had come to Rome to celebrate the Jubilee. In a homily about how we’re supposed to live and proclaim the Gospel today, the future Pope said that the first part of the message the Church needs to bring to the world is the message of John the Baptist, the message of Christ, namely, “to repent and believe.” And he described what that conversion really is all about: “The fundamental content of the Old Testament is summarized in the message by John the Baptist: metanoete – Convert! There is no access to Jesus without the Baptist; there is no possibility of reaching Jesus without answering the call of the precursor. Rather, Jesus took up the message of John in the synthesis of His own preaching: [repent and believe]. The Greek word for converting means: to rethink; to question one’s own and common way of living; to allow God to enter into the criteria of one’s life; to judge not merely according to the current opinions. Therefore, to convert means: not to live as all the others live, not to do what all do, not to feel justified in dubious, ambiguous, evil actions just because others are doing the same. It means to begin to see one’s life through the eyes of God, and so look for the good, even if uncomfortable, not aiming at the judgment of the majority, of men, but at the justice of God. In other words, [conversion means] to look for a new style of life, a new life.” The whole process of conversion, he concluded, requires “the humility to entrust oneself to the love of [God], a love that becomes the measure and the criteria of my own life.” Notice what Cardinal Ratzinger is not saying. He’s saying that the conversion that God wants of us is not just a minor course correction in our life, as if all God wants of us is to eliminate a bad habit of judgmental thoughts, impatience, gossip or complaining. God is asking something much greater. He’s asking for us to adopt Christ’s way of living as our own. Conversion means to hear Jesus saying to us, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” and resolving to follow him fully along that path.
    • One of the biggest challenges for the Church today is that so many Christians are trying to live like everyone else rather than as Christ does, than as the saints do. Instead of allowing our faith to be leaven that lifts the whole world up, we are permitting the toxins of the world enter our souls, our societies and even our homes, convents, rectories and Churches. We take our categories not from God but from worldly gurus. The world doesn’t like conversion, so we downplay our need for it. The world doesn’t like the worship of God because it wants to worship the self and so it finds the Mass, prayer and adoration “boring” and rejects them because they don’t entertain. The world doesn’t like the lifetime loving commitment of marriage, so it tries to change what marriage is. The world doesn’t care for the idea of a Church founded by God with a structure and a leader who speaks in Jesus’ name, so it pushes for the Church to become more “democratic” so that we, rather than God, will determine what to believe and what’s right and what’s wrong. In short, despite professing that we believe in and love God, many people, including many Catholics, prefer to live by the standards of the world rather than by Jesus’ own way of life.
    • Today, out of love for us, God sends St. John the Baptist to us to call us to a new way of life. He tells us of our need to turn away from our worldly standards, sins, and idols, to reach out for God’s mercy, and to begin truly living by faith in Jesus, trusting in what he taught, walking with him, basing our entire existence on him and spreading his words and way of life to others. That’s among the many reasons why the religious life is so important. To a world that must convert from placing its treasure in mammon, that worships the golden calf and what money can buy, the consecrated by the vow of poverty proclaim that there’s a far more important wealth, the treasure of God’s kingdom. To a world that has to turn away from indulging in pleasure and running away from the Cross, the consecrated by the vow of chastity make Christ’s unselfish love their own, imitating his laying down his life for God and others, showing us how to sacrifice ourselves for others’ good rather than sacrificing others for our gratification. To a world that must repent from trying to make itself God, that abuses freedom and worships a radical autonomy and total independence from God, religious through the vow of obedience show us that real freedom and real happiness come from saying to God, “Not my will, but yours be done,” and from imitating Jesus’ trusting obedience to the Father until death. For that message to be given in all its radical beauty, however, religious must live as John the Baptist lived. They must live truly converted lives, clinging to the poor, chaste, obedient and long-awaited One and become, like the Baptist, signs pointing to the radicality of the life Christ offers not just in the desert but in the heart of the modern metropolis.
    • John the Baptist, however, didn’t come just to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but also to point out how sins would be forgiven. A short time after the scene in today’s Gospel, he saw that “more powerful one… whose sandals he was unworthy to loosen” coming to him at the Jordan. He exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29). John the Baptist didn’t have the ability to forgive sins in God’s name, only to call others to recognize their need for forgiveness. His baptism was just a sign; it could not effect what it signified. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, what he called the “baptism” with which he had to be baptized (Mk 10:38-39), not only made the waters of baptism sacramental but made it possible for us continuously to go to the Jordan and be restored to our baptismal graces through the Sacrament of Confession. Just like “people of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem” were going out to acknowledge their sins before John the Baptist, the Lord’s precursor, so this Advent we should all be forming lines outside the confessional to acknowledge our sins before the Lord’s minister. For this we need the fortitude and docility that flow from faith. “It is curious,” Pope Francis said in 2014, “but so many times, we are afraid of consolation, of being consoled. In fact, we feel safer in sadness and desolation, … because in sadness, we feel almost like the protagonists. [We feel in control]. Instead, in consolation, the Holy Spirit is the protagonist, … it is He who consoles us, it is He who gives us the courage to come out of ourselves. It is He who brings us to the source of every true consolation, that is, the Father. And this is conversion.” He appealed to all of us, “Please, let yourself be consoled by the Lord! Let yourself be consoled by the Lord!”
    • That is why this message of the Baptist is such “Good News” and not bad news. God not only proclaims, “Comfort, O comfort my people,” but brings that consolation about. We’re sinners, yes, but God comes as our Good Shepherd to save us from those sins, if only we repent and go to him. It’s true that we’re not worthy to untie the straps of Jesus’ sandals. It’s true even more that we’re not worthy to receive Him under our roof in Holy Communion. But the Lord wants to make us worthy by “saying the word” and “healing our souls” through the voice of his ministers. Our conversion and reconciliation are the way the Lord wants us to prepare to celebrate his birth in Bethlehem, because it will allow him to be truly reborn in us this Christmas. Our conversion and reconciliation are the best means for us to prepare for his coming at the end of time, because through sacramental absolution we make ourselves ready no matter what day or hour he comes. Our conversion and reconciliation are the most fitting preparation to receive him worthily in the Eucharist, because through the Sacrament of Mercy God cleanses us so that we might be a fitting temple to receive and adore him. This is the comfort God wants to give us. This is the comfort he has sent John the Baptist to announce. This is the comfort he wants each of us to bring others to receive.
    • “On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry announces that the Lord is nigh,” we Catholics sing across the English-speaking world on this Second Sunday of Advent. “Awake and hearken for he brings glad tidings from the King of Kings,” we continued. Those glad tidings, that comfort, constituted the beautiful second verse, which we pray each of us will hear on good soil and act on: “Then cleansed be every soul from sin, make straight the way of God within. Prepare we in our hearts a home, where such a mighty guest may come.” May each of us respond to God’s invitation this Advent to be consolingly cleansed from sin in Confession, to make straight God’s path to us, to prepare a home for Jesus and so get ready with Jesus at the end of time to enter the Home he has gone to prepare for us and take us to, if we respond to his consoling help fully to adopt his style of life and follow him who is the Way on the eternal path of happiness.

      •  

      The readings for today’s Mass were: 

      Reading 1 IS 40:1-5, 9-11
      Comfort, give comfort to my people,
      says your God.
      Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
      that her service is at an end,
      her guilt is expiated;
      indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
      double for all her sins.
      A voice cries out:
      In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
      Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
      Every valley shall be filled in,
      every mountain and hill shall be made low;
      the rugged land shall be made a plain,
      the rough country, a broad valley.
      Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
      and all people shall see it together;
      for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
      Go up on to a high mountain,
      Zion, herald of glad tidings;
      cry out at the top of your voice,
      Jerusalem, herald of good news!
      Fear not to cry out
      and say to the cities of Judah:
      Here is your God!
      Here comes with power
      the Lord GOD,
      who rules by his strong arm;
      here is his reward with him,
      his recompense before him.
      Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
      in his arms he gathers the lambs,
      carrying them in his bosom,
      and leading the ewes with care.
      Responsorial Psalm PS 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
      R/ (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
      I will hear what God proclaims;
      the LORD—for he proclaims peace to his people.
      Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
      glory dwelling in our land.
      R/ Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
      Kindness and truth shall meet;
      justice and peace shall kiss.
      Truth shall spring out of the earth,
      and justice shall look down from heaven.
      R/ Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
      The LORD himself will give his benefits;
      our land shall yield its increase.
      Justice shall walk before him,
      and prepare the way of his steps.
      R/ Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation. 

      Reading 2 2 PT 3:8-14

      Do not ignore this one fact, beloved,

      that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years
      and a thousand years like one day.
      The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,”
      but he is patient with you,
      not wishing that any should perish
      but that all should come to repentance.
      But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
      and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar
      and the elements will be dissolved by fire,
      and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.

      Since everything is to be dissolved in this way,

      what sort of persons ought you to be,
      conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
      waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
      because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
      and the elements melted by fire.
      But according to his promise
      we await new heavens and a new earth
      in which righteousness dwells.
      Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
      be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.

      Alleluia LK 3:4, 6

      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
      all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
      R. Alleluia, alleluia.

      Gospel MK 1:1-8
      The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
      As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
      Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
      he will prepare your way.
      A voice of one crying out in the desert:
      “Prepare the way of the Lord,
      make straight his paths.”
      John the Baptist appeared in the desert
      proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
      People of the whole Judean countryside
      and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
      were going out to him
      and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
      as they acknowledged their sins.
      John was clothed in camel’s hair,
      with a leather belt around his waist.
      He fed on locusts and wild honey.
      And this is what he proclaimed:
      “One mightier than I is coming after me.
      I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
      I have baptized you with water;
      he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

      The post God’s Comfort, Patience and Summons, Second Sunday of Advent, December 10, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

      20 min
    • Second Sunday of Advent (B), Conservations with Consequences Podcast, December 9, 2023

      Fr. Roger J. Landry

      Conversations with Consequences Podcast
      Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, B, Vigil
      December 9, 2023

       

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

      https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.9.23_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

       

      The following text guided the homily: 

      • This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation God wants to have with us this Sunday.
      • Last week, on the first Sunday of Advent, we began a new year in the Church. Advent is a time of spiritual reawakening and renewal, a call to wake up and be on the watch, like a good doorman, always ready to open promptly to Jesus who never ceases to come to us. But to have this life-changing encounter with Jesus, we first have to confront and overcome the obstacles that might be in the way between the Lord and us, all the stuff that blocks the door. The biggest barrier of all is our sins and the way we hold on to them rather than allow the Lord Jesus to take them away.
      • That’s why, on the Second Sunday of Advent each year, in order to help us make a totally fresh start, God sends us the same person he sent to get the people of Israel ready to encounter, embrace and follow his Son when Jesus finally revealed himself at the Jordan River. St. John the Baptist announces for us anew, in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” And he tells us what’s involved in that road repair: “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
      • In the ancient world, the dirt roads were a mess. Every time there was a battle, the roads would be attacked and bridges destroyed, to try to stop the advance of the enemy. The weather took its toll as well, leading to all types of potholes and other obstacles. Any time a dignitary would be coming, they would have either to fix the roads or build new ones so that the rolling caravan with its heavy goods and people accompanying the VIP could arrive without delay or hassle. St. John the Baptist is telling us that to get ready for the Lord who is coming this Advent, we, too, need to prepare a road for him. We, too, need to make straight the paths.
      • 2000 years ago, preparing such a path meant a great deal of work, making crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth, and even charting paths through the forests, mountains and valleys. For us, that pathway will not be traced on the ground, but interiorly. It will not be made in the wilderness, but in day-to-day life. It’s not something that will make our hands dirty, but our souls clean. St. John the Baptist indicated the necessary road repair quoting the prophet Isaiah: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth” (Lk 3:5). He’s calling us to level the mountains of our pride and egocentrism, to fill in the valleys that come from a shallow prayer life and a minimalistic way of living our faith, and to straighten out whatever crooked, sinful paths we’ve been walking. This work won’t be accomplished principally by willpower and elbow grease, but by God’s power and supernatural grace. The way we receive this help of God to cleanse the path between Jesus and us of the worst obstacles of all is the Sacrament of Confession. This Advent we need to be as attentive to clearing the way for Christ through this Sacrament as highway workers are to removing dead deer from the high-speed lane.
      • Yet to do so, we have to confront head-on one of the most insidious lies of the evil one in some parts of the Church today: that the Sacrament of Confession is an optional part of the Catholic faith. Various recent surveys, like those done by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate of Georgetown or CARA, have shown that about 45 percent of American Catholics never go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and another 30 percent go less than once a year, which is the minimum established by the Code of Canon Law and the Precepts of the Church. 38 percent of daily Mass goers, 73 percent of Sunday Mass goers, and 94 percent of irregular Mass going Catholics either never receive the Sacrament or receive it less than once a year. The evil one, of course, has a keen interest in keeping us from the Sacrament of Penance because he wants us to live and die in our sins and absolutely not be forgiven of them. Far more than trying to get us to commit specific sins, he really desires us to become hardened sinners through not repenting and coming to the Lamb of God John would point out who had come to take away the sins of the world, to cleanse us in his mercy and to bring good even out of the sins we have committed. Jesus would say later in the Gospel that only the sick need a doctor, that only sinners need a savior, and the devil wants to get us to buy the lie that we really don’t need Jesus to save us from our sins.
      • Pope Francis has worked very hard to oppose this diabolical lie. I’ll never forget his first Sunday as Pope. I was in Rome doing color-commentary for the papal conclave for EWTN television. He said, “God never tires of forgiving us. It’s we who tire of asking for forgiveness.” And he prayed: “May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give.” Pope Francis himself has said openly that he goes to confession at least every two weeks. I go to confession every week. Catholics who really want to grow in faith should seek to come to confession at least once a month. But good Catholics should minimally seek to make a very good confession at least every Advent and Lent.
      • If we’re really going to live out the Advent summons the Church gives us, however, we cannot stop at merely making a good confession ourselves. We are also summoned to become like John the Baptist in helping others to prepare the way for the Lord as well, to become a voice of Jesus the Word crying out for all of us to make straight the paths for him to come. God is hoping that after our reconciliation we will become heralds of the Lamb, ambassadors for Christ, crying out in the desert and from the rooftops to clear the road of everything unfit for Jesus’ arrival. Jesus himself has taught us how important this work is to him. In Luke 15, where Jesus gives us the three parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Sons, he tells us that “heaven rejoices more for one repentant sinner than for 99 who did not need to repent.” God’s greatest joy is forgiving. The way we can please God most is by coming to receive his forgiveness and bringing those we know — our friends and family members, fallen away Catholics, fellow parishioners and the vast majority of Catholics, including daily and Sunday Mass goers whom surveys indicate don’t regularly confess— to Jesus. He is the Lamb of God, who entered our world in his first coming to take away our sins, who remains in the world through priests acting in his person forgiving us 70 times 7 times, and who will return again at his Second Coming hoping to take those who have sought to follow him along the path of mercy to the eternal home he has gone to prepare.
      • That’s why the most famous Catholic hymn English-speaking Catholics sing on the Second Sunday of Advent joyfully proclaims the Good News of God’s Mercy announced by Jesus’ precursor. The Church sings, “On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry announces that the Lord is nigh. Awake and hearken for he brings glad tidings from the King of Kings. Then cleansed be every soul from sin, make straight the way of God within. Prepare we in our hearts a home where such a mighty guest may come.” The Lord Jesus is coming. In his name, John the Baptist is summoning us to make straight the path for his arrival and to help others clear their roads, too. This is at the heart of Advent and one of its greatest graces. As Christ comes for us, let us go out to meet him in his mercy. God bless you!

        •  

        The Gospel on which this homily was based was: 

        Gospel
        MK 1:1-8

        The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

        As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

        Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
        he will prepare your way.
        A voice of one crying out in the desert:
        “Prepare the way of the Lord,
        make straight his paths.”
        John the Baptist appeared in the desert
        proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
        People of the whole Judean countryside
        and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
        were going out to him
        and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
        as they acknowledged their sins.
        John was clothed in camel’s hair,
        with a leather belt around his waist.
        He fed on locusts and wild honey.
        And this is what he proclaimed:
        “One mightier than I is coming after me.
        I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
        I have baptized you with water;
        he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

        The post Second Sunday of Advent (B), Conservations with Consequences Podcast, December 9, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

        9 min
      • Chosen in Christ to Be Holy and Without Blemish, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2023

        Fr. Roger J. Landry

        Columbia Campus Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
        Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady
        December 8, 2023
        Gn 3:9-15.20, Ps 98, Eph 1:3-6.11-12, Lk 1:26-38

         

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

        https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.8.23_Homily_1.mp3

         

        The following text guided the homily: 

        • With joy today we come together to celebrate God’s extraordinary work in the life of the woman God the Father chose to be the Mother of his Son and that Son from the Cross chose for us. St. Paul, in today’s second reading from his Letter to the Ephesians, exultantly wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” That divine will, in our case, is meant to be fulfilled through “adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,” in which by Baptism, we are wiped clean of original and personal sin and given the help to persevere in a holy life. In Mary’s case, that same divine will from before the world’s creation was fulfilled in a unique and miraculous way. It’s important for us not just to know the fact of her Immaculate Conception in the womb of her mother Saint Anne, but to know the grounds for this truth, first, so that we can better appreciate God’s plan for the world’s redemption and Mary’s part in it, but also because, frankly, some of our Protestant brothers and sisters are presently and consistently challenging it as a means to try to dissuade some of those who have expressed the desire to become Catholic from doing so as well as to try to undermine the faith of campus Catholics. To attack the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is a means, some of them seem to think, by which they can undercut Catholic veneration of Mary, the dogma of papal infallibility, since it was employed in 1854 solemnly to define the Immaculate Conception, as well as sacred tradition and Catholic theology more generally. So, sharing Jesus’ love for his mother and ours as well as having a robust desire to defend other mother’s dignity, honor and special privileges in salvation history, let’s examine what today’s feast is about and how and why the Church proclaims and celebrates Mary’s Immaculate Conception.
        • Some of our Protestant brothers and sisters argue that Mary’s Immaculate Conception is unbiblical, but today’s reading suggest why the Church has long argued for Mary’s sinlessness. In the first reading, in Genesis’ account of the original sin of Adam and Eve, God responds to the serpent by prophesizing that he would “put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” The earliest saints in the Church are unanimous in recognizing that this refers to Mary and her offspring, Jesus, often referring to Jesus, like St. Paul, as the New Adam and to Mary as the New Eve, in a state she had before the Fall. It’s unsurprising that the Evil One would have enmity — scorn and hatred — for Jesus and for Mary and, in fact, for all of us. It’s likewise not a surprise that Jesus would have enmity for the evil one, for his lies and works, as we see in the way Jesus responded to him in the desert. But the third Chapter of the Bible also asserts, in what tradition calls the “proto-evangelium” or “first Gospel,” that Mary would share God’s enmity and be totally opposed to the serpent’s work of getting us to distrust God and choose against him. We see the fulfillment of that divine prophecy and plan in today’s Gospel, when the Archangel Gabriel, on behalf of God, greets Mary at the annunciation. In St. Luke’s Greek original, he greets her, “Chaire, kecharitomene,” “Rejoice, you who have been filled with grace.” Biblical scholars, ancient and contemporary, recognize in this expression that Mary was filled with grace, which means filled with God, in such a way that there was no room within her for sin, for idols, for anything opposed to God. To call her kecharitomene was to say that she was sinless — and that’s how she was referred to by saints and fathers of the Church throughout the earliest centuries of the Church, as the “sinless Virgin Mary,” the woman whom they said was like Eve before the Fall.
        • So there was never a debate as to whether Mary was a sinner. The question was when she became “full of grace,” when she was “holy and without blemish” before God. Some of the earliest saints and theologians thought that if she were free from sin from the first moment of her life, then she would not have needed to be redeemed by her Son and asked, how could she have been freed from sin if her Son, the Redeemer of the World, still hadn’t even been conceived in her. Others argued that if she were not conceived with the consequences of original sin, then why would she have even needed to be redeemed in the first place. So while they were unanimous in saying that she was sinless in that she had never chosen to sin, they couldn’t grasp how she could have been preserved from original sin. And so the topic was debated until, basically, Blessed Duns Scotus, in the early 1300s, gave brilliantly compelling answers to both questions. He taught that since Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection were temporal acts with eternal consequences, such that the redemption he won could save even the ancient patriarchs who had died centuries before him, those eternal graces could be applied in an anticipated or prevenient fashion to Mary at the moment of her conception. At the very moment she was conceived in the womb of St. Anne with the loss of the inheritance given before the Fall to Adam and Eve, the graces of her future Son’s triumph on Golgotha would be applied to her, so that she might be fully free to say a whole-hearted “fiat” or “yes” to God when the Archangel Gabriel appeared and so that, in her womb, no sin might ever touch her sinless Son. Blessed Duns Scotus gave an analogy with regard to quicksand that said that there are two ways one can be saved from quicksand. The first is when someone is sinking in it; the second is by preventing someone from falling into it in the first place, and the latter is what happened to Mary from the first instant of her life. This is what led Blessed Pope Pius IX, after centuries of devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Conception in the Catholic world and a solicitation of all the bishops of the world, to dogmatically define, in the first formal extraordinary exercise of papal infallibility, that “the doctrine that holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”
        • But it’s not enough to stop with the dogmatic decree. We need to relate to Mary. We need to relate to her as a disciple who shows us how to love, with a sinless heart, the One who would become the blessed Fruit of her immaculate womb. No one shows us how to be a better Christian than Mary and she wants to help each of us relate to her Son better, to live up to our baptismal promises and become “holy and without blemish” in his sight. We need to relate to her as Mother. Jesus on Calvary entrusted her to his “beloved disciple” and him to her and each of us, like the beloved disciple, is supposed to receive Mary into [our] home,” into our life. If we seek to follow Jesus and Jesus kept the fourth commandment honoring his mother, how could we not seek to imitate his love for her, he who praised her above all for her faith, for hearing the word of God and observing it. And we’re also called to relate to her as an intercessor. We see in Cana of Galilee how Mary brings the needs of others to her Son. In that case, they had run out of wine and, at her intercession, before the couple was even aware of its impending crisis and even though Jesus protested it wasn’t yet his hour, he worked his first miracle, turning 180 gallons of water into the equivalent today of 912 750-millileter bottles of wine. We have every confidence that Mary is interceding for us before we even know what we need. That’s why, from even before the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, the Christian faithful have turned to Mary for the help of her prayers with words inscribed on the miraculous medal, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” As we have recourse — run time and again — to Mary, she responds.
        • But in this beautiful Church dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, it’s important for us to grasp that it’s really not enough for us just to relate to Mary as fellow disciple, spiritual mom and champion before her Son. We also need to relate to her as the Immaculate Conception, because that’s how she identified herself to St. Bernadette Soubirous in the Grotto of Massabielle where Mary appeared to her 18 times in in 1858. It was there that Mary prayed with Bernadette, just as she comes here to pray with us. It was there that the “Belle Dame,” the Beautiful Lady asked her 14 year-old chosen one to ask the Church authorities to build a Church so that people would be able to come to adore her Son, and here, just about 50 years after the apparitions, a chapel and then a Church was built so that we, too, might adore that same blessed divine Redeemer. It was there that Mary asked Bernadette to dig in the ground and drink, and Bernadette after a few minutes digging in the soil accessed an underground stream that now flows with water into baths where over the course of the last 165 years many have been miraculously cured. Here, thanks to a special arrangement with the Basilica in Lourdes we received regular shipments of that water with which to pray for healing. But what I think is most significant is a dialogue Mary and Bernadette had there that is key to what we celebrate today. There was a buzz in Lourdes when Bernadette’s friends said that she had been seeing a Beautiful Lady dressed in white in the Grotto of Massabielle. It was threatening to create what the local authorities feared might become a public disturbance. Her benevolent pastor, Fr. Peyramale, found Bernadette sincere, but needed to fulfill the Church’s task to test everything to ensure that what she claimed she was seeing was of heavenly origin. So he asked her to inquire of the Beautiful Lady what her name was. After several requests, the Lady told her, responding in the local patois, Que era soy a Immaculada Concepciou, or in French as we see in the words enveloping her head in the image here, “Je suis l’Immaculée Conception.” “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette, who had never been taught to read and had received very little education, had no idea what the big words “Immaculate” and “Conception” meant. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had just been formally defined four years before and while all Catholics in the Pyrenees already believed that Mary was the sinless Virgin Mary from the beginning of her life, few had heard of the dogma. So when she told Father Peyramale how the Beautiful Lady had responded to her question, and carefully tried to be faithful to repronouncing the sounds of what seemed like a foreign language, im-mac-u-la-da-con-cep-ci-ou, he was stunned. He asked her if she knew what these words meant and she humbly and with embarrassment confessed she had no clue. And that was the verification he was looking for. When Mary was asked for her name, she didn’t respond, “Mary of Nazareth” or “The Mother of God.” She humbly gazed at the ground, then looked up serenely to heaven as she raised and folded her hands and said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” She identified fully with the grace God had given her from the first instant of her life in the womb of St. Anne. She announced that the core of her identity was the triumph of grace over sin and evil that her Son accomplished her at the first instant of her life. Relating to her this way as fellow disciples, we learn better our vocation to be “holy and immaculate.” Referring to her this way as sons and daughters, we recognize this is the great inheritance she wishes us to share with her Son. Addressing her this way as intercessor, we have confidence that in this recourse she will gain for us what we need to have enmity toward the serpent and with her Son’s grace to triumph over the evil one in life and in death.
        • As we prepare on this great Solemnity to receive within us the same Son for whom Mary was immaculately conceived in order to bear for nine months, let us ask the Immaculate Conception personified, our fellow disciple and beloved Mother, to intercede for us, that we, like her, may have the true enmity against the devil, that we may say and continue to repeat all our days a wholehearted “yes” to God, that we may respond to God’s superabundant grace to be “holy and immaculate in his sight” and “live for the praise of his glory,” and that one day we may come to experience true joy with her and all the saints where the redemption begun on this day reaches its fulfillment.

          •  

          The readings for today’s Solemnity are: 

          Reading 1
          Gn 3:9-15, 20

          After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,

          the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”
          He answered, “I heard you in the garden;
          but I was afraid, because I was naked,
          so I hid myself.”
          Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?
          You have eaten, then,
          from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”
          The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me–
          she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
          The LORD God then asked the woman,
          “Why did you do such a thing?”
          The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”

          Then the LORD God said to the serpent:

          “Because you have done this, you shall be banned
          from all the animals
          and from all the wild creatures;
          on your belly shall you crawl,
          and dirt shall you eat
          all the days of your life.
          I will put enmity between you and the woman,
          and between your offspring and hers;
          he will strike at your head,
          while you strike at his heel.”

          The man called his wife Eve,

          because she became the mother of all the living.

          Responsorial Psalm
          PS 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4
          R. (1) Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.
          Sing to the LORD a new song,
          for he has done wondrous deeds;
          His right hand has won victory for him,
          his holy arm.
          R. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.
          The LORD has made his salvation known:
          in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
          He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
          toward the house of Israel.
          R. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.
          All the ends of the earth have seen
          the salvation by our God.
          Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
          break into song; sing praise.
          R. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.
          Reading 2
          Eph 1:3-6, 11-12
          Brothers and sisters:
          Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
          who has blessed us in Christ
          with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
          as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
          to be holy and without blemish before him.
          In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
          in accord with the favor of his will,
          for the praise of the glory of his grace
          that he granted us in the beloved.

          In him we were also chosen,

          destined in accord with the purpose of the One
          who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
          so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
          we who first hoped in Christ.

          Alleluia
          See Lk 1:28
          R. Alleluia, alleluia.
          Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you;
          blessed are you among women.
          R. Alleluia, alleluia.
          Gospel
          Lk 1:26-38
          The angel Gabriel was sent from God
          to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
          to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
          of the house of David,
          and the virgin’s name was Mary.
          And coming to her, he said,
          “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
          But she was greatly troubled at what was said
          and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
          Then the angel said to her,
          “Do not be afraid, Mary,
          for you have found favor with God.
          Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
          and you shall name him Jesus.
          He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
          and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
          and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
          and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
          But Mary said to the angel,
          “How can this be,
          since I have no relations with a man?”
          And the angel said to her in reply,
          “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
          and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
          Therefore the child to be born
          will be called holy, the Son of God.
          And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
          has also conceived a son in her old age,
          and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
          for nothing will be impossible for God.”
          Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
          May it be done to me according to your word.”
          Then the angel departed from her.

          The post Chosen in Christ to Be Holy and Without Blemish, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

          21 min
        • Our Advent Building Project, First Thursday of Advent, December 7, 2023

          Fr. Roger J. Landry

          Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
          Thursday of the First Week of Advent
          Memorial of Saint Ambrose
          December 7, 2023
          Is 26:1-6, Ps 118, Mt 7:21.24-27

           

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

          https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.7.23_Homily_1.mp3

           

          The following points were attempted in the homily: 

          • Throughout the Advent Season, we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” “O Come, Divine Messiah!,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and these are all good aspirations, but the Church, which selects the Gospel passages throughout this first week of Advent very well to help us learn the proper dispositions to enter into the meaning of this season and get off to a good start in this new liturgical year, helps us to grasp that it’s by no means enough for us to stop there. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us very clearly, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” It’s not enough for us to bid the Lord to come, but we need to build out life on him as he comes. AS we run out to meet him who’s coming to us, he wants to transform us so that we build our whole life on him, as we seek to live totally together with him. “The Lord is an eternal Rock,” Isaiah tells us today. The Psalm adds, “The Lord is God and he has given us light.” The Lord is the solid, stable, unchanging foundation for life, the God who not only is “Light from Light,” but shares that light with us so that we may walk as children of light. Isaiah will tell us on Christmas night that the “people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” and that light is the Lord. Our Advent construction project is to build our life on that rock.
          • Jesus gives us an image today, taken from his conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, about how we’re supposed to live what he teaches. “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house.  But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.” That’s what our response is supposed to be to Jesus’ triple coming: to build our life on his taking on our humanity so that we may share in his divinity; to construct our existence on Him in the present, in his Word and in especially in the Word-made-flesh as the source and summit, the root and center of Christian life; and to ground our hopes, aspirations and daily choices in the guarantee of his second coming and to live, as we’re reminded to live each Advent, vigilant and alert each day for his return. Not everyone lives this way. Many are foolish. Many of us are foolish, because we hear his Word, we may even be able to cite chapter and verse, but we don’t always act on it. Jesus says, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” The true Advent response is Mary’s, which, as we will hear tomorrow on the Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception, in response to the Archangel Gabriel’s words said, “Behold I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be done to me according to your Word!” She shows us how to build long for God’s word, to build our life on God’s it and to share it.
          • To build our whole existence on Jesus requires great trust, because Jesus’ words are different than the world’s. It’s challenging to build our life on the word of forgiving seventy times seven times, to love our enemies, to love others as God infinitely loves us. It’s hard to build our life on the commandments, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and especially the Beatitudes which began the Sermon on the Mount. Whereas the world thinks we need to be rich to be fulfilled, Jesus says we need to be poor; whereas the world says we have to be popular and congenial, Jesus says we need to be persecuted for his sake; whereas the world says we need to be powerful, Jesus says we need to be meek peacemakers; whereas the world says we need to have all our sexual fantasies fulfilled, Jesus responds we need to be pure of heart; whereas the world says we need to have all our appetites satiated, Jesus says we need to hunger and thirst for holiness. We’re tempted to construct our life on what everyone else is doing, or on our whims, or to maximize our pleasure and minimize our pain. It’s hard to build on Jesus when he challenges us to trust. But hard is not impossible. And God gives us himself to make the difficulty lighter and sweeter. God encourages us to do so today. “Trust in the Lord forever!,” God calls us through Isaiah. “A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.” The Psalm says, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” This is true and Advent is a season for us to act on it.
          • For those of us who are daily Mass-goers, there’s a special call for us to go more deeply into today’s passage. All Christians are called to unite ourselves to Jesus in the evangelical counsels, which are an opportunity and sure means to build our life on Christ. By our chastity, we build our life on his love; by our obedience, we build our life on his will; by our poverty, we build our existence on the treasure of his kingdom. But sometimes we can build only partially on his command, “Follow me!” We can build ourselves on “most of his word,” or his “main message,” but occasionally not take advantage of the words of his that are too difficult or seem too good to be true. We don’t build our life on his word, for example, that whatever we ask God the Father in his Son’s name, the Father will hear. Today at the beginning of Advent, the Church wants us to turn to Jesus and ask him for the grace to build an even more solid foundation on him by really grounding ourselves in those part of his Gospel that are easiest for us to hear but not live.
          • The Church celebrates today the feast of someone who trusted in the Lord as an eternal rock, built his life on living his word, and tried to help others similarly construct their lives on the only solid foundation. In his young 30s, in the early 370s, St. Ambrose was prefect of Gaul — an enormous responsibility. He believed the Christian faith but he hadn’t yet been baptized. After the death of the Bishop of Milan, he went to where the election was to take place to make sure that no fights broke out between the Orthodox Catholics of the time and the heretic Arians (who believed that Jesus was the greatest man who ever lived and chosen by God but not God). He gave a speech reminding everyone of Christ’s teachings on peace and mutual love, at which point someone in the crowd began to shout “Ambrose, Bishop!” It soon started to be echoed by everyone, Catholics and Arians alike. He tried to run away from the responsibilities, but when the emperor Valentinian heard of the election, he consented to it, proud that he had chosen as prefect someone with the virtues capable of serving as a bishop. Eventually Ambrose was baptized, then ordained a deacon, a priest, and then, on this day in 374, a bishop. After his ordinations, he set himself to learning the Christian faith in such detail that he could really feed others with this nourishment — becoming eventually a doctor of the Church, one of the greatest teachers in the history of the faith. This required a great deal of study under the tutelage of a priest, Simplicianus, but he did it and grew by yoking himself to the Lord in Sacred Scripture. He built his life solidly on that rock and then helped others to do the same. He taught by his example, putting the word into practice, constantly seeking to remind people of God’s mercy and making it a rule of life, harmonizing battling emperors, family members and others. St. Augustine, who was converted under his guidance, wrote that whenever he tried to speak with Ambrose, Ambrose was surrounded by a crowd of the needy, whom he would treat with great patience, helping to address their problems as if he were still addressing the great problems of the entire Province of Gaul. When a famine broke out, he sold many of the sacred vessels in order to care for the poor. When people suffered injustice, he risked his own life to challenge the wrong-doers, including the emperor, because he was made strong in his living relationship with the Word of God and the Word-made-flesh. We see that strength in this morning’s breviary lesson taken from one of his letters, to a young bishop, written at a time of great upheaval in society and the Church. He showed him us the way to put today’s lessons from Sacred Scripture into practice. We see how much he incorporates both the words and the meaning of Scripture: “Sitting at the helm of the Church, you pilot the ship against the waves. Take firm hold of the rudder of faith so that the severe storms of this world cannot disturb you. The sea is mighty and vast, but do not be afraid, for as Scripture says: ‘He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.’  The Church of the Lord is built upon the rock of the apostles among so many dangers in the world; it therefore remains unmoved. The Church’s foundation is unshakeable and firm against the assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly beat upon the Church with crashing sounds, the Church possesses the safest harbor of salvation for all in distress.” The source of his courage was his faith in the Word on whom he had built his life.
          • God gives us a daily opportunity to build ourselves on him at the Mass. In the Liturgy of the Word, God wants us to ground ourselves anew on the rock of God’s word, provided that we try to live the word we hear rather than merely say in response to it “Thanks be to God” and “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.” We’re called, like Mary, to respond, “Let it be done to me according to your word!” Then we come to the liturgy of the Eucharist and have the chance to construct our life on this gift, on Christ himself. Then we have the chance, in communion with him, to build our life on the words of his great commission, to go in peace, glorifying the Lord with our life. May we respond to this great privilege and build ourselves firmly on Christ with trust so that no matter what storms come, we will be set firmly on Christ and come to experience eternal tranquility in the house that God has built in heaven for all his beloved children.

            •  

            The readings for today’s Mass were: 

            Reading 1 IS 26:1-6
            On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah:
            “A strong city have we;
            he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.
            Open up the gates
            to let in a nation that is just,
            one that keeps faith.
            A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace;
            in peace, for its trust in you.”
            Trust in the LORD forever!
            For the LORD is an eternal Rock.
            He humbles those in high places,
            and the lofty city he brings down;
            He tumbles it to the ground,
            levels it with the dust.
            It is trampled underfoot by the needy,
            by the footsteps of the poor.
            Responsorial Psalm PS 118:1 AND 8-9, 19-21, 25-27A
            R. (26a) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
            or:
            R. Alleluia.
            Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
            for his mercy endures forever.
            It is better to take refuge in the LORD
            than to trust in man.
            It is better to take refuge in the LORD
            than to trust in princes.
            R. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
            or:
            R. Alleluia.
            Open to me the gates of justice;
            I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD.
            This gate is the LORD’s;
            the just shall enter it.
            I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
            and have been my savior.
            R. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
            or:
            R. Alleluia.
            O LORD, grant salvation!
            O LORD, grant prosperity!
            Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;
            we bless you from the house of the LORD.
            The LORD is God, and he has given us light.
            R. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
            or:
            R. Alleluia.

            Alleluia IS 55:6

            R. Alleluia, alleluia.

            Seek the LORD while he may be found;
            call him while he is near.
            R. Alleluia, alleluia.

            Gospel MT 7:21, 24-27
            Jesus said to his disciples:
            “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
            will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
            but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
            “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
            will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
            The rain fell, the floods came,
            and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
            But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
            And everyone who listens to these words of mine
            but does not act on them
            will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
            The rain fell, the floods came,
            and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
            And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

            The post Our Advent Building Project, First Thursday of Advent, December 7, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

            15 min
          • Running to God’s Banquet and Bringing His Charity to Others, First Wednesday of Advent, December 6, 2023

            Fr. Roger J. Landry

            Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
            Wednesday of the First Week of Advent
            Memorial of Saint Nicholas
            December 6, 2023
            Is 25:6-10, Ps 23, Mt 15:29-37

             

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

            https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.6.23_Homily_1.mp3

             

            The following points were attempted in the homily: 

            • Today the two main coordinates of Advent intersect. First Advent is a triple-dynamism: Christ comes to us and we are called not to stay where we are but to go out to meet him and, having encountered him, we begin to follow him more intimately in this world into eternity. The second set of coordinates is that there’s a triple meaning to Christ’s Advent or coming: his coming in history (Bethlehem), in mystery (prayer and the sacraments) and in majesty (at the end of time or end of our time on earth). Today we see these two sets of coordinates, these two principal ways of understanding Advent, intersect in the readings the Church gives us.
            • First we see the triple-dynamism. In the Gospel, Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and then up a mountain where he waited for the vast crowds to follow him. It would have been much easier for him to stay at the sea shore, but he wanted to have the people make an effort to climb a hill to be with him. Through his incarnation, he came near to us because he wanted to make the encounter with us easy. On the other hand, he didn’t want to make it too easy. He wanted us to sweat. He wanted us to overcome our inertia. He wanted to train us in little ways to be faithful to the pilgrimage of earthy life which is an uphill Way of the Cross following in his footsteps. His coming near but not pampering us is to help us, from that encounter beyond, to learn how to pick up our Cross and follow him through life, through the Cross, into eternity. We see a similar theme at work in the Responsorial Psalm. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, calls us by name and leads us into dark valleys, where we’re called to follow him on the path to verdant pastures where he will give us repose. Jesus doesn’t take us by a short cut or an easy route. Dark valleys can be frightening. But it’s by journeying through them following Jesus that we grow in faith.
            • And we see in all the readings what Jesus prepares for us when we catch up to him on the mountain for the encounter. He gives us a banquet. Isaiah tells us in the first reading that this mountain banquet features “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” In the psalm we see that the Good Shepherd, after leading us through the obscure, scary ravine up hill to the green fields, “spreads the table” before us and makes our “cup overflow.” And in the Gospel we see the first of three fulfillments of these prophecies when Jesus feeds the crowd of four thousand with seven buns and a few fish. This is one of two miracles of the multiplication of the loaves and fish (the other was a crowd of five thousand, that multiplied five buns and two fish and the leftovers of which filled twelve baskets, more than the seven here). St. John called this miracle a “sign,” meaning that it points to another. The first banquet signified is when Jesus would take bread and wine in the Upper Room and totally change them into the richest food and choicest wine ever known, his own Body and Blood. But even that was a sign pointing to the eternal wedding banquet, for which the Eucharist is a foretaste.
            • We see, here, that the encounter with Christ after his movement and ours happens in a three-fold banquet. The first banquet is the actual multiplication of the loaves and fish in history. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a place that means “house of bread,” and he is the Father’s answer to the prayer Jesus put on our lips, “Give us today our daily bread.” The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish is the first fulfillment of Isaiah’s and Psalm 23’s prophecy. The second fulfillment is in mystery, in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the perpetuated Last Supper through time. The third is fulfilled in majesty, in the eternal wedding banquet. In Advent we prepare for each of these three banquets. Christ comes to set the table for us in each of these three ways and we’re called to go out to meet him at all three, in a sense simultaneously. We prayed in the Opening Prayer today, “Prepare our hearts, we pray, O Lord our God, by your divine power, so that at the coming of Christ your Son we may be found worthy of the banquet of eternal life and merit to receive heavenly nourishment from his hands.” We ask God to prepare our hearts — the center and core of who we are, with all our affections — to be found at Christ’s arrival of the banquet of eternal life and receive heavenly nourishment from his hands. It’s easy to think about this happening at the banquet of majesty in heaven; it’s likewise not that difficult for us to perceive its fulfillment in mystery, here at Mass. But it’s also meant to be fulfilled in history. Every time God fulfills our prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” there is a participation, in some sense, in a banquet of eternal life, because we’re receiving nourishment from God’s hands. The hand of the Lord feeds us, as we pray in Ps 145: “The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” And what happens is something eternal, because eternal life, as Jesus says to us during the Last Supper, is to know the Father as the one true God and to know Jesus Christ whom He sent, a knowledge that happens by the power of the Holy Spirit. To see God’s providential love behind every meal is to recognize God does for us out of compassion every day something similar to what he did on the mountainside, and he feeds us personally.
            • But for us truly to make that journey to meet Christ in the way he wants to be met, for us to merit to receive the nourishment from his hands and participate with him in the multi-level banquet of eternal life, we need to meet him with humility and charity, as the readings show us today.
            • First, humility. We are called to see ourselves in the blind, lame, deformed, and mute who come to Jesus. Spiritually we are so often blind and incapable of seeing Jesus in his generosity behind our material bread; truly present under the “super-substantial Bread come down from Heaven,” which is the Eucharist; in the distressing disguise of others; in the events of every day. Jesus wants to cure us. We’re also lame and in need of the help of others to see the Lord Jesus. We can’t get there on our own and need to be humble enough to ask for help. We’re often deformed, in desperate need of reform, getting back into spiritual shape or good spiritual shape for the first time; and we’re frequently mute, feeling unable or, better, unwilling to use the gift of speech to speak to or about God. Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, wants to give us through material, mystical and eschatological food, eyes to see him, ears to hear him, legs to follow him, opened tongues to proclaim him and reformed lives to witness him.
            • Second, charity. St. Matthew tells us, “Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.” Jesus didn’t merely have them hike up a mountain to be with them. But he had them bring the handicapped with them. Many of them likely would never have beheld this great miracle unless they loved their neighbor, their family members and friends, enough to guide them, or carry them, up the hill to Jesus. Likewise if we’re going to show up properly prepared for the banquet in history, mystery, or majesty, we’re called to show up with charity, to bring others, to lead others to the healing and transformation Jesus wants to give. One of the signs of the Messiah, as Jesus announced several times, was that he would make the blind see, the lame walk, the mute speak and the prisoners experience liberation. He does that in all three banquets where we encounter him. We are called to bring others to experience this unbelievable gift. We’re called to bring people to receive banquets here on earth, even to our homes, as Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospel. We’re supposed to invite them to the banquet of delight that is the Holy Eucharist. We’re called to invite them to the path that leads to the eternal wedding banquet, willing to carry them up a mountain to do it. We may not make the banquet, we may not meet Jesus where he’s at, unless we’re seeking him on this path of love of neighbor.
            • Today the Church celebrates someone who took this charity seriously; in fact, one of the most famous saints of charity in the history of the Church. St. Nicholas was born in the town of Patara in the Roman Province of Asia, which is now southern Turkey. He grew up in the faith, formed in a good Christian home. After his parents both died when he was young, and before he would enter training to become a priest and then later would become the Bishop of Myra (modern day Demre, Turkey), he was already living charitably and looking to bring others to the Lord of generosity and prevent their alienation from him in poverty and sin. There’s the famous story of his help for a poor family in Patara when he was still a layman. The culture of the time looked at women as burdens of the men who were responsible for them. In order for a girl to marry, the father had to provide her with a dowry so that her new husband would be able to pay for her upkeep, at least for some period of time. Families without money for a dowry often couldn’t get their daughters married. One poor father didn’t know what to do for his three daughters for whom there was the danger, if he were to die or be incapable of work, that they would be driven or drawn into prostitution for survival. Nicholas heard of the family’s situation and one night threw a bag of gold coins through the family’s open window, enough for the dowry for the oldest daughter who was soon married. A short time later, Nicholas threw in another bag, sufficient for the dowry of the middle daughter, who likewise was married. Months later Nicholas tossed a third bag to help marry the third daughter of the father, who was waiting this time to find out who was the anonymous benefactor. The generosity of Saint Nicholas is continued through the generosity of Santa Claus (a translation of St. Nicholas) every Christmas, when all of us, like St. Nicholas, pay forward the generosity we have received from Christ.
            • Advent is all about going out to meet the Lord who comes to feed us and transform us. Jesus the Good Shepherd has set before us an incredible, delicious banquet, and we are invited by him to go out to meet him in the day-to-day reality of our world, in the great gift of the Sacraments, and in the deepest desires of our hearts, the eternal nuptial banquet, and then, having been fed, to go out in search of others. We ask God for the grace to prepare our hearts to rejoice in this triple invitation and to help us to bring all those who, like us, are blind, deaf, lame, mute and deformed to the banquet in which Christ heals us, fills us with hope, and guides us to heaven. In a few minutes we will behold the Lord to whom we looked to save us and rejoice and be filled with gladness that he not only have saved us, but through this Eucharistic banquet unites us to himself in holiness.

              •  

              The readings for today’s Mass were: 

              Reading 1
              IS 25:6-10A
              On this mountain the LORD of hosts
              will provide for all peoples
              A feast of rich food and choice wines,
              juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
              On this mountain he will destroy
              the veil that veils all peoples,
              The web that is woven over all nations;
              he will destroy death forever.
              The Lord GOD will wipe away
              the tears from all faces;
              The reproach of his people he will remove
              from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.
              On that day it will be said:
              “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
              This is the LORD for whom we looked;
              let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”
              For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.
              Responsorial Psalm
              PS 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6
              R. (6cd) I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
              The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
              In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
              Beside restful waters he leads me;
              he refreshes my soul.
              R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
              He guides me in right paths
              for his name’s sake.
              Even though I walk in the dark valley
              I fear no evil; for you are at my side
              With your rod and your staff
              that give me courage.
              R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
              You spread the table before me
              in the sight of my foes;
              You anoint my head with oil;
              my cup overflows.
              R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
              Only goodness and kindness follow me
              all the days of my life;
              And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
              for years to come.
              R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
              Gospel
              MT 15:29-37
              At that time:
              Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee,
              went up on the mountain, and sat down there.
              Great crowds came to him,
              having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute,
              and many others.
              They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.
              The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking,
              the deformed made whole,
              the lame walking,
              and the blind able to see,
              and they glorified the God of Israel.
              Jesus summoned his disciples and said,
              “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
              for they have been with me now for three days
              and have nothing to eat.
              I do not want to send them away hungry,
              for fear they may collapse on the way.”
              The disciples said to him,
              “Where could we ever get enough bread in this deserted place
              to satisfy such a crowd?”
              Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”
              “Seven,” they replied, “and a few fish.”
              He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
              Then he took the seven loaves and the fish,
              gave thanks, broke the loaves,
              and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
              They all ate and were satisfied.
              They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets full.

              The post Running to God’s Banquet and Bringing His Charity to Others, First Wednesday of Advent, December 6, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

              20 min
            • Advent and the Eucharistic Revival, St. Raymond of Penyafort Parish, E. Rockaway, NY, December 5, 2023

              Fr. Roger J. Landry

              St. Raymond of Penyafort, East Rockaway, New York
              Parish Night of Recollection
              December 5, 2023

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

              https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.23_Advent_and_the_Eucharistic_Revival.mp3

               

              The post Advent and the Eucharistic Revival, St. Raymond of Penyafort Parish, E. Rockaway, NY, December 5, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

              55 min
            • The Childlike Trust of Advent, First Monday of Advent, December 5, 2023

              Fr. Roger J. Landry

              Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
              Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
              December 5, 2023
              Is 11:1-10, Ps 72, Lk 10:21-24

               

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

              https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.23_Homily_1.mp3

               

              The following points were attempted in the homily: 

              • Today in the readings, we continue to focus, as we do each Advent, on the qualities of our response in preparing to run out to meet Christ who comes to us in history (Bethlehem), mystery (prayer, the Sacraments, his word, and other) and majesty (on the clouds of heaven at the end of time).
              • Today the Church wants us to focus, first, on childlike trust. In the Gospel, Jesus praised his Father for his “gracious will” to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to the “childlike,” to those who trust in him as beloved children, to those who are docile, uncomplicated, simple, pure, and unrebelliously dependent on his providential care and love. These mysteries are hidden from the “wise and the clever” of the world, not because God doesn’t want them to receive the revelation and come to salvation but because they obscure their own perception of revelation through their self-made complications. The fullness of revelation, Jesus says, is the knowledge of the Father and the mystery of his love. The fullness of revelation is seen in the image of the Father, Christ himself, who incarnates that wisdom. The plenitude of revelation happens when we enter into Christ’s own relationship with the Father by the work of the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere in the Gospel Jesus says that unless we convert and become like little children, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. Unless we learn to trust in him, unless we see things with simple and pure faith, unless we learn to depend on him and recognize that we’re never going to be “self-sufficient,” we won’t be able to understand his kingdom and receive it. Jesus says these words in the Gospel right after he castigates those in Chorazin and Bethsaida for not converting after all his miracles. They witnessed him and his works, but it didn’t lead them to conversion and faith because they sought “adult” explanations that were, in fact, erroneous. The Church wants us to recover the pure vision, the wonder, the trust that should characterize everything we do as Christians. Jesus says that when we do recover that vision, we will be filled with joy. At the beginning of the Gospel, St. Luke tells us, “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” He was full of joy at the reality that it was God the Father’s “gracious will” to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to the “childlike.” And at the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus turned to his disciples and told them, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” The great heroes of Old Testament times all hungered to receive “all the things” that had been handed over to Christ by the Father. They longed to see and hear the fulfillment of all the prophecies in the Messiah who would be Son of God and Savior in a way far greater than they had imagined. Jesus rejoiced at the disciples’ good fortune. If that’s true, how much greater is Jesus’ joy that we not only behold him in his Real Presence, hear his words in the Gospel, but have a chance to touch him and be touched by him in a way far more profound than even his disciples when he was proclaiming these words for the first time! This is why St. John, in his first letter, overflowing with joy, wrote, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the Word of life … we proclaim now to you … so that our joy may be complete.”
              • In the first reading we see one way in which we really need to have that childlike trust, accepting these images Jesus will give. The Prophet Isaiah tells us about the “shoot” that will “sprout from the stump of Jesse.” Jesse was David’s father and David began the Davidic line of kings. Just two generations after David, however, there were attacks to that line and eventually the kingdom of Judah and Israel would be chopped down. Jesse’s line was just a “stump,” but Isaiah foretells that a “shoot shall sprout” from it, fomenting among the Jews the longing for the Messiah, the longing ultimately for Jesus. Isaiah tells us that he would be filled with the spirit of God, that the Spirit would rest on him, the “spirit of wisdom and of understanding, … of counsel and of strength, … of knowledge and of fear of the Lord.” When Jesus entered the Nazareth synagogue to preach for the first time, he cited Isaiah and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” and gave the purpose of that anointing: “because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor, …  to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,  and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” He was the shoot who would bring justice to the world, not judging, as Isaiah describes, by appearances or deciding by hearsay. That new ordering of things in his kingdom would bring about a revolution. It requires true childlike trust to embrace what Jesus says. Isaiah describes the impact of the Messiah’s coming by means of unimaginable consequences in the animal kingdom that were meant to be a metaphor for what would happen among human beings living childlike by the Spirit: wolves and lambs, leopards and kids, calves and lions, cows and bears, children and cobras, would play together without fear, without bloodshed, without destruction. If that’s what the shoot from Jesse’s stump would bring to the animal kingdom, how much of a greater impact should he have on human beings, as he helps us to live according to his justice, to enter his kingdom, to receive that same Spirit that fills with wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and awe of the Lord! There are many who on hearing these words will treat them like pie-in-the-sky utopianism, but we’re supposed to receive them conscious of the fact that the power of the Spirit of the Lord and his gifts can bring about that state in which enemies learn how to love each other rather than destroy each other. That’s what the one who is coming in history, mystery, and majesty wants to accomplish. That’s a revolution that will be led by spiritual children. Isaiah says that when the shoot sprouts, “a little child [will] guide” both calf and young lion, a “baby shall play by the cobra’s den and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.” That’s not only a prophecy about the child Jesus, but also child-like children of the kingdom will lead this revolution by turning lions, cobras and adders into siblings.
              • The second thing today’s readings teach us is about how we, having received that gift of revelation as children, are meant to share it. As we, in Christ, are filled with the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and awe of the Lord, the Spirit sends us forth just like he did the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Like St. John, we can’t keep within “what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the Word of life.” We must “proclaim” it, not just so that others’ eyes and ears may be similarly blessed but so that “our joy may be complete,” because we cannot hold it within. At the end of today’s prophecy from Isaiah, he says that “the root of Jesse,” Jesus, will be “set up as a signal for the nations. The Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.” We’ll sing about this as we draw closer to Christmas in the O Antiphon for December 19, when we pray, “O Radix Iesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem Gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.” “O shoot from the stump of Jesse, who stand as a sign of the peoples, about whom the kings remain silent and the Gentiles praise: come free us, do not delay.” Jesus will be a sign for the nations, even more, an efficacious sign or sacrament, of God-with-us. And we’re called to take him as that sign to others.
              • We finish by recognizing how blessed our eyes are to behold the Lamb of God here on the altar! How blessed are our ears to hear him speaking to us today! How blessed are we to have received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit who once again today seeks to come down upon us to make us one body, one spirit in Christ. We turn in prayer to Jesus whom we’re about to receive and beg him for all the graces He knows we need to become more childlike and joyful and to move us inwardly to spend our lives bringing that joy out to those around us, so that we might live with them in the kingdom when Isaiah’s prophecies will be fulfilled.

                •  

                The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                Reading 1
                IS 11:1-10

                On that day,

                A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
                and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
                The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
                a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
                A Spirit of counsel and of strength,
                a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
                and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
                Not by appearance shall he judge,
                nor by hearsay shall he decide,
                But he shall judge the poor with justice,
                and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.
                He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
                and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
                Justice shall be the band around his waist,
                and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

                Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

                and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
                The calf and the young lion shall browse together,
                with a little child to guide them.
                The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
                together their young shall rest;
                the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
                The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
                and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
                There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
                for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
                as water covers the sea.

                On that day,

                The root of Jesse,
                set up as a signal for the nations,
                The Gentiles shall seek out,
                for his dwelling shall be glorious.

                Responsorial Psalm
                PS 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
                R. (see 7)  Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
                O God, with your judgment endow the king,
                and with your justice, the king’s son;
                He shall govern your people with justice
                and your afflicted ones with judgment.
                R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
                Justice shall flower in his days,
                and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
                May he rule from sea to sea,
                and from the River to the ends of the earth.
                R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
                He shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
                and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
                He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
                the lives of the poor he shall save.
                R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
                May his name be blessed forever;
                as long as the sun his name shall remain.
                In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
                all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
                R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
                Alleluia
                R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                Behold, our Lord shall come with power;
                he will enlighten the eyes of his servants.
                R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                Gospel
                LK 10:21-24

                Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,

                “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
                for although you have hidden these things
                from the wise and the learned
                you have revealed them to the childlike.
                Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
                All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
                No one knows who the Son is except the Father,
                and who the Father is except the Son
                and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

                Turning to the disciples in private he said,

                “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
                For I say to you,
                many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
                but did not see it,
                and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

                The post The Childlike Trust of Advent, First Monday of Advent, December 5, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                6 min
              • The Proper Advent Dispositions, First Monday of Advent, December 4, 2023

                Fr. Roger J. Landry

                Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
                Monday of the First Week of Advent
                Memorial of St. John Damascene
                December 4, 2023
                Is 2:1-5, Ps 122, Mt 8:5-11

                 

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

                https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.4.23_Homily_1.mp3

                 

                The following points were attempted in this homily: 

                • In Advent, we focus first and foremost on the Lord’s coming. The word Advent itself means “coming” and points to the fact that during this season we renew our awareness that Christ is coming to us in history, mystery and majesty: history in Bethlehem; mystery in the Sacraments, prayer and in those made in his image and likeness; and in majesty at the end of time and the end of our lives. But we don’t wait passively. Christ’s coming is not the only action in this season. As we prayed yesterday in the collect to begin the Mass, we beg the Father for the grace of “resolve to run forth to meet” his Son “with righteous deeds at his coming.” Like the wise bridesmaids in Jesus’ parable (Mt 25), we head out to meet him not merely at times that are convenient but in the middle of the night with lighted lamps. For us to run forth, we need to train, like sprinters in track-and-field, and train not just our physical muscles but our heart and spirit. “Running” to meet Christ who is coming is not principally something external, but interior. Today’s readings, especially the figure of the Roman Centurion in the Gospel, models for us those interior virtues we need this Advent and beyond to run out to encounter the Lord. In the Gospel, the centurion hears that Jesus is on his way to Capernaum, but he’s not content just to wait for him to show up. He goes out to meet him along the way and meets him at the edge of the city. And he went out with various essential Advent attributes.
                • First, he went out to meet him with faith. Jesus is amazed that he, a non-Jew, has so much faith and exclaims, “In no one in Israel have I found such faith.” The Centurion had a confident assurance that God could give him the miracle that he sought, even if he didn’t see it done. At the beginning of Advent, we can assess whether we go out to meet the Lord in history, mystery and majesty with this type of faith.
                • The second Advent disposition we see in the Centurion is what is at the root of that faith, a sense of obedience that makes him trust in the Lord’s authority. “I too am a man subject to authority,” he said, “with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” The Lord Jesus was amazed at that confident faith, something that came from regular obedience of those in authority and grasping with what authority Christ himself must be acting. To be obedient is to act on what one hears. In Hebrew to “hear” and to “obey” are the same word when it comes to hearing God. That’s why St. Paul in his letter to the Romans talked about the goal of the Christian life as the “obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5, 16:26). Faith leads to obedience and obedience similarly strengthens our faith, since we know that the Lord acts with the authority of the one who created the heavens and the earth. Advent is a time to run forth in faith-filled obedience to God and his commands.
                • The third Advent virtue also strengthens our faith. It’s humility. When Jesus, having encountered the Centurion who had “run” out to him, says that he will come to the his home to heal his servant, the Centurion replies that he is not worthy to have Jesus enter his home. Even though he was a powerful leader in the Roman army with many men subject to his beck and call, he was still humble and recognized before Jesus that he did not merit even a visit. He was humble before Jesus, because he regarded him obviously as far more than a Jewish carpenter, but intuited that Jesus far outranked him as at least the emissary of God. Advent is a season of humility in which we recognize that we’re not worthy of the Lord who is coming, a reality that is meant to fill us with gratitude at the awesome privilege we have of encountering the Lord. There’s a reason why we use the Centurion’s very words every time we prepare to meet Christ at his coming in mystery during Mass. Advent is a time to advance in the humble awe toward the Lord’s action.
                • The fourth Advent disposition is to unity. The centurion was united in solidarity with his servant and interceded for him. In the first reading, all the nations say, ““Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” In the Psalm today we pray, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord” and focus on how Jerusalem, a symbol of God’s people, is “built as a city with compact unity.” There’s a communal dimension to our faith that is essential to understanding what Advent is about. Jesus didn’t come into the world to save us as a whole bunch of isolated lost sheep. He came to form us into a sheepfold, into a family, into a communion. Advent is therefore a time of particularly focused spiritual and material solidarity. It’s a time that we make a pilgrimage not solo, but with others. Jesus pointed to that communion at the end of today’s Gospel scene when he promised, “I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.” Advent — indeed the whole of life — is a pilgrimage not merely with some friends, but one that Jesus wants to be made by people of every nation, and so it’s a journey to which we intentionally are supposed to be inviting even those we don’t know at all or know well. To make this pilgrimage well, we won’t be just doing it along with others, but united with others. The Jerusalem to which the Jews were ascending, and we ascend together spiritually, has “compact unity.” This points to the type of tight bonds of unifying love we’re called to have toward each other. The Lord wants us to make this pilgrimage together with each other, up close, you and me and all those whom the Lord places together with us. He wants us to help each other. And one of the greatest ways we help each other is through our prayer, which is another key aspect of today’s reading and our overall Advent dispositions. Just like the centurion’s servant, we all need healing and we need to pray for each other to receive the healing and salvation Christ brings, even at a distance.
                • The fifth disposition is joy. We prayed six times in the Psalm about joy. “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.” Our joint pilgrimage is one meant to be done with great happiness and enthusiasm. We’re supposed to say, “I rejoiced when they said to me, “We will go up to the house of the Lord!” Jesus came into our world so that his joy might be in us and our joy might be complete (Jn 15:11). The Archangel Gabriel’s first words to Mary were “Rejoice!” On Christmas morning, the angels announced to the shepherds “good news of great joy” for all the people. The Lord wants us making the exertion to go up not out of dry duty but out of passionate, enthusiastic joy, a joy that flows from faith, a joy that comes from humility, a joy that can’t restrain itself because of the healing we’ve experienced, as we enter into God’s own joy, which rejoices most over one repentant and reconciled sinner.
                • Today the Church celebrates the feast of someone who sought to live in this Christian way. St. John of Damascene is the great saint when the iconoclastic heresy of the eighth century erupted, destroying icons and other holy images from a literalistic misinterpretation of the commandment not to make graven images. What God was forbidding was making images like the golden calf and then worshipping them; he wasn’t forbidding the use of images representing God, because God made himself such an image at the incarnation. Christ is the “image of the invisible God” and so therefore if God allowed himself to be depicted by taking on human flesh then it’s possible for us to try to continue touching God with our hands, seeing him with our eyes, and continuing in some way a representation of his presence. That’s what John fought for and what was eventually enshrined in the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. In this Advent season we remember that in Christ’s first coming he became the visible icon of the Father and we run out to meet him in Bethlehem, we meet him on the clouds of heaven anticipating, we pray, the beatific vision looking at him looking at us with love forever, and in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, which is the greatest icon of the love of God in the world.
                • So as the Lord comes to us this Advent, we sprint out to meet him with faith, obedience, humility, unity, and joy. And the best way we grow in these dispositions is here at Mass as we prepare now to meet Jesus with faith, acknowledging him as our Lord and God; with obedience, as we “do this in memory of” him, as he commanded; with humility, recognizing we’re not worthy to receive him; together with others, made “one Body, one Spirit” in Christ; with joy, because we’re about to receive within the “pearl of great price!,” and open to allowing his glory to flow through us as sap from vine to branches. Our response to the Mass is to say, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord” so that he may “instruct us in his ways” in the Liturgy of the Word and so that he might strengthen us to “walk in his paths” by entering into us in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. This is where our Advent begins.

                  • The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                  Reading 1 IS 2:1-5
                  This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,
                  saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.In days to come,
                  The mountain of the LORD’s house
                  shall be established as the highest mountain
                  and raised above the hills.
                  All nations shall stream toward it;
                  many peoples shall come and say:
                  “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
                  to the house of the God of Jacob,
                  That he may instruct us in his ways,
                  and we may walk in his paths.”
                  For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
                  and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
                  He shall judge between the nations,
                  and impose terms on many peoples.
                  They shall beat their swords into plowshares
                  and their spears into pruning hooks;
                  One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
                  nor shall they train for war again.O house of Jacob, come,
                  let us walk in the light of the LORD!
                  Responsorial Psalm PS 122:1-2, 3-4B, 4CD-5, 6-7, 8-9
                  R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
                  I rejoiced because they said to me,
                  “We will go up to the house of the LORD.”
                  And now we have set foot
                  within your gates, O Jerusalem.
                  R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
                  Jerusalem, built as a city
                  with compact unity.
                  To it the tribes go up,
                  the tribes of the LORD.
                  R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
                  According to the decree for Israel,
                  to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
                  In it are set up judgment seats,
                  seats for the house of David.
                  R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
                  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
                  May those who love you prosper!
                  May peace be within your walls,
                  prosperity in your buildings.
                  R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
                  Because of my relatives and friends
                  I will say, “Peace be within you!”
                  Because of the house of the LORD, our God,
                  I will pray for your good.
                  R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
                  Alleluia SEE PS 80:4
                  R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                  Come and save us, LORD our God;
                  let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
                  R. Alleluia, alleluia.

                  Gospel MT 8:5-11

                  When Jesus entered Capernaum,

                  a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
                  “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”
                  He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
                  The centurion said in reply,
                  “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
                  only say the word and my servant will be healed.
                  For I too am a man subject to authority,
                  with soldiers subject to me.
                  And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
                  and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;
                  and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
                  When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
                  “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
                  I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
                  and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
                  at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”

                  The post The Proper Advent Dispositions, First Monday of Advent, December 4, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                  3 min
                • Beginning Again and Doing Our Work, First Sunday of Advent (B), December 3, 2023

                  Fr. Roger J. Landry

                  Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
                  First Sunday of Advent, Year B
                  December 3, 2023
                  Is 63:16-17.19.64:2-7, Ps 80, 1 Cor 1:3-9, Mk 13:33-37

                   

                  To listen to the recording of tonight’s homily, please click below: 

                  https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.3.23_CCM_Homily_1.mp3

                   

                   

                  The following text guided today’s homily: 

                  • Today is New Year’s Day in the Church. It’s a new beginning. A fresh start. One of the great mottos of the saints is “Nunc, coepi!,” Latin for, “Now I begin!” In his famous conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus talks about the experience of being born again from above, something that happens in a unique way in Baptism, occurs regularly in the Sacrament of Penance, as is meant to be a staple of the Christian life. As St. John once wrote, God wants to give us “grace upon grace.” God wants to help us build on the gifts he’s given us previously. He also wants to draw greater good even out of our sins and what we’ve suffered, so that, as St. Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans, everything can work out for the good for those who love God. In today’s second reading, Paul reminds us that God has “enriched us in every way … so that [we] are not lacking in any spiritual gift as we wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,” promising that God will give us everything we need to “keep [us] firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,” provided that we receive and respond to that help.
                  • The first Sunday of Advent inaugurates a new year dedicated to our reliving in time the central mysteries of the life of Christ. Christ is the “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13), and the Church has us begin each year focusing both on the end and on the beginning so that we might better live the present. Advent is that season in which we prepare for reliving the beginning of Christ’s life on earth, as we enter with the help of the Prophets, especially Isaiah, into the experience of the Jews awaiting the Messiah Christ’s coming in the past in Bethlehem; we prepare for the end, Christ’s second coming in the future on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead; and we grow in our appreciation for both by means of embracing Jesus’ coming in the present, in prayer and the sacraments, in daily life, but especially in the Eucharist.
                  • Advent, like the Christian life as a whole, is fundamentally dynamic. There’s movement. Christ out of love is coming toward us and we, with love, await his coming and prepare, as we prayed at the beginning of Mass, to “run forth” to meet him and embrace him with joy. There’s a temptation sometimes to look at a new liturgical year as a humdrum and boring happening. We can approach it with the same minimal enthusiasm with which we watch re-runs of television programs or movies; we know how the story ends and therefore it makes less and less of an impression on us each time. But that’s not the way God wants it and that is not what the liturgical year is meant to be. It’s supposed to be more like the way baseball fans and players alike look forward to the start of spring training. Even though there will be 162 games the following season just like previous ones, even though the squad will for the most part face the same opponents in the same cities, even though the games will still be nine innings long and the diamond will have the same dimensions, there will be a whole new drama. The drama will involve how the team rises to meet the challenges that will come to it within the structure of the new season. Similarly, there’s meant to be a whole new drama for us in this new liturgical season in which we, with Christ’s help, run to meet the challenges he puts before us. Every liturgical cycle is supposed to be a liturgical spiral: we are not meant to repeat last year’s steps but rather to retrace their direction at a higher and more intense level. The experience of last year is meant to help us to have a better season this year. And so we begin this new year with hope, with a greater longing for Christ, with a desire to build on the growth of last year, with a hunger to learn from both our sins and our successes. Advent is meant to help ensure that, with each year, we grow in faith, rather than lose faith. We’ve all known people who have lost their first love for God; who once practiced the faith with great fervor, but who, for various reasons, have become lukewarm and then cold; who have drifted away or made a choice to stop practicing the faith; and who have begun to treat God, the Church and revelation the way people eventually treat Santa Claus, the elves and reindeer, and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, respectively. But the Gospel is not a fairy tale. Jesus, the God-man, really entered the world, really was born in Bethlehem, really lived, worked, preached, healed, exorcised, suffered, died and rose, and really will come again as Universal King to judge the living and the dead. Each liturgical year is meant to help us to enter more deeply into this reality.
                  • Today’s readings help us to focus on two attributes essential for Advent and for the whole Christian life.
                  • The first is longing, or desire, or, even more simply, love for God. We want God to come. With Isaiah in today’s first reading, we cry out, “Return for the sake of your servants,” and “Rend the heavens and come down.” With the Psalmist, we clamor, “O shepherd of Israel, hearken, from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse your power and come to save us.” We implore, “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” All of this is the rich context for the de facto motto of the Church during our collective Advent awaiting Christ’s return: the whole Church cries out in this season, “Marantha! Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20). On this first Sunday of Advent, the Church wants us to ask ourselves, “Do I really long for Jesus?” “Do I hunger for him to play a larger role in my life than he did last year?” “Do I really want him to be God in my life, the real center of my existence, the most decisive reality of who am I or what I do?”
                  • The second essential attribute is vigilance. In today’s Gospel, from St. Mark, who will accompany us throughout this new liturgical year, Jesus speaks to us about how we should be living between his Ascension and his Second Coming. He compares our situation to a man’s traveling abroad who “leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.” He’s entrusted us with real responsibility, each of us with our own work, hoping we will prove to be, as we focused upon a few weeks ago, “good and trustworthy servants.” I’ll return to the phrase “each with his own work” in a few minutes. But Jesus illustrates his three similar commands, “Be watchful!,” “Be Alert!,” and “Watch!,” by telling us that we should be like porters, like door openers, waiting for his return. The opposite of the vigilance to which he calls us in Advent and beyond is, he says, for us to be found asleep. Advent is a time for us to wake up and to stay up, like a good third-shift doorman or the wise bridesmaids we met last month, ready for his arrival.
                  • In Manhattan, as you know, most of the large apartment complexes have professional doormen, just like hotels do throughout the country. There are three basic parts to their job. The first is always to be on the lookout for the arrival of a resident or guest. As soon as they see one arriving, they open the door; if the residents are returning from a trip or shopping, they promptly assist as needed, opening up car doors and helping transport suitcases and bags into the foyer. Their second task is to prevent those who shouldn’t be entering from doing so, something that in an age of terrorism, rioting and deranged shooters is also crucial. Their third duty is to keep the lobby clean and swept.
                  • With a view to his second coming, Jesus is summoning us to be spiritual doorkeepers in all three of these ways.
                  • First, he calls us to be awake and alert to welcome him whenever and from wherever he comes, to go out to meet him when he comes, to run forth to meet him in prayer as he seeks to speak to us, to be vigilant like the Shepherds and Wise Men with regard to his birth, to be attentive to the way he comes to us in the Sacraments, in the various disguises he takes in daily life — in the poor, the sick, the lonely, the imprisoned, those we might consider our enemies, those around us right now —all of which help us to be ready to meet him when he comes at the end of time or at the end of our life, whichever “second coming” comes first. In short, he calls us to be awake and alert for his presence at all times, and to open up the door whenever he comes and bid him to enter. Pope Francis said earlier today in his Angelus greeting, “Keeping watch means keeping the heart ready.” The question for us today is: Is my heart ready? Jesus tells us in the Book of Revelation, “Behold, I stand at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me.” We’re called to be waiting at the door and eager to meet him, like a girl waiting for her date at the prom, prompt to open as soon as she hears the rap on the door. Jesus comes knocking, but as a famous artistic depiction memorializes, the door only has one handle, and it’s on the inside. Jesus wants us to be porters with our hands on the handle, with hearts alert, eager and ready to open.
                  • The second task we have as spiritual porters is to lock the door to those who shouldn’t enter, who want to invade to do damage, harm and destroy. We’re supposed to lock the door to the devil, who seeks to encroach the temple of God we’re called to be and wreak havoc. Because the evil one often comes in subtle disguises, we have to be on our guard against him, against temptations to sin and against those situations and persons that lead us to sin. Some people and situations simply take us away from God and we have to be sanely on the lookout for them, like those who guard the gate at the White House are for people who don’t belong.
                  • The third task is to keep the entrance of our house clean and swept — and not just the entrance. That’s why we meet John the Baptist in the heart of every Advent, as we will the next two Sundays, who helps us through repentance to make straight the paths for the Lord’s arrival. Just as Jesus cleansed the Temple, so he wants to help us clean our souls. He came in time as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, and St. John the Baptist points us to him, who wants to give us a saving deep clean in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Please prepare to make this Advent not just a good confession, but a great confession, perhaps the best Confession of your life. I will have extended hours of confession throughout this holy season, including, during study period on December 12, all day confessions from 9 am to 6 pm, just to try to make it maximally convenient for you. Please make sure to live Advent well, and to get this year off to a good and holy beginning by allowing Christ to help rid your life of what doesn’t belong.
                  • So the two essential Advent attitudes that we’re supposed to have are eager longing and holy vigilance. But I want to return to something that Jesus said in the Gospel that we shouldn’t miss. After Jesus tells us twice to be watchful and before he gives us the analogy of the doorman, he states that, when the man goes abroad, he “leaves his home and places his servant in charge, each with his own work.” Not everyone, in other words, will be at the door, but there will be those in the kitchen, those doing maintenance, those cleaning the yard, those supervising the whole staff and more. He implies that in each of these various forms of work, we’re supposed to be alert for his arrival and hard at work. There aren’t supposed to be in his house full-time couch potatoes. There aren’t supposed to be professional nappers and gamers. There aren’t supposed what the Italians call “Mammoni,” grown adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who expect their moms to be still making their beds, cleaning their rooms, doing their laundry, cooking their meals, washing their dishes and allowing them to extend their infancy into adulthood. To be watchful, alert and awake is for each maturely and responsibly to be doing his or her work.
                  • The beginning of this new liturgical year is to ask what that work is in which we’re supposed to be preparing to meet our Savior. For students here at Columbia, part of that work is obviously study. The very word student, in Latin, comes from the verb studere, which means to be zealous, to be eager, to be on fire to learn. Christ, who identified himself as the Truth who sets us free, wants to meet you in your study, to give you a great love for knowledge and the truth, to help you grasp that all truth comes from him, to equip you to live in the truth and pass it on, and to assist you to be those who, as a spiritual work of mercy, are able to decipher and invalidate the various ideological lies of every age. But as important as study is, it’s not meant to be our only work. Just like hard working dads and moms — whether they be full-time scholars, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, groundskeepers, cooks, you name it — always similarly have duties at home, so we as Catholics always have duties within our family the Church. Jesus famously said, “I came not to be served but to serve,” and so any of us who strives to run out to meet him, who seeks to imitate him, who wants to follow him, must resist any sense of entitlement that we exist in the Church to be served by others rather than to do our own work in service.
                  • Matthew Kelly, a business consultant turned founder of Dynamic Catholic, published research in a 2012 book that said that in typical Catholic parishes, only 7 percent of parishioners give 80 percent of the time and treasure of a parish and 93 percent combined give less than 20. He set out to study what made the 7 percent different from the other 93 percent. They were, after all, both Catholics who received formation in the faith. They both came to Mass. But their response to the faith was different. His analysis showed that there were 264 behaviors that distinguished the 7 from the 93 percent. Sifting through the data he saw that those 264 traits fell into four distinct habits: the 7 percent have a daily commitment to prayer; are continuous learners of the faith; are intentionally and continuously generous with their time, talents, money and with their whole life; and regularly invite others to grow spiritually by sharing the love of God with them. And he set out to try to help learn how to help those in the 93 percent switch over to the 7 percent, in order to enrich their Catholic life, strengthen their parish and lift up the whole Church.
                  • Here at Columbia Catholic Ministry, would you characterize yourself in the 7 percent or the 93 percent? When a request goes out to volunteer to help out at one of our family social dinners, or sing in our choir, or help in homeless outreach, or to come together to pray for an important cause, do you generally step forward or do you allow others to do so? What role does God play in your extra-curriculars? Are you more eager to step forward to join and serve in leadership in campus clubs and other non-religious extra-curriculars than to help strengthen our joint campus mission here on campus, so that we may help others see the light in Christ’s light?
                  • On Friday all Columbia Catholics received an email from our two CCM co-Presidents, Joel and Christopher, encouraging them to pray about applying to serve as CCM officers for calendar year 2024. We are praying that each one of you take that invitation seriously.
                  • For two years I was assigned to a parish on Cape Cod. The main church was St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis, the famous Church where the first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, used to attend when he was home in Hyannisport. There was also a tiny mission chapel in Yarmouthport for which we were responsible. Every week, some Sacred Heart Chapel parishioners would put stuff on the bulletin board in the Church without permission and one of our duties on Saturdays was just to give the bulletin board a look to see if what they put up was at least minimally compatible with the faith. One Saturday I found a flier there that must have been put by one of the hard working seniors, doubtless trying to get some of the younger parishioners and summer visitors to consider getting more involved. It was straight out of the creativity of the famous Abbot and Costello sketches. It read: “Once upon a time, there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody. When there was an important job, Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did. Everybody got angry because it was Somebody’s job. Everybody thought Somebody would do it, but Nobody realized that nobody would do it. So it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place.” As Matthew Kelly’s research shows, many parishes can be like that. Sometimes even campus chaplaincies can be full of “Everybodies” who are sure that “Somebody” will do it. What’s needed for the Church to thrive is for “Anybody” and “Somebody,” and indeed “Everybody” to step forward. Great things are happening here for Catholics at Columbia with the investment of extremely generous alumni to build our first fully-dedicated Catholic Center in Columbia’s 270 years. Cardinal Dolan is super supportive and has gotten personally involved. But for our work to grow and make a greater difference in the lives of Catholics here, and eventually in the lives of many others whom God loves and for whom Christ came into the world to save, what’s needed is for people to step forward to serve, for each person to do his or her work as today’s Gospel points out. We can never outgive God. If we’re generous with him, he will definitely bless us. Our hope is that for you here, and for Catholics in future years, you will be able to say that among your greatest memories at Columbia will be the way you grew in knowledge and love of God, in your living out and sharing the treasure of the faith with others. As this new liturgical year begins, I’d urge you to make a resolution to upgrade your involvement in Catholic life. Perhaps you don’t have the time to serve as a CCM officer, but how could you use the time and the gifts you do have to strengthen Catholic life? But be open to the possibility that the Lord may be asking you at the beginning of this liturgical year to reassess your priorities to see whether he would like to develop the many talents he’s given you through service of him and of your fellow Catholics in leadership positions.
                  • As we begin this new liturgical year, Jesus wants to help us to grow in our longing, vigilance, and hardworking stewardship. He wants to give us a fresh start. He wants to help us on what’s meant to be the spiral of Christian life. The Advent wreath we’ve blessed and lit is meant to symbolize, first God’s evergreen love for us, and second, our increasing hunger for him and his kingdom with every newly lit candle. As we prepare now for Christ’s advent on this altar in just a few minutes, we cry out to him, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” “O Come Divine Messiah!,” “O Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free. From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.” Let us respond to the help he wants to give us today to make this new year the best spiritual year of our life, a true year of the Lord. O come, Lord Jesus!

                    •  

                    The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                    Reading 1
                    IS 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7
                    You, LORD, are our father,
                    our redeemer you are named forever.
                    Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
                    and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
                    Return for the sake of your servants,
                    the tribes of your heritage.
                    Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
                    with the mountains quaking before you,
                    while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
                    such as they had not heard of from of old.
                    No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you
                    doing such deeds for those who wait for him.
                    Would that you might meet us doing right,
                    that we were mindful of you in our ways!
                    Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
                    all of us have become like unclean people,
                    all our good deeds are like polluted rags;
                    we have all withered like leaves,
                    and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
                    There is none who calls upon your name,
                    who rouses himself to cling to you;
                    for you have hidden your face from us
                    and have delivered us up to our guilt.
                    Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
                    we are the clay and you the potter:
                    we are all the work of your hands.
                    Responsorial Psalm
                    PS 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
                    R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                    O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
                    from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
                    Rouse your power,
                    and come to save us.
                    R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                    Once again, O LORD of hosts,
                    look down from heaven, and see;
                    take care of this vine,
                    and protect what your right hand has planted
                    the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
                    R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                    May your help be with the man of your right hand,
                    with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
                    Then we will no more withdraw from you;
                    give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
                    R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                    Reading II
                    1 COR 1:3-9

                    Brothers and sisters:

                    Grace to you and peace from God our Father
                    and the Lord Jesus Christ.

                    I give thanks to my God always on your account

                    for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
                    that in him you were enriched in every way,
                    with all discourse and all knowledge,
                    as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
                    so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
                    as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
                    He will keep you firm to the end,
                    irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
                    God is faithful,
                    and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son,
                    Jesus Christ our Lord.

                    Alleluia
                    PS 85:8
                    R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                    Show us Lord, your love;
                    and grant us your salvation.
                    R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                    Gospel
                    MK 13:33-37

                    Jesus said to his disciples:

                    “Be watchful! Be alert!
                    You do not know when the time will come.
                    It is like a man traveling abroad.
                    He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
                    each with his own work,
                    and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
                    Watch, therefore;
                    you do not know when the lord of the house is coming,
                    whether in the evening, or at midnight,
                    or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
                    May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
                    What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

                    The post Beginning Again and Doing Our Work, First Sunday of Advent (B), December 3, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                    34 min
                  • Becoming Vigilant Spiritual Porters, First Sunday of Advent (B), December 3, 2023

                    Fr. Roger J. Landry

                    Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
                    First Sunday of Advent, Year B
                    December 3, 2023
                    Is 63:16-17,19.64:2-7, Ps 80, 1 Cor 1:3-9, Mk 13:33-37

                     

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

                    https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.3.23_MCs_Homily_1.mp3

                     

                    The following text guided the homily: 

                    • The Christian life is about beginning and beginning again. As we celebrate New Year’s Day in the liturgical year of the Church, the Church has us begin with the end in mind. If we don’t know the destination, any road will do. It has us focus on getting ready for Christ’s second coming. Advent receives its title from this Latin word advenire, which means that Christ is coming toward us, and the purpose of the season is, first and fundamentally, to get us conscious and eager for that coming. With the help of the Prophet Isaiah, we enter into the experience of the Jews who awaited the first coming of the Messiah, longing for the one who would ransom captive Israel. With the help of St. John the Baptist, we repent and make straight the paths for the Messiah to come. With the help of Mary and Joseph, we experience a sort of pregnant waiting, as we await not just a birth that occurred in Bethlehem, but a birth that will, we pray, bring us from the womb of this world into the next. With all their help, we recognize Christ is coming to us and we prepare, like wise virgins with lamps lit and flasks full of extra oil, to be ready always to go out to meet him.
                    • The readings today seek to help us focus on our preparations. St. Paul helps us rejoice that God has “enriched us in every way … so that [we] are not lacking in any spiritual gift as we wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,” promising that God wants to “keep [us] firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We’ve been enriched by the Word of God, by the Sacraments, by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, through the example of the saints, through the many advents and liturgical years we’ve traversed, to await, firmly and faithfully, Christ’s unveiling as he returns. Isaiah helps us to year to expedite that encounter, as we cry out, “Return for the sake of your servants,” and “Rend the heavens and come down.” Psalm 80 does the same, as we proclaim, “O shepherd of Israel, hearken, from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse your power and come to save us,” and “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” All of this is the rich context for what the whole Church cries out in this season, “Marantha! Come Lord Jesus!”
                    • In the Gospel, the One seeks to get us ready himself for this fulfillment. He tells us very clearly about how he wants us to start and live this new liturgical year with a properly Christian eschatological perspective. He wants us to be vigilant, telling us, “Be watchful!,” “Be Alert!,” “Watch!” He tells us that we should be like porters, like door openers, for a man traveling abroad who, he describes, “leaves home and places his servants in charge, … orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.” He tells us that because they don’t know when the lord of the house is coming, this needs to be a perpetual state lest he come and find them sleeping.”
                    • In Manhattan, as you know, most of the large apartment complexes have doormen, just like hotels do throughout the country. The doormen are quite professional. There are three parts to their job.
                    • The first is always to be on the lookout for the arrival of any resident or guest. As soon as they see one arriving, they open the door. If the residents are returning from a trip or shopping, they promptly help as needed, opening up taxi or uber doors and helping transport bags or suitcases into the foyer. But the doormen also have a second job: namely to prevent those who shouldn’t be entering from doing so, something that in an age of terrorism and riots is also crucial. With a view to his second coming, Jesus is summoning us to be spiritual doorkeepers. This involves the same two tasks. The first is to be awake and alert to welcome Jesus whenever and from wherever he comes, to go out to meet him when we see he’s coming, to be vigilant in prayer as he seeks to speak to us, to be vigilant like the Shepherds and Wise Men with regard to his birth, to be vigilant to the way he comes to us in the Sacraments, in the various disguises he takes in daily life — in the poor, the sick, the lonely, those imprisoned, those we might consider our enemies, in those around us right now —all of which help us to be ready to meet him when he comes at the end of time or at the end of our life, whichever “Second coming” comes first. We’re called to be awake and alert for his presence at all times, and to open up the door when comes and allow him to enter. As he tells us in the Book of Revelation, “Behold I stand at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me.” We’re called to meet him with joy, with great loving expectation, and welcome him into our life. But as the famous artistic depiction memorializes, the door only has one handle, and it’s on the inside.
                    • The second task we have as spiritual porters is to lock the door to those who shouldn’t enter, who want to invade to do damage, harm and destroy. The first thing we have to lock it to is the devil, who seeks to encroach the temple of God we’re called to be and wreak havoc. The devil often comes in subtle disguises, so we have to be on our guard. We also have to be on guard to lock out sin and those situations and persons that lead us to sin. Some people and situations simply take us from God and we have to be on the lookout for them, like those who man the gate at the White House are for people who don’t long.
                    • There’s a third thing, of course, that a doorman needs to do: he needs to keep the entrance clean and swept. So do we as spiritual doormen. That’s why we meet John the Baptist every Advent. Just as Jesus cleansed the Temple, so we need to clean our souls. And the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world to whom John point wants to help us to do that through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
                    • So as we begin this new liturgical year, Jesus wants us, not just in this short period before Christmas but throughout the year, to grow in our vigilance, alertness and watchfulness. Advent is a time to wake up and look up and around us. It’s a time for stoking our desire for every way he comes to us. It’s a time to welcome him at the loving depth at which he desires and deserves to be embraced. The candles of the Advent wreath we’ve blessed and lit are meant to symbolize our eagerness for the second coming of the Lord. The evergreen wreath shows God’s everlasting love for us, and the flame of our candles is meant to show our increasing hunger for God week by week. An increasing hunger shown for what Jesus himself brought into the world in Bethlehem. An increasing eagerness for Jesus’ second coming and the culmination of his saving work. A larger yearning to meet him everyday in prayer, in the Sacraments, and in others, but in a special way during this Eucharistic Revival, in the Holy Eucharist. And so we begin this year by singing, with greater poignancy, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel,” “O Come Divine Messiah! The world in silence waits the day!,” “O Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free. From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.” As this new liturgical year begins, let us respond to God’s help to make this year the best spiritual year of our life, a true year of the Lord. O come, Lord Jesus!

                      •  

                      The readings for today’s Mass were: 

                      Reading 1
                      IS 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7
                      You, LORD, are our father,
                      our redeemer you are named forever.
                      Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
                      and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
                      Return for the sake of your servants,
                      the tribes of your heritage.
                      Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
                      with the mountains quaking before you,
                      while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
                      such as they had not heard of from of old.
                      No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you
                      doing such deeds for those who wait for him.
                      Would that you might meet us doing right,
                      that we were mindful of you in our ways!
                      Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
                      all of us have become like unclean people,
                      all our good deeds are like polluted rags;
                      we have all withered like leaves,
                      and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
                      There is none who calls upon your name,
                      who rouses himself to cling to you;
                      for you have hidden your face from us
                      and have delivered us up to our guilt.
                      Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
                      we are the clay and you the potter:
                      we are all the work of your hands.
                      Responsorial Psalm
                      PS 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
                      R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                      O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
                      from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
                      Rouse your power,
                      and come to save us.
                      R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                      Once again, O LORD of hosts,
                      look down from heaven, and see;
                      take care of this vine,
                      and protect what your right hand has planted
                      the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
                      R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                      May your help be with the man of your right hand,
                      with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
                      Then we will no more withdraw from you;
                      give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
                      R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
                      Reading II
                      1 COR 1:3-9

                      Brothers and sisters:

                      Grace to you and peace from God our Father
                      and the Lord Jesus Christ.

                      I give thanks to my God always on your account

                      for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
                      that in him you were enriched in every way,
                      with all discourse and all knowledge,
                      as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
                      so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
                      as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
                      He will keep you firm to the end,
                      irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
                      God is faithful,
                      and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son,
                      Jesus Christ our Lord.

                      Alleluia
                      PS 85:8
                      R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                      Show us Lord, your love;
                      and grant us your salvation.
                      R. Alleluia, alleluia.
                      Gospel
                      MK 13:33-37

                      Jesus said to his disciples:

                      “Be watchful! Be alert!
                      You do not know when the time will come.
                      It is like a man traveling abroad.
                      He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
                      each with his own work,
                      and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
                      Watch, therefore;
                      you do not know when the lord of the house is coming,
                      whether in the evening, or at midnight,
                      or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
                      May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
                      What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

                      The post Becoming Vigilant Spiritual Porters, First Sunday of Advent (B), December 3, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

                      13 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.

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