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By Father Roger LandryReligion & Spirituality Christianity

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December 02, 2023 Advent with the Perspective of the 350th Anniversary of the Revelations of Jesus’ Sacred Heart, 2023 Leonine Forum NYC Advent Recollection, December 2, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Advent Day of Recollection for Columbia Students and the Leonine Forum
December 2, 2023
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.2.23_Advent_and_the_Sacred_Heart_1.mp3
The post Advent with the Perspective of the 350th Anniversary of the Revelations of Jesus’ Sacred Heart, 2023 Leonine Forum NYC Advent Recollection, December 2, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
57 min
December 02, 2023 Advent within the Perspective of the 800th Anniversary of the Nativity Scene of Greccio, 2023 Leonine Forum NYC Advent Recollection, December 2, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Advent Day of Recollection for Columbia Students and the Leonine Forum
December 2, 2023
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.2.23_Advent_and_Greccio_1.mp3
The post Advent within the Perspective of the 800th Anniversary of the Nativity Scene of Greccio, 2023 Leonine Forum NYC Advent Recollection, December 2, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
45 min
December 02, 2023Hearts That Are Vigilant, Prayer, Strong and Standing Before the Son of Man, 34th Saturday (I), December 2, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Saturday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Advent Day of Recollection for Columbia Catholic Ministry and for the Leonine Forum
December 2, 2023
Dan 7:15-27, Dan 3:82-87, Lk 21:34-36

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
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The following is an edited transcript of the homily:
Today is New Year’s Eve in the church, as we finish up one liturgical year and prepare to enter another one. And the proper response the church gives us today takes from the heart of the Prophet Daniel’s prophecy words that the church lifts up to the Lord on any major solemnity, at Lauds in the morning, as well as on the most important Sundays of the year. With response to all that has come, and to all that we await, we say, “Bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all, forever.” Every human being, Israel, New York City, priests, servants, spirits and souls of the just, everyone who is of humble heart, is called to bless the Lord, to praise and exalt Him above all, forever. Blessed Solanus Casey, here in the city, used always to talk about thanking God ahead of time for everything, because no matter what comes, whether seemingly adverse or propitious, out of others’ charity and generosity, or even out of evil, everything, God wants to bring a greater good from. Therefore, we should always thank the Lord in advance for the good he’s going to give us either directly, or the good he will draw from the evil we have had to endure. So today, we bless the Lord, we praise and exalt Him, above everything, above everyone, and make the commitment to do that for ever.
Throughout this week of the solemnity of Christ the King, in the Gospel passages, Jesus has been preparing us for his final triumph, and what would precede it. In the first reading, we have been pondering the prophecy of Daniel, which God revealed to Daniel when he and his fellow Jews were in captivity in Babylon. It describes in a prophetic way not only what’s going to take place on earth, but what God’s response will be to it.
Let’s begin with what God has been telling us to Daniel this week. He’s described the idolatry of Nebuchadnezzar, who built a 30 foot golden statue of himself because he wanted to be worshipped like a god. But then God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream there it was all going to come crashing down: the 30 foot statue in his dream, the face of gold, silver torso, bronze, belly and thighs, iron tibias, and iron and clay feet. And Daniel was brought in to interpret the dream. He said you’re the golden face, but you’re going to be succeeded by the Persians of the silver torso; they’re going to be succeeded by Alexander and the Greeks, the bronze belly and quads; then the iron tibias are going to come who are the Romans, but because of the weakness that was built into the Roman Empire, in which they were constantly giving into the humble fallen nature of vessels of clay, eventually out of nowhere, this rock not thrown by a hand would come crushed the clay and the iron feet, and everything would come tumbling down into dust. And that stone thrown would be the one rejected by the builders who has become the cornerstone, the Messiah, the Son of God, whom we know now is Christ the King. But this was happening five-plus centuries before his birth.
That’s what was happening there. And Daniel continued yesterday and today with even more ferocious images of a lion with wings like an eagle that could fly ferociously and attack — that was supposed to be the Babylonians; succeeded by a beer with tusks for teeth, ripping people apart, those were the Persians; followed by a leopard with four heads so it would be able to see 360, likewise with four sets of wings to be able to fly even faster to attack — those were the Greeks; but finally came a beast, for which there was no analogy, a beast that was fearsome that a 10 heads and 10 horns, and then had an 11th horn, that was just destroying everything. This is meant to describe the Romans. We encountered that beast yesterday. And Daniel, at the end of his vision, asks what it means. He was frightened. But at the very end of the vision, something happened. Yesterday, the Ancient One, portraying God the Father, united to God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in a throne of fire, came, and then someone looking like a Son of Man, coming on the clouds of heaven, who would receive all the Dominion after that last Beast was finished. This image continues in today’s first reading and we see what happened at the end. The kingship and dominion and majesty of all the kingdoms under heaven were given not just to the one looking like the Son of Man but to the “holy people of the Most High,” Christ was coming to share the everlasting kingdom with us. When Christ the King comes, every other kingdom is relativized.
We see the fulfillment of the prophecies that Daniel described in the way the Romans attacked the Jews, eventually destroying the temple, sieging Masada, murdering so many, taking the objects of the temple with them to Rome. But we likewise see it in the attacks against the Christians, the 13 ferocious, anti-Christian persecutions led by the Roman emperors, from Nero in 64 all the way up to Diocletian in 304. The beast was ferocious against the church.
We can sometimes ask as Catholics, “What about that stone crushing the 30 foot beast? What about the Ancient One coming to finish off the beast with 11 hours? What was taking so long? How could the Kingdom of Christ coexist with the destruction by the beast of that King’s Church? They could coexist by God’s plan. Jesus had already defeated and he was going to bring great good even out of the attacks.
As he said earlier this week when he was describing weird things happening in the heavens before he would come, weird things happening believers when he would come home, how we would even be hated by all because of him, he then said why He permits it: because it will lead to our giving testimony. It would be a great pulpit for us. The way the Roman Empire was converted were because of two reasons. First was the charity of the first Christians. Even though in the Roman Empire if you weren’t firstborn you got nothing. There was no fraternity. People used to have to beg for survival after their dad’s death. The paterfamilias had the ability to just have his family members executed legally, to divorce wives on a whim, you name it. And then the Christians come around and they began to sell all their property, voluntarily laying the proceeds at the feet of the apostles to distributors, as was most needed. Even if Romans didn’t treat their siblings like siblings, Christians were treating each other like much beloved brothers and sisters. And people were busting down the doors to get in, because we’re made for that type of love. That was the first way the Roman Empire was converted.
The second way was the witness of the martyrs. When the Romans who had perfected brutality, even inventing crucifixion, in order to try to deter any copycats of the types of actions for which they were crucifying people, sought to execute Christians, the Christians were shockingly joyful. Christians were singing songs. Christians were forgiving those who were executing them. Christians were acting like Christians unafraid. That converted so many of the soldiers guarding them, so many of the executioners presiding over their demise. The blood of the martyrs was a seed of new Christians. And people recognized through their witness that Jesus was worth living for, worth dying for, and trusting into eternal life. And so the Lord permitted even that ferocious Roman beast to attack the church, because God was going to bring far greater good than even the terrible evil.
We had a chance to talk about a little earlier today, that when St. Paul was one of those terrorists, ripping Christians out of their home preceding approach, presiding over their execution, when Jesus met him 137 miles north of Jerusalem outside the gates of Damascus, he said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Jesus takes all of this persecution personally. But he rose from the dead after his own crucifixion to show us not to be afraid, how to even endure it.
This readings throughout this week point to how we’re supposed to respond to the evils that we have to suffer in life. Over the course of this last year, the world, including Christ’s Mystical Body, has suffered a lot. So many Ukrainian brothers and sisters have had their houses destroyed by bombs being ordered from Moscow. The land of Jesus birth has become a war zone, with terrorists coming in destroy Jesus’s fellow Jewish brothers and sisters, and the response involved starving whole populations without food and drink and so many civilian casualties. We can look close to home. How many in this last liturgical year havebeen mowed down by automatic weapons by people walking into schools and other places wanting to kill vast multitudes of strangers? How many others have had to endure smaller scale hits, the type of hatred that tries to justify terrorism even on our campuses, the type of polarity in which people are trying to set up earthly fiefdoms, including by those who say they’re Christian. We’re still experiencing lots of evil. But Christ’s kingship hasn’t been annulled, and he wants to draw even greater good from these evils.
That’s why at the beginning of today’s Gospel passage, Jesus tells us beware that our hearts don’t become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness, because often we’ll try to drink our problems away is if somehow that’s going to help it never does. Jesus says to our hyper-anxious age, don’t be driven away by the anxieties of daily life. For he says that these persecutions will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. What’s the remedy? He gives us three verbs: be vigilant at all times, stay awake, be alert; pray, pray that you will have the strength; and stand before the Son of Man. What does this hat trick of responses mean? In the midst of it all, we are called to be vigilant for the Lord’s coming, for the Lord’s action, for the way that the Lord wants to send us in. We’re eavesdropping on every syllable that comes from his mouth, however mutely whispered. We’re hearing the Lord and are alert to him. Second, we are praying, we’re uniting our life to his. Prayer is ultimately an exchange of persons, not just a holy exercise. Third, we’re supposed to stand. At the Gospel, we stand out of reverence for the Lord who speaks live. We stand before the Lord out of reverence, we look up to him, we await him. And we stand so that when he says, “Come follow me,” because we’re ready to move.
These three related verbs characterize our response as we finish one year and prepare for another: to be awake, not drowsy; to be praying, rather than diverting; and to be standing, rather than seated. That’s what the Lord wants, because he’s here, the one who has conquered sin and death, and called us to be as disciples. And that’s why we fear nothing: this King is with us, whose so much stronger than 30 foot statues, so much stronger than fearsome beasts. He comes to lead us to victory by following him along the paradoxical path that looks like a total loss. If he can bring evil out of the crucifixion, he can bring evil out of any other suffering.
The great model we have of how to do this is Our Lady. As we finish this liturgical year and begin the next, the old and the new are meant to be Marian. Our heart is supposed to be like her Magnificat, piecing together all that’s occurred over the last year, because we know it’s all part of the Lord’s plan. And we’re called in response with all to say, “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior” But likewise, she’s a woman of faith, she faced the future, even though she had those prophecies of what would happen to her heart being pierced seven times, even though she knew the prophecies of what would occur to her Son. She was nevertheless there at Calvary, vigilant not away, praying not distraction, standing not swooning before the Son of man who likewise was the Son of Mary. And she wants to show us how to be vigilant at all times, to pray for the strength to stand with her, who never ceases to stand with and for us.
As we finish this day of recollection, as we finish this liturgical year, we look forward to the Mass, we ask Mary to help us to bless the Lord her Son, so that one day we may, with her, praise and exalt Him, above all, forever. Praised be Jesus Christ!

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 DN 7:15-27
I, Daniel, found my spirit anguished within its covering of flesh,
and I was terrified by the visions of my mind.
I approached one of those present
and asked him what all this meant in truth;
in answer, he made known to me the meaning of the things:
“These four great beasts stand for four kingdoms
which shall arise on the earth.
But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingship,
to possess it forever and ever.”
But I wished to make certain about the fourth beast,
so very terrible and different from the others,
devouring and crushing with its iron teeth and bronze claws,
and trampling with its feet what was left;
about the ten horns on its head, and the other one that sprang up,
before which three horns fell;
about the horn with the eyes and the mouth that spoke arrogantly,
which appeared greater than its fellows.
For, as I watched, that horn made war against the holy ones
and was victorious until the Ancient One arrived;
judgment was pronounced in favor of the holy ones of the Most High,
and the time came when the holy ones possessed the kingdom.
He answered me thus:
“The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth
different from all the others;
It shall devour the whole earth,
beat it down, and crush it.
The ten horns shall be ten kings
rising out of that kingdom;
another shall rise up after them,
Different from those before him,
who shall lay low three kings.
He shall speak against the Most High
and oppress the holy ones of the Most High,
thinking to change the feast days and the law.
They shall be handed over to him
for a year, two years, and a half-year.
But when the court is convened,
and his power is taken away
by final and absolute destruction,
Then the kingship and dominion and majesty
of all the kingdoms under the heavens
shall be given to the holy people of the Most High,
Whose Kingdom shall be everlasting:
all dominions shall serve and obey him.”
Responsorial Psalm DANIEL 3:82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“You sons of men, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“O Israel, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Servants of the Lord, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Holy men of humble heart, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
Alleluia LK 21:36
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Be vigilant at all times and pray
that you may have the strength to stand before the Son of Man.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 21:34-36
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
The post Hearts That Are Vigilant, Prayer, Strong and Standing Before the Son of Man, 34th Saturday (I), December 2, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
19 min
December 02, 2023First Sunday of Advent (B), Conservations with Consequences Podcast, December 2, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, B, Vigil
December 2, 2023

To listen to an audio recording of the brief homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.2.23_ConCon_1.mp3

The following text guided the homily:
This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when we begin a new liturgical year. Sometimes Catholics find this a little strange, that New Year’s Day in the Church begins on the First Sunday of Advent, rather than about a month from now, but that’s an indication that most of us take our cues more from balls dropping in Times Square or months decreed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC than by the liturgical year that traces the life of Christ from the time when the Jews anxiously awaited his appearance (Advent proper) to ultimately his return in glory, which we celebrated last week with the Solemnity of Christ the King. Jesus said to us over and again in the Gospel, “Follow me!” and each liturgical year we do just that, tracing his footsteps along the route of salvation history, trying to become more and more like him whom we’re following. The liturgical year is not a “same old, same old,” but something that helps us to enter into the mysteries we celebrate far more profoundly than the last time. Like re-reading a great book or watching anew a classic movie, each retracing of the life of Christ is supposed to reveal to us elements we haven’t seen before and remind us of important things that we once knew but have forgotten about the mystery of God, his love for us, and his hopes and plans for us. This is a chance for us to enter more deeply once more into the life of Christ, to accompany him and be accompanied by him as we relive the events of his earthly life and heavenly reality. This may be the last liturgical year we have, because we never know the day or the hour. So let’s make the most of this one and begin it well.
Jesus speaks to us very clearly in the Gospel this Sunday about how he wants us to start and live this year. He uses two sets of verbs. The first has to do with our alertness. “Wake up!” he shouts. “Stay awake!” he adds. The second set of verbs involves what we’re supposed to do when we’re awake. “Be constantly on guard!” “Be on the watch!” He says in the Gospel 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, each with his own work; and he orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore! You do not know when the lord of the house is coming… May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.” Jesus wants us to be like doorkeepers who are always awake and on guard.
Here in Manhattan where I live, most of the large apartment complexes have doormen, just like hotels throughout the country. The doormen are quite professional. There are two 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 alertly 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.
Jesus calls us to be spiritual porters, to be 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, as we like to say, in history, mystery and majesty. We focus on meeting him in Bethlehem in the celebration of Christmas. We focus on meeting him when he comes at the end of time or at the end of our life, whichever “Second coming” comes first. We focus on meeting him in the Eucharist, in prayer, in Sacred Scripture, in the various disguises he takes, in the poor, the sick, the lonely, those imprisoned, those we might consider our enemies, in those around us right now, even in the priest speaking to you on his behalf right now. 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 says 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 to you and eat with you, and you with me.” We’re called to meet him with joy, with great loving expectation, and let him enter into our life. We are in reality Temples of God. God wants to dwell within. We’re called to open up our hearts to him so that he can come and dwell within. 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 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 disguise. So we have to be on our guard. The second thing we have to be on guard to lock out is related to this. It’s sin and those who want to lead us to sin. There are certain people whose presence takes us from God. They’re not necessarily evil people, but whether it be their polluted language, exaggerated worldliness, or especially their desire to have us engage in sinful activity, we have to be on the lookout, like those at the gate at the White House.
We might add that there’s a third thing a doorman needs to do. Even if he did a good job of welcoming residents and guests, even if he superbly kept out those who shouldn’t enter, he likewise needs to keep the entrance clean and swept. So do we as spiritual doormen. Like Jesus cleansed the Temple, so we need to clean our souls. And Jesus wants to help us with 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 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. In it we enter, with the help of the Prophets Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah and others, into the spiritual experience of the Jewish people in the centuries prior to the coming of the Messiah, something that is made far more poignant this Advent as we pray for peace in the land where the long-awaited One was born. The candles of the Advent wreath we’ll light in Church and in many of our homes is meant to show in the evergreen wreath, on the one hand, God’s everlasting love for us, and, in the flame of our candles, 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 on which the homily was based are:
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 First Sunday of Advent (B), Conservations with Consequences Podcast, December 2, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
8 min
December 01, 2023Signs of the Nearness of the Kingdom, 34th Friday (I), December 1, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Friday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
December 1, 2023
Dan 7:2-14, Dn 3:75-81, Lk 21:29-33

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.1.23_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
Today in the Gospel, Jesus gives the response to everything he has been saying throughout the week framed by the Solemnity of Christ the King. He has spoken with frightening images of what is to come: wars, insurrections, powerful earthquakes, famines, plagues, awesome and mighty signs from the sky, signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, terrible calamities and wrathful judgments, persecutions from synagogues, kings and governors, betrayals by parents, siblings and friends, being hated by all, some of us being put to death. It might seem all straight out of a horror movie. But Jesus tells us not to be afraid, that he will send the Holy Spirit to us at that time so that we might give witness, so that we might persevere and secure our lives, so that we might not follow those saying “The time has come” and “I am he,” so that we might stand erect and raise our heads because our redemption is at hand, so that we, seeing the signs of this like a fig tree in bloom, might recognize that the “kingdom of God is near” and build our lives on Jesus’ words, which he tells us today, “will not pass away,” so that, as he’ll tell us tomorrow, we may “not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties” and be caught “by surprise like a trap,” but so that be may be “vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” Apocalyptic preachers are always trying to interpret the images Jesus uses to talk about the parousia happening immediately, or to find precise historical references (like for example the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD), but the images that Jesus has been using really occur, in some form or another, in every age, so that, in every age, we might respond to everything but standing erect and raising our heads to the Redeemer, to the King, coming.
In the first reading, we have a very similar message given in perhaps even scarier imagery. Daniel saw a vision of a stirred up sea from which emerged “four immense beasts,” one like a lion with eagle’s wings, standing like a man with a human mind; another like a bear with three tusks among teeth with the command to “devour much flesh”; a third like a leopard with wings like a bird with four heads and dominion; and a fourth, unlike anything to which it could be compared, “terrifying, horrible and of extraordinary strength” with “great iron teeth” to devour and crush and trampled, with ten horns and an 11th with eyes and a mouth that took the place of three and spoke arrogantly. To what do these refer? There could be — and have been — multiple interpretations, but I think that the most likely is that these images refer to the way human beings, and the institutions they’ve been, can sometimes behave like ferocious animals to other human beings, to devour people. We’ve seen it with Attila the Hun, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, with ISIS and Al Qaeda, with serial killers, various sadistic tribes and more.
In response to this ferocity of humans devouring other human beings, Daniel sees two other visions. The first is of an “Ancient One” with white clothing and hair, sitting on a throne made of flames with burning wheels and surging streams of fire flowing from where he sat as he was ministered to by “thousands upon thousands” and “myriads upon myriads.” This is, for us as Christians, an image of God the Father, white with holiness, white hot with the fire of his love who would take personality in the Holy Spirit. And then Daniel saw “one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven,” who received from the ancient one everlasting dominion, glory and indestructible kingship,” clearly an image of Christ himself. When the High Priest Annas asked him during his trial, “Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?,” Jesus replied, “I am; and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mk 14:61-62). Jesus is the fulfillment of the vision of Daniel, who would receive everlasting dominion, glory and indestructible kingship, something we mark in this week of Christ the King. But as we see, in Jesus’ first coming, he did not appear on the clouds of heaven. He was the surging stream of fire coming from God the Father to set the world ablaze, but his fire was hidden under his humanity, at least to many. Nevertheless, in the midst of all of the beasts and ferocity, came one who was meek and humble of heart. We saw the beasts throughout his public ministry and particularly on Holy Thursday night and Good Friday, and yet the Redeemer was still there. We’re called to look up and see him, and follow him, and give him the homage he is due, and base our life on the rock of his words that will never pass away.
The best teacher we have to do this is the Blessed Mother. We’re now in the second day of the novena to her Immaculate Conception, and she teaches us how to let our whole existence flow in accordance with the word of God announced by the Angel and enfleshed by her Son. She shows us, in the midst of the horror of the beasts of Herod at the time of the Holy Innocents, to keep our eyes fixed on the Redeemer whose redemption is always close at hand. She shows us how to give glory and eternal praise to the “Ancient One” by uniting ourselves to the “Son of Man coming on the clouds.”
And the best occasion we have to do this is here at Mass. In the midst of all the continuing ferocity in the world, in the context of our petitions for all those experiencing wars, insurrections, powerful earthquakes, famines, plagues, awesome and mighty signs from the sky, signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, terrible calamities and wrathful judgments, persecutions from synagogues, kings and governors, betrayals by parents, siblings and friends, ubiquitous hatred, and martyrdom, we are called to look and see Christ coming to us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and seeks to bring us, with his Mother, to join the “thousands upon thousands” and “myriads upon myriads” before the fiery throne of the Ancient One!

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 DN 7:2-14
In a vision I, Daniel, saw during the night,
the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea,
from which emerged four immense beasts,
each different from the others.
The first was like a lion, but with eagle’s wings.
While I watched, the wings were plucked;
it was raised from the ground to stand on two feet
like a man, and given a human mind.
The second was like a bear; it was raised up on one side,
and among the teeth in its mouth were three tusks.
It was given the order, “Up, devour much flesh.”
After this I looked and saw another beast, like a leopard;
on its back were four wings like those of a bird,
and it had four heads.
To this beast dominion was given.
After this, in the visions of the night I saw the fourth beast,
different from all the others,
terrifying, horrible, and of extraordinary strength;
it had great iron teeth with which it devoured and crushed,
and what was left it trampled with its feet.
I was considering the ten horns it had,
when suddenly another, a little horn, sprang out of their midst,
and three of the previous horns were torn away to make room for it.
This horn had eyes like a man,
and a mouth that spoke arrogantly.
As I watched,
Thrones were set up
and the Ancient One took his throne.
His clothing was snow bright,
and the hair on his head as white as wool;
His throne was flames of fire,
with wheels of burning fire.
A surging stream of fire
flowed out from where he sat;
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,
and myriads upon myriads attended him.
The court was convened, and the books were opened.
I watched, then, from the first of the arrogant words
which the horn spoke, until the beast was slain
and its body thrown into the fire to be burnt up.
The other beasts, which also lost their dominion,
were granted a prolongation of life for a time and a season.
As the visions during the night continued,
I saw One like a son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship;
nations and peoples of every language serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Responsorial Psalm DN 3:75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
“Mountains and hills, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
“Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
“You springs, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
“Seas and rivers, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
“You dolphins and all water creatures, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
“All you birds of the air, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
“All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Alleluia LK 21:28
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stand erect and raise your hands
Because your redemption is at hand.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 21:29-33
Jesus told his disciples a parable.
“Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.
When their buds burst open,
you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;
in the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that the Kingdom of God is near.
Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.”
The post Signs of the Nearness of the Kingdom, 34th Friday (I), December 1, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
14 min
November 30, 2023 Lawyers and the Eucharistic Revival: Working For the Food That Endures, Catholic Lawyers Guild of NYC, November 30, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Catholic Lawyers Guild of New York City
St. Agnes Church Hall, Manhattan
November 30, 2023

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Lawyers and the Eucharistic Revival
The post Lawyers and the Eucharistic Revival: Working For the Food That Endures, Catholic Lawyers Guild of NYC, November 30, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
52 min
November 30, 2023The Protoclete and Protoapostolos, Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, November 30, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle
November 30, 2023
Rom 10:9-18, Ps 19, Mt 4:18-22

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.30.23_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in this homily:
Today is the last day of the month of November, dedicated to the four Last Things, to praying for our faithful departed and to concentrating on our call to be holy. The exclamation point of the month is the feast of St. Andrew, marking his heroic martyrdom, positive judgment and transitus to the house of the Father where Jesus had gone to prepare a place for him. It’s an opportunity for us to focus on his holy life and what we can learn from him about the call to holiness each of us has received as much as he had. A holy Christian life involves two essential elements: becoming a faithful follower of Jesus, or devout disciple; and to bring others to him as an ardent apostle. St. Andrew excelled in both.
St. Andrew was first someone who hungered for the Messiah and became a faithful follower once that Messiah was pointed out. He was a disciple of St. John the Baptist, who was preparing the way for the Messiah, and as soon as the Precursor pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, he who takes away the sins of the world!,” Andrew immediately sought to follow Jesus, along with another disciple of the Baptist who was almost certainly the man who would become St. John the Evangelist, the one who would write down the details of the encounter for us (Jn 1:35-42). They would have been terrible private investigators, because even though they were tailing Jesus at a distance, he heard them, turned and said, “What do you seek?” In their nervousness they blurted out, “Where are you staying?” Jesus, inviting them into a dialogue and a relationship, said, “Come and see.” Because it was approaching sundown on the Sabbath — so great was the first impression of that first encounter with Jesus that St. John noted the precise time, “about 4 pm” — they needed to spend about the next 26 hours with him. What a life changing day that was. And that led to what we see in the Gospel today, when, shortly thereafter, Jesus approached Andrew at the Sea of Galilee to call him to be a “fisher of men,” he left everything to follow Jesus. And he kept following him all the way to eternity.
The second thing we learn from Andrew is about how the Lord wants to use us as new John the Baptists to facilitate the call of others. As soon as Andrew and John were able to travel again after the completion of the Sabbath, Andrew ran to his brother Simon and announced, “We have found the Messiah!” His fulfilled desire led him to try to bring others to have their same desires filled. And he brought his brother to Jesus because he wanted his brother to experience the same joy. When Simon came with Andrew to meet Jesus, Jesus said something extraordinary, “You are Simon, son of Jonah. You will be called Cephas” (Peter, from the word for Rock). Little did Andrew know what Jesus’ plans would have been for his brother, that he would become the rock on whom Jesus would build his Church, the one to whom he would give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. All he did was bring Simon to Jesus and Jesus did the rest. Likewise, we never know when we bring others to Jesus what he will do with them. They may become the next great saint. They may become a future priest or religious or even pope. What we need to concentrate on is simply sharing the joy of our encounter with Christ with others. Christ has come into the world for them as well. Christ’s advent is vocational for them, too.
St. Andrew’s introducing St. Peter to Jesus the Messiah is not the only time he facilitated an encounter with Christ who had come. Later on, when Jesus had been teaching the vast crowds for hours, it was getting dark and the people had no food, some of the apostles encouraged Jesus to dismiss the crowd so that they could get something to eat, saying that even 200 days wages would not be enough to feed a multitude of 5,000 men not counting women and children (Jn 6:1-15). After Jesus told them to give the crowds something to eat, Andrew brought a young boy who had five buns and two fish to Jesus. Jesus took those meager gifts, thanked the Father for them, and miraculously multiplied them in a way that not only the crowd ate to satiation, but they had twelve wicker baskets left over, a tangible reminder for each of the twelve apostles of just what Jesus can do when we bring others and their gifts to him. We, too, should learn the lesson. When we bring others to Jesus, when we can get them generously to give whatever they have to him, Jesus can multiply those offerings and do tremendous things. Our task, like Andrew, is just to match-make others with the Lord who is constantly coming into the world.
The third time Andrew did this matchmaking was when a bunch of Greeks came saying, “We wish to see Jesus!” (Jn 12:20-24). Philip brought them to Andrew and Andrew brought them to Jesus. As soon as Jesus got word, he exclaimed, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Jesus immediately shifted gears toward the fulfillment of his Messianic, long-awaited mission, as a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying to bear fruit for our salvation. Little did Andrew know when he was bringing these Greeks to meet Jesus that he would be fulfilling the prophecy announced through Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah that God’s light would be brought to all the nations. He just brought them — and the rest, we can say, was salvation history. Likewise we never know what the next stages are in the history of salvation of those we encounter or of the whole world. We just try to bring people to Jesus.
Today’s feast is an opportunity for us to ponder our own calling to follow Jesus and our mission to help others to go out to meet Christ who has come likewise for them. Andrew has been called by the Greeks throughout the centuries the protoclete because he was the first one called, but in some ways he was also the proto-apostolos in becoming the first to call others. We are not the first called but just as much as St. Andrew was called so have we been summoned. And just as much as Andrew responded to that encounter by bringing others to Christ, so we’re sent out at the end of the Mass to seek to bring about that encounter between Christ and others. Christ seeks to make us “fishers of men” just as he made Andrew. St. Paul words are as relevant today as when he wrote them to the Romans: “How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?And how can people preach unless they are sent?” Christ sends us, too — and not to do anything against the grain but with it, because when we’ve received Jesus within, we can’t help but share him. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” St. Paul tells us. When we really believe in the core of our being, we cannot restrain ourselves from confessing with our mouth.
And this is something that St. Andrew did to the very end of his life. We don’t have any extant letters from him, or homilies. But we do have an ancient account of his martyrdom, in which we can see the way he died and extrapolate from there to how he would have lived. The passio says that he died on a decussate or X-Shaped cross in Achaia, northern Greece. It took him 38 hours to die on that Cross, and during those two days, it adds, he preached incessantly to the people. In crucifixion, people die not because of the literally excruciating pain, but because they can’t breathe. In their particular conformation on the cross, they need to move move their whole body to open up their lungs to get in enough oxygen. Eventually, their strength runs out — which can take anywhere from two hours to two days depending upon how much one is tortured beforehand — and they die by asphyxiation. We can only imagine how difficult it must have been for St. Andrew to preach under those circumstances when he could basically barely get enough oxygen to stay alive, not to mention speak. He preached the Gospel not just with words, but by his life and death up until its very end. This ultimate witness on the Cross, his two-day long martyrdom, shows us quite clearly how much he was dying to bring the Good news to others, a truth worth living for until the very end, and a truth worth dying for.
The best way we live out the lessons we learn from him is each day here at the altar. Here we meet the same Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world whom St. Andrew followed at St. John the Baptist’s indication. This is the same Jesus who in St. Andrew’s company during the Last Supper took bread and wine into his hands, totally changed them into himself, and gave himself to the apostles saying both, “This is my Body” and “This is the chalice of my Blood,” but also “Do this in memory of me” — and St. Andrew not only celebrated the Mass but imitated Christ’s self-giving love all the way until the end. May we be strengthened by the same Lord Jesus to believe in him fully in our heart, announce him with our lips, follow him wholeheartedly, and bring others to him like Andrew in such a way that others may bless our feet that brings the good news and say about us in centuries to come, “Their message [went] out through all the earth”!

The readings for this Mass were:
Reading 1
ROM 10:9-18
Brothers and sisters:
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
The Scripture says,
No one who believes in him will be put to shame.
There is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone to preach?
And how can people preach unless they are sent?
As it is written,
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!
But not everyone has heeded the good news;
for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?
Thus faith comes from what is heard,
and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
But I ask, did they not hear?
Certainly they did; forTheir voice has gone forth to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.
Responsorial Psalm
PS 19:8, 9, 10, 11
R. (10) The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
or:
R. (John 6:63) Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
or:
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
or:
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
or:
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just.
or:
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Gospel
MT 4:18-22
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.
The post The Protoclete and Protoapostolos, Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, November 30, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
16 min
November 29, 2023Christian Perseverance in Reading the Writing on the Wall, 34th Wednesday (I), November 29, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Wednesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Votive Mass for the Faithful Departed
November 29, 2023
Dan 5:5:1-6.13-14.16-17.23-28, Dan 3, Lk 21:12-19

To listen to a recording of today’s homily, please click here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.29.23_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
November is a month in which we pray for our faithful departed and focus on the last things, especially about our call to holiness and heaven. It’s also a month in which the Church forms us concretely for what is to come. In the early Church, catechumens could not be baptized until they were ready to be martyrs, because many of them would be threatened with martyrdom as soon as they were Christians. As we ponder Jesus’ words at the end of his journey to Jerusalem, we can see that he was doing the same. He was telling us what was to come so that we wouldn’t be surprised, shocked, scandalized, or paralyzed when they occurred, and so that, just like a soldier well-trained in boot camp for war, we might be prepared to know what to do when these eventualities transpire.
In the Gospel Jesus describes what was coming for his faithful followers. Just like would happen to him, so they, too, would be seized and persecuted, handed over to religious and civil leaders, thrown in prison, betrayed my family members and friends, hated by all, and even martyred. But he also told them why it would occur: so that they would be able to give witness. Sometimes persecution is the Christian’s greatest pulpit. Jesus told them not to worry about what to say, that the Holy Spirit would teach them what to say, and despite their martyrdom, not a single follicle would be destroyed but that all would be restored — even to the baldest of them! — in the resurrection. “By your perseverance,” he stressed, “you will secure your lives.” He was stressing — in words that are highly relevant to our age of rampant personal insecurity — that real security comes from building our whole life on God. Once we do, nothing in all of creation — not persecution, peril or the sword (Rom 8:31-39) — will be able to separate us from God. By persevering in faith, we will be secure now and secure later, even if all fleeting forms of worldly security disappear. This is a lesson we always need to learn. The first Christians suffered so much, including the plundering of their property and even their lives, as we read in the Letter to the Hebrews (10:34), but they didn’t fear, because they had a greater security in God. True security in God can’t be given by the world or stolen by those in the world. That’s why the martyrs in every age weren’t afraid even while suffering torture or death.
There’s a great contrast between this type of security in faith in relation with God that Jesus wants us to have even in the humanly worst of circumstances and the type of insecurity we see in King Belshazzar in today’s first reading. He was living outwardly very securely. He was throwing a banquet for 1,000 courtiers and their wives at a time of great prosperity. He decided to have some of the 5,400 gold and silver chalices that King Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from Jerusalem brought out, using what was sacred for the Jews for their drunken party. But when, straight out of a script of the Addams’ Family television program, a hand started writing on the wall, we see that his security was just an outward show: “When the king saw the wrist and hand that wrote,” the Prophet Daniel tells us, “his face blanched; his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook, and his knees knocked.” None of his pagan experts could mollify his anxiety, because no matter how smart they were, they didn’t have divine wisdom, which is the capacity to look at things from God’s perspective. Daniel, the one who had interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, was brought in and he was able to interpret the three words that were being written on the wall: mene, tekel, peres, which were three terms for coins. Mene was a full payment, and Daniel used it to express that Belshazzar’s kingdom was “fulfilled” or all over; a tekel was 1/60 of a mene, indicating that Belshazzar doesn’t weigh very much; and peres, which was half of mene, indicating that his kingdom would be divided in half. Belshazzar’s kingdom would come to an end that very night when his kingdom and the palace would be invaded by Darius and Belshazzar would be killed. The gold head we read about yesterday was eliminated by the silver torso. Like the man in the parable whom Jesus called foolish for building bigger grain bins to store his harvest only to have his life taken that very night, Belshazzar was an even bigger fool, sacrilegiously debauching the things of God not realizing that he would be weighed in the balance and found less secure than a feather. Today there are still many who, even though they’re in prominent positions with body guards or have incredible houses with state-of-the-art security systems, aren’t really secure at all. There are also many who, as they approach their own mene or the fulfillment of their life, might indeed be as weighty as a tekel because their life is peres, or divided, among many things. The writing on the wall of King Belshazzar’s palace is also written for us.
Today God the Father is not sending a hand to start moving on the walls of this chapel, but his Son, who in the Eucharistic Prayer we’ll use, is described as the “hand You stretch out to sinners.” We will not take up sacred vessels to use for alcohol, but Jesus himself will take up a chalice and change wine into his blood. He will seek to make us, indeed, vessels used not for debauchery but to give him “glory and eternal praise.” This is the greatest means by which we will become not tekel but qadosh, weighty or holy, and have our names written by God’s hand in the eternal book of life.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
DN 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28
King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords,
with whom he drank.
Under the influence of the wine,
he ordered the gold and silver vessels
which Nebuchadnezzar, his father,
had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,
to be brought in so that the king, his lords,
his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.
When the gold and silver vessels
taken from the house of God in Jerusalem had been brought in,
and while the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainers
were drinking wine from them,
they praised their gods of gold and silver,
bronze and iron, wood and stone.
Suddenly, opposite the lampstand,
the fingers of a human hand appeared,
writing on the plaster of the wall in the king’s palace.
When the king saw the wrist and hand that wrote, his face blanched;
his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook,
and his knees knocked.
Then Daniel was brought into the presence of the king.
The king asked him,
“Are you the Daniel, the Jewish exile,
whom my father, the king, brought from Judah?
I have heard that the Spirit of God is in you,
that you possess brilliant knowledge and extraordinary wisdom.
I have heard that you can interpret dreams and solve difficulties;
if you are able to read the writing and tell me what it means,
you shall be clothed in purple,
wear a gold collar about your neck,
and be third in the government of the kingdom.”
Daniel answered the king:
“You may keep your gifts, or give your presents to someone else;
but the writing I will read for you, O king,
and tell you what it means.
You have rebelled against the Lord of heaven.
You had the vessels of his temple brought before you,
so that you and your nobles, your wives and your entertainers,
might drink wine from them;
and you praised the gods of silver and gold,
bronze and iron, wood and stone,
that neither see nor hear nor have intelligence.
But the God in whose hand is your life breath
and the whole course of your life, you did not glorify.
By him were the wrist and hand sent, and the writing set down.
“This is the writing that was inscribed:
MENE, TEKEL, and PERES.
These words mean:
MENE, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it;
TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting;
PERES, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Responsorial Psalm
DN 3:62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67
R. (59b) Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Sun and moon, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Stars of heaven, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Every shower and dew, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“All you winds, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Fire and heat, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Cold and chill, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
Gospel
LK 21:12-19
Jesus said to the crowd:
“They will seize and persecute you,
they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons,
and they will have you led before kings and governors
because of my name.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
You will even be handed over by parents,
brothers, relatives, and friends,
and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
The post Christian Perseverance in Reading the Writing on the Wall, 34th Wednesday (I), November 29, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
13 min
November 28, 2023The Cornerstone and King Who Knocks Down and Builds Up the Temple and Kingdom, 34th Tuesday (I), November 28, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Tuesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Votive Mass for the Faithful Departed
November 28, 2023
Dan 2:31-45, Dan 3:47-61, Lk 21:5-11

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.28.23_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
In this week in which we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, we have a chance to think about the distinct nature of his kingdom, and how to enter his kingdom, we must allow him to destroy false allegiances to earthly notions and learn from him how to become a kingdom of priests offering sacrifices to God the Father. Today’s readings help us to do just that, examining the foundations and goals of our life by inserting us within world and salvation history.
In the first reading, we have the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which none of his magicians, sorcerers, or others could interpret. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t reveal what he had seen. God had nevertheless revealed a similar dream to Daniel as well as its interpretation and so Daniel asked to be introduced into the king’s presence and properly interpreted the dream. The king saw a large and bright statue with a head of pure gold, the torso silver, the belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron and the feet partly iron and partly clay. At the end of the dream the king saw a stone that was thrown from a mountain without a hand that rendered the entire statue to dust. Daniel said that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was the gold head. He would be surpassed by the Persians (the silver torso), who themselves would be defeated by the Greeks (bronze). The Romans (iron) would come next, but eventually their kingdom would have some weaknesses (feet half of clay). The stone that would come from above to pulverize the Romans would be the “stone rejected by the builders,” Christ himself, the Cornerstone. That’s what we celebrate during this week of Christ the King. Christ didn’t establish an earthly kingdom — his kingdom is not of this world — but the kingdom he did establish is the everlasting one that will know no end. There are three different spiritual interpretations of Sacred Scripture: the Christological, moral (how it relates to us and our behavior) and anagogical (how it relates to the last things). With regard to the last two, we recognize that if we have feet of clay, no matter how strong we are in other parts of our life, everything can come down and can impact our final destiny. We need to look to our foundation.
Similarly in the Gospel, Jesus describes how the temple itself would be destroyed such that “there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” That’s because for many Jews the Temple had become an idol. Rather than a place of true encounter with God, they, as we saw at the end of last week, had perverted it to a den of thieves. They were not willing to grasp that that Temple was provisional until Christ the true Temple, the Messiah, came. Their foundation was built on the temple rather than on the God worshipped in the Temple. We can similarly have our own religious idols that rather than bringing us to God take us away. There are Catholics who if their Church is closed, sadly stop practicing the faith, as if the Church building, rather than God himself who dwells within the Church, is really the most important thing of all. Others make the liturgy an idol, exalting the sign over the signified to such a degree that there are Catholics who refuse even to accept the new order of the Mass after more than 50 years. Jesus wants to smash all our idols so that he can help us build our entire lives on a firm foundation.
And what is that foundation? We see it in St. Matthew’s parallel version of today’s Gospel. After he describes what will happen at the end of time he says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” He wants us to build our lives on his word as the foundation of rock — what he describes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount — that will keep us secure even when the earthquakes, wars, insurrections, famines and plagues happen. The saints whom like celebrate throughout the month of November, like St. Catherine Labouré today, are those who are exemplary for us in doing so.
Today we come to Mass to build ourselves anew on Christ the cornerstone. We come to allow him to make us strong not with gold, silver, bronze or iron, but with his own trust in the Father, with his own power of love, with his own body and blood, as he seeks to make us into a temple that will never be destroyed and takes us united with him to the celestial Jerusalem to rejoice with him and all the saints.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 Dn 2:31-45
Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:
“In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,
very large and exceedingly bright,
terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.
The head of the statue was pure gold,
its chest and arms were silver,
its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,
its feet partly iron and partly tile.
While you looked at the statue,
a stone which was hewn from a mountain
without a hand being put to it,
struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.
The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once,
fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer,
and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace.
But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.“This was the dream;
the interpretation we shall also give in the king’s presence.
You, O king, are the king of kings;
to you the God of heaven
has given dominion and strength, power and glory;
men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell,
he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all;
you are the head of gold.
Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours,
then a third kingdom, of bronze,
which shall rule over the whole earth.
There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron;
it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others,
just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else.
The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter’s tile and partly of iron,
mean that it shall be a divided kingdom,
but yet have some of the hardness of iron.
As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,
and the toes partly iron and partly tile,
the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
The iron mixed with clay tile
means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage,
but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
In the lifetime of those kings
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people;
rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms
and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever.
That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn from the mountain
without a hand being put to it,
which broke in pieces the tile, iron, bronze, silver, and gold.
The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future;
this is exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure.”
Responsorial Psalm Daniel 3:57, 58, 59, 60, 61
R. (59b) Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“You heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
“All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”
R. Give glory and eternal praise to him.
Alleluia Rv 2:10c
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Remain faithful until death,
and I will give you the crown of life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 21:5-11
While some people were speaking about
how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,
Jesus said, “All that you see here–
the days will come when there will not be left
a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
Then they asked him,
“Teacher, when will this happen?
And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”
He answered,
“See that you not be deceived,
for many will come in my name, saying,
‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’
Do not follow them!
When you hear of wars and insurrections,
do not be terrified; for such things must happen first,
but it will not immediately be the end.”
Then he said to them,
“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues
from place to place;
and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”
The post The Cornerstone and King Who Knocks Down and Builds Up the Temple and Kingdom, 34th Tuesday (I), November 28, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
14 min
November 27, 2023Responding Generously to Christ the King’s Total Generosity, 34th Monday (I), November 27, 2023
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattah
Monday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
November 27, 2023
Dan 1:1-6.8-20, Dn 3, Lk 21:1-4

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.27.23_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
Yesterday we celebrated the Solemnity of Christ the King, pondering not only all that the King has done for us as our Shepherd and Savior but how we’re supposed to respond, how we’re supposed to enter his kingdom, how we’re supposed to help others enter that kingdom. He described that his kingdom is one of Good Samaritans, in which we follow him in giving of ourselves to those in need, to those who, like he was on the Cross, are hungry, thirsty, naked, estranged, ill or incarcerated. His kingdom is one in which people become poor in spirit in order to inherit the kingdom, because they kingdom cannot be inherited unless one empties oneself of worldliness in order to be filled with the true wealth. Today’s readings and feast help us to understand these realities much more profoundly.
Today we have three different images about what the total response of faith to God looks like. In the Gospel, we meet a widow who purchased the kingdom of heaven for two-thirds of a penny, the equivalent of the two lepta she put into the temple treasury. After Jesus had finished his “formal” teaching in the courtyard of the Temple of Jerusalem, he began to “people watch,” in order to continue to instruct his apostles about how to put what he taught into action. They saw the stream of people putting money in the temple treasury, which was a large trumpet shaped receptacle leading to a secure money box. People would put their coins in the horn at the top, which was like a funnel, and then the sound of the coin would resonate as it rolled down the metal tubing into the box. Many rich people, St. Luke tells us, were putting in large sums and “making a lot of noise” on the treasury trumpet. But then a poor widow came and put in two lepta, two small coins that together were worth less than a penny and likely barely made a sound. Then Jesus gave a surprising lesson that obviously the disciples never forgot. Jesus praised the poor widow rather than all the rest, saying that she had contributed more than all them, for they “gave out of their surplus, but she gave everything she had, all she had to live on.” This widow, because of her poverty, could easily have been excused for giving nothing. She could have easily chosen to drop into the trumpet only one of the coins and kept the other for herself. But she didn’t. She gave it all. And her generosity was praised by Jesus and will remain lauded until the end of time. What could have moved her to give to the temple even what she needed to survive? There’s only one reason: her deep faith. She believed not simply that God exists, or that he worked various miracles in the past to help her people. She believed so much in him and was so convinced of the importance of what was going on in God’s house that she wanted to dedicate her life and all her goods to continuing and expanding that work of salvation. She accounted the continuance and expansion of that work even more valuable than her own life. The point is not how much we contribute, but how much of a sacrifice it is; not how much we give but how much we have left over. This woman sacrificed her entire livelihood, spending herself and what she had in the service of the Lord. We should always seek to give in such a way that Jesus would be tempted to pull the saints aside in heaven and point out the way we are spending ourselves in his service, seeking to build up his Kingdom, the Kingdom we celebrated yesterday. Many of us give “something” to God, we may even give “a lot” to God, but we try to hold on to not just what we need but more than we need as an insurance policy, because, at a practical level, we often can put more of our faith, hope and love in the security that money provides than we do in God’s providence. We keep ourselves on the other side of the eye of the needle from the kingdom of heaven because, like the rich young man, we just don’t want to let go of our stuff. That’s why the widow’s example is so important for all of us. Her putting in all she had to live on was just a sign that she had already given all she had, that she had entrusted her entire life to God. As the great Lenten hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” stresses in its final verse, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, t’were an offering far too small, for love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.” It’s worth it to give all to God. Within this context, it’s similarly important for us to recall that God always notices the “little things.” He sees the cost of our sacrifices. And he’s grateful when we give like this widow. Whereas in the eyes of the world, a particular sacrifice we’ve made may get a lot of attention — like our leaving behind worldly possibilities to become a religious or a priest — but Jesus may be even more grateful for the little sacrifice we give in listening to someone no one else wants to listen to, or a hidden sacrifice we make covering for another’s mistake, or paying extra special attention to him in the person of another when we’re exhausted. We should seek to live with the “spirituality of the second lepton,” giving beyond what we ordinarily would, giving to the end, because we know that that’s precisely how the Lord, who calls us to follow him, has given to us.
The second example is that of Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael in today’s first reading. Even though they were placed in exalted positions in King Nebuchadnezzar’s service, they always served God first. They made the courageous choice to risk their lives not to eat the food of the Babylonian king. They didn’t want to eat his food because often it was from the sacrifices to idols. Even though the food and wine would have doubtless been the best in the entire kingdom, they refused it because, even as they were in the king’s service, they were intent to spend themselves faithfully in the Lord’s service even to the point of martyrdom. Later on, Azariah, Hananiah and Mishael refused to worship a 30-foot high golden statue Nebuchadnezzar made, and they were thrown into a burning hot furnace by the king in a rage. They went with faith and the Lord miraculously saved their lives. They teach us what total dedication to God with faith and constancy is all about. The reason why food is so important is because we’re often tempted to give into our appetites, to our pleasures, to our own desires and needs. Throughout the Old Covenant, God was disciplining the appetites of the Israelites so that he could, through disciplining their stomach, order their souls. We saw it last week with Eleazar and the seven sons of the widow who refused to eat pork. While today we don’t have to avoid certain types of food in order to please God, the Lord wants us to be in his service no matter what, and always eating as a Christian rather than a pagan. At the same time, there are plenty of analogous things from which we need to fast in order to be fed by a different type of food. One is worldly information. So many today gorge on celebrity news and gossip, others on the headlines, others on sports. The Lord, however, calls us to have a different appetite, to hunger for his word, for his wisdom. The world may tell us, like Ashpenaz feared, that we will be “infamished” and suffer as a result of different fare, but like Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, we need courageously to seek different nourishment out of faith, and give of ourselves to the Lord who seeks to feed us with a different type of food, to make us far healthier.
The third example of someone who gives all out of love is Our Lady. Today the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, who on November 27, 1830, appeared to St. Catherine Labouré at the Daughters of Charity Convent on Rue du Bac in Paris. Her fiat in the Annunciation was giving every lepton she had. Her silent fiat at Calvary was similarly sharing in Jesus’ outpouring to the last drop of his saving blood. And throughout the centuries she continues to give. We see this in the revelations to St. Catherine Labouré. When Mary appeared to St. Catherine, she asked her to have a medal struck with the words, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Recourse means to “run-back,” and those who run back to Mary in distress will find her always compassionate, no matter the circumstance. She never stops giving. In the image that St. Catherine saw and had struck that Mary revealed to her, Mary had rings on her various fingers that were as radiant as the sun, but a few of the rings were dull without light. St. Catherine asked why some were resplendent and others not. Mary replied that the luminous rings symbolize the graces that God had flow through her hands for those who had recourse to her; the dull rings refer to graces that God would have given through her but people never asked. She wants to give more, to each of us, than we actually ask for. In our life, we’ve made some of her rings shine and others remain dull. Today’s feast is an opportunity for us to remember this truth and to run back to her help often, not only so that all her fingers shine but so that she can strengthen our faith, and, with her, we might shine forever in the Lord’s kingdom. We run to her to ask her for her help in being truly generous, in giving that last lepton.
And so today, inspired by the example of the widow, of Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, of the Blessed Mother and St. Catherine Labouré, we come to the altar. It’s here in the Eucharist that Jesus gives himself to us totally, converting himself into our spiritual food. And it’s here in response that at the offertory we seek to put our whole livelihood, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, our logike latreia, the only worship that makes sense.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
DN 1:1-6, 8-20
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came
and laid siege to Jerusalem.
The Lord handed over to him Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
and some of the vessels of the temple of God;
he carried them off to the land of Shinar,
and placed the vessels in the temple treasury of his god.
The king told Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain,
to bring in some of the children of Israel of royal blood
and of the nobility, young men without any defect,
handsome, intelligent and wise,
quick to learn, and prudent in judgment,
such as could take their place in the king’s palace;
they were to be taught the language and literature of the Chaldeans;
after three years’ training they were to enter the king’s service.
The king allotted them a daily portion of food and wine
from the royal table.
Among these were men of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah.But Daniel was resolved not to defile himself
with the king’s food or wine;
so he begged the chief chamberlain to spare him this defilement.
Though God had given Daniel the favor and sympathy
of the chief chamberlain, he nevertheless said to Daniel,
“I am afraid of my lord the king;
it is he who allotted your food and drink.
If he sees that you look wretched
by comparison with the other young men of your age,
you will endanger my life with the king.”
Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief chamberlain
had put in charge of Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah,
“Please test your servants for ten days.
Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.
Then see how we look in comparison with the other young men
who eat from the royal table,
and treat your servants according to what you see.”
He acceded to this request, and tested them for ten days;
after ten days they looked healthier and better fed
than any of the young men who ate from the royal table.
So the steward continued to take away
the food and wine they were to receive, and gave them vegetables.
To these four young men God gave knowledge and proficiency
in all literature and science,
and to Daniel the understanding of all visions and dreams.
At the end of the time the king had specified for their preparation,
the chief chamberlain brought them before Nebuchadnezzar.
When the king had spoken with all of them,
none was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah;
and so they entered the king’s service.
In any question of wisdom or prudence which the king put to them,
he found them ten times better
than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom.
Responsorial Psalm
DN 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
R. (52b) Glory and praise for ever!
“Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.”
R. Glory and praise for ever!
“Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.”
R. Glory and praise for ever!
“Blessed are you on the throne of your Kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.”
R. Glory and praise for ever!
“Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.”
R. Glory and praise for ever!
“Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,
praiseworthy and glorious forever.”
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Gospel
LK 21:1-4
When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people
putting their offerings into the treasury
and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.
He said, “I tell you truly,
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”
The post Responding Generously to Christ the King’s Total Generosity, 34th Monday (I), November 27, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
14 min

About Catholic Preaching

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Father Roger J. Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who works for the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York.

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