Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Church of the Holy Trinity, Poughkeepsie, New York

Nuptial Mass for Paul Von Uffel and Aimee Giguere

September 9, 2023

Ruth 1:16-17, Ps 23, 1 Cor 12:31-13:8, Mt 5:1-12

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.9.23_Nuptial_Mass_Paul_Von_Uffel_and_Aimee_Giguere_1.mp3

 

 

The following text guided the homily: 

It was just over ten years ago, at freshman orientation for Pace University, that Paul and Aimee met for the first time. The motto of the University, founded in 1906, is “Opportunitas,” and it prides itself on being at the forefront of creating academic, professional and socioeconomic opportunities for its students. The Latin word opportunitas comes from roots ob portus, a nautical expression which means “toward the port,” describing favorable winds to bring a boat to harbor. Well, the wind of the Holy Spirit was at work that last week of August 2013 and guided Aimee and Paul to meet for the first time at an orientation activity. Paul was a few minutes late to the meeting and headed to his table. He saw a seat free close to Aimee and, because he was immediately attracted to her, knew where he had to sit down. He says he tried to hit on her “a little,” but Aimee didn’t pick up on the clues. At the beginning of their sophomore year, however, with the help of a friend, they started dating, and the wind that blows where it wills, as Jesus describes it, has happily kept them together since as today they put up their sails and set out together for the seas of married life.

St. Paul, doubtless because he spent so much time on the seas sailing from port to port to preach the Gospel, used the word opportunitas often in his letters. He told the Colossians to “conduct [them]selves wisely,” “making the most of the opportunity” (Col 4:5). He made a similar point to the Ephesians, saying “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise,” once again, “making the most of the opportunity” (Eph 5:14-16). He told the Galatians, “Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people” (Gal 6:10). And he crowned his advice by saying, “Pray at every opportunity in the Spirit” (Eph 6:18). His point was that we are to take advantage of the favorable winds God gives us to pray, to live morally, to do good to others. He urges us not just to do something, but to “make the most” of the time and graces God provides. Paul, you did so, seizing the moment on June 12, 2021, when, mischievously conspiring with your parents, you proposed to Aimee at the Long Island Arboretum. Today, we’re so happy that you have come here before God so that you might make the most out of the opportunity he has given you both, thanking him for the gift of each other and asking him to join you as husband and wife for the rest of your days in a sacred covenant of life and love.

The readings you’ve chosen for your Nuptial Mass are full of advice as to how to maximize the gift of love you have received. In the Gospel, Jesus describes for you the path to happiness, and it’s very countercultural advice. In a world that seeks after money, that places its faith, hope and love in material positions and in things that can be bought, Jesus tells us that the truly blessed are those who are poor in spirit, who treasure his kingdom above all. In a world that relies on force, that bullies its way to power, Jesus tells us that real happiness comes from being meek, from making peace, from being merciful. In a world addicted to the lust of the flesh, in which consequently so many hearts, lives and families are broken, Jesus proclaims the importance of purity of heart that sees God and reverences and loves him in others.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, A, Vigil

September 9, 2023

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.9.23_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when he will discuss with us two important realities in our faith: prayer and fraternal correction.

* The first is prayer. Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there will I be in their midst.” This is an incredible promise given to us by Jesus, yet we have to understand first what it means and why he said it. It does not mean that whenever two or more Christians are in the same place doing anything whatever that Jesus is automatically there. It doesn’t mean that whatever we ask him together will be heard when we want and the way we want, which is why, sometimes, when family members gather to pray for a loved one’s recovery from a terminal illness, the person does not always get better in this world. Jesus, rather, promises to be present when we are gathered “in his name.” To gather in Jesus’ name means to gather in his person seeking what Jesus seeks. While we can obviously pray to Jesus when we’re alone and should, Jesus particularly incentivizes gathering together in his name. Many people today think it’s sufficient to have a so-called “private” relationship with Jesus, to pray on their own and sometimes claim that’s an adequate substitution for coming to Mass or praying as a family. It’s very clear, however, that Jesus wanted us to come together to pray. When his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he taught them to pray “Our Father,” not “My Father” … “who art in heaven,” for the obvious reason that he wanted us to pray it with others. Even when we pray the “Our Father” alone, he wants us to remember others, which is why he taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive…,” etc. Jesus came down from heaven to earth to found a family, and he wants us to live and to pray as a loving family.

* This leads us to the second thing he teaches us in the Gospel this Sunday, which is what the saints have traditionally called “fraternal correction.” Whenever we gather together with others in the name of the One who saves us from our sins, as a family whose members deeply love each other, then it’s obvious that we should always desire lovingly to help the other members of the family to overcome any obstacles flowing from sin that prevent communion with God or each other. Jesus tells us, “If your brother sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you. … If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” These stages show us the effort the Lord asks of us to accompany those who make mistakes, those who sin, so that they’re not lost. Whenever a brother or sister has wandered through sin, whenever he or she is going off the deep end, Jesus tells us to gather with that brother or sister in his name and try to help that sibling realize and begin to overcome his or her sin.

* Jesus’ teaching on fraternal correction is challenging. We are living in a culture that thinks the greatest value is to be “nice.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

September 8, 2023

Rom 8:28-30, Ps 13, Mt 1:18-23

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.8.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* As today we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of our Lady, we can ponder how great was the joy of this day not only for Saints Joachim and Anne but also for God. If we accept what the second-century gnostic Pseudogospel of James says, Joachim and Anne, as we ponder each July 26, were aged in years and begging God to remove the shame of sterility from their life, as Joachim went into the desert to fast and pray and Anne wept a double lamentation. When the Angel appeared in response to their prayers, when she conceived, when she gave birth, and when she began to nurse Mary, St. Anne was ebullient with joy. But I’m sure that was nothing compared to what it must have been like for the eternal Son of God to be looking at the birth of the little girl who about 14 years later would become his own mother and give birth to him in the Gospel scene we’ve just heard. We can look at the baby Mary with the joy-filled eyes and hearts of her parents as well as of her Son as she was an infant and began to grow, thoughts that even many with strong Marian devotions seldom contemplate. We can also think about how Jesus and Joseph celebrated Mary’s birthday each year, recognizing that they are with us now, together with all the angels and saints, as we fete here anew today.

* God the Father had had Mary in his sights since the beginning of time. St. Paul tells us that he has “chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world to be holy and immaculate in his sight” (Eph 1:4), and how could he not be thinking of Mary as the icon of this divine election? We know that at the very instant of the fall, her advent was prophesied as the one in whom God would place an enmity for the serpent. Today, she who had been immaculately conceived was born full of grace.

* She was born according to a template. St. Paul tells us in today’s first reading that “those [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Mary was most certainly conformed to the image of the Holy One who would become the blessed Fruit of her womb and he, according to his humanity, would be conformed, mysteriously, to her earthly image. And this was a “shaping together” (literally con-formation) that would be manifested mutually throughout life, as her fiat would anticipate his, as her desire to help a young married couple would become his first miracle, as her pierced heart would emulate his heart pierced with a lance, as his glory would become reflected in her forever.

* It’s important for us whenever we celebrate a Marian feast to make explicit Mary’s Christocentric conformation, not just to avoid Protestant misinterpretations that we give Mary the homage that is only due to God, but also to help us deepen our own appreciation not only for our spiritual mother’s vocation and mission but for our own. Normally for us the celebration of a birthday is always an occasion to think with gratitude to God and to our parents for the gift of human life — and that is a very good thing to do! — but Mary’s birthday is a celebration of something more. As we see in today’s Gospel and know from throughout her life, she was born with a purpose, to be the Mother of God according to his humanity. This is alluded to in the other possible first reading for this feast, when the Prophet Micah says “You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel,...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Thursday of the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Year I

Votive Mass of St. Peter

September 7, 2023

Col 1:9-14, Ps 98, Lk 5:1-11

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.7.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Back in 2001, writing the Church’s pastoral plan for the third Christian Millennium, St. John Paul II wrote, “At the beginning of the new millennium, and at the close of the Great Jubilee during which we celebrated the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of Jesus and a new stage of the Church’s journey begins, our hearts ring out with the words of Jesus when one day, after speaking to the crowds from Simon’s boat, he invited the Apostle to ‘put out into the deep’ for a catch: ‘Duc in altum’ (Lk 5:4). Peter and his first companions trusted Christ’s words, and cast the nets. ‘When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish’ (Lk 5:6). Duc in altum! These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence.” He went on to say, “We must look ahead, we must ‘put out into the deep,’ trusting in Christ’s words: Duc in altum!” Referring to Peter’s response in lowering the nets, he said, “As this millennium begins, allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith.” And he concluded the exhortation by recalling us back to this confident obedience of the Lord in putting out into the deep in the living of the faith and in the new evangelization.

* That’s why today’s Gospel is so important. On the Sea of Galilee, fish were caught at night in shallow water, yet Jesus asked him in broad daylight to put out into the deep and lower the nets. Even though that went against all Peter’s experience, even though he was exhausted, his nets were cleaned and he had caught nothing the night before, he did it, and we know how he was rewarded. After that, he tried to excuse himself from the Lord on account of his sins, but he discovered Jesus had come to bring him redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Jesus addresses Peter’s fear that his sinfulness would make him incapable and told him that he had a far bigger expedition in mind, to make him a fisher of men. Peter left the biggest catch of his life behind him, along with his boats and nets, to follow Jesus. And as we would see after the Resurrection, when the Lord would renew him in his mission by recapitulating a wondrous draught of 153 fish, Peter would catch 3000 on Pentecost, putting out into the the deep at the Lord’s command and continuing to do so until he would proclaim it by his crucifixion in Rome.

* It would have been easy for Peter to have been discouraged on account of his failure to catch any fish that night on the Sea of Galilee before Jesus hijacked his boat as a pulpit. It would have been easy for him to be afraid of Jesus because of his sinfulness. But the Lord called and commissioned him and he ultimately obeyed with trust and faith.

* Every Christian faces similar challenges, discouragement, fears. That’s why St. Paul’s prayer in today’s first reading is so important. From his prison cell in Rome, he makes explicit the content of his prayer for the Christians in Colossae and for us, so that they first and we later might overcome the challenges thrust on the first believers due to rejection, the beginnings of a persecution, not to mention their own faults and sins. His prayer, which the Church prays each Wednesday at Vespers, is just as inspiring today as it must have been among Paul’s first recipients.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

The Mission of the Missionaries of Mercy

September 6, 2023

 

To watch the training video, please click below: 

 

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To download a PDF copy of the slides of the presentation, please click below: 

Overview of the Mission of the Missionaries of Mercy

 

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Wednesday of the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Year I

September 6, 2023

Col 1:1-8, Ps 52, Lk 4:38-44

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.6.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* In today’s Gospel, we enter into what we could call a “day in the life of Jesus,” ponder his self-identity, and learn what in him we’re called according to our own circumstances to emulate. We see him fulfilling the Messianic description he announced from Isaiah 61 in the Synagogue of Nazareth, which we pondered two days ago: he is proclaiming the Gospel to the poor and humble who recognize they need God, he is announcing liberty to captives of the evil one, and healing those who are blind and lame and otherwise sick.

* Even after an exhausting time preaching and healing in the synagogue, when he arrived at Simon’s house after a long Sabbath, Jesus cured Peter’s mother-in-law of a severe fever and then the entire city was bringing the sick to Peter’s house. It would have been easy for Jesus to have asked to rest, or even, to shorten his work, to do a “mass healing,” which was totally within his power. But the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep by name, healed every one individually, because he had come not principally as a doctor to cure physical maladies but as a Savior to cure us of our spiritual cancers through a life of grace and faith. Simon’s mother-in-law shows us the purpose of health when, as soon as she was cured of a severe fever (think 103 degrees), she got up to serve others. She was essentially considered to be on her death bed, yet once she was healed, rather than taking it easy, she began taking care. She teaches us that our health is giving to us so that we may serve others, as Jesus serves, and she served. When Jesus gives us a similar grace — such as when we’ve been blessed by health without even needing to be cured! — we’re called to use that gift to build his kingdom by serving each subject Christ invites into that kingdom.

* It seemed Jesus had cured and met with the healed individuals late into the night. It would have added to his exhaustion. In the popular new series on the life of Jesus called The Chosen, we see Jesus depicted after this day totally drained of all the strength he had as he headed to sleep. Yet, very early in the morning according to St. Luke’s text, before dawn, he got up and went away from the crowds to a deserted place in order to pray. Nevertheless, the crowds looking for him eventually found him. They were doubtless asking him to continue to cure those who hadn’t come the previous day. But he told them something really important: that he had come to proclaim the kingdom of God and for that reason needed to go to the other towns as well: “For this purpose I have been sent,” he emphasized. Jesus saw himself as essentially a missionary of the Father. He could have easily set up shop in Capernaum and had people come to him, but he knew that the blind, the crippled, and so many others would never be able to make the journey. He had come to go in search of the lost sheep and that’s what he was intent to do. This teaches us that we, like Jesus, must get out of our homes, out of our dorm rooms, out of our chaplaincies and parishes, and go in search of others for God, to share with them the gift of salvation we have received in Christ. Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium said that he wants us to get to the point that each of us has a similar missionary identity, to say, “I am a mission in this world. This is the reason why I am here.”

* St. Paul shows us this true Christian identity and authentic Christian zeal.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Tuesday of the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Year I

Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta

September 5, 2023

1 Thes 5:1-6.9-11, Ps 27, Lk 4:31-37

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.5.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* This morning, the Church prayed during Lauds Psalm 43, the Psalm which is prayed at the foot of the altar at the beginning of Mass in the 1962 Roman Missal for the traditional Latin Mass. We pray, “O send forth your light and your truth; let them be my guide. Let them bring me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell.” Today the readings and the feast are all about God’s light and truth, given to us as guide. In fact they point to Jesus Christ himself, who identified himself as the “Light of the World” and the “Way, the Truth and the Life.” Christ’s light and his truth are totally interconnected. We pray in the Psalms, “Your word [of Truth] is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path” (Ps 119:105). As we begin the new academic year at Columbia, it’s a time for us to grow in understanding and living the motto of this institution, now beginning its 270th year: “In lumine tuo, videbimus lumen,” “In your light, we will see light” (Ps 36:10). In the light of Christ’s truth, we are helped to see the light of every truth. Today’s readings reinforce this connection between light and truth and how through them the Lord seeks to guide us.

* In the Gospel, we see the luminescent power of the truth of the Word of God. After he was booted from the Synagogue in Nazareth where he grew up and almost killed, as we saw yesterday, Jesus went to Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee, where Peter, Andrew, James and John all lived and worked. In Nazareth when he taught, St. Luke tells us all were initially “amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth,” but eventually doubts entered because they thought they knew him and those doubts quickly passed to rage and homicidal intentions.  Today in Capernaum, St. Luke says that those in the Synagogue “were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority” and later, after he had rebuked a demon, they were “all amazed and said to one another, ‘What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out!” One of the most important aspects of our Christian response in faith is to be amazed and astonished at Jesus and at his words. This astonishment is an experience most of us, I hope, had when we first started living by faith, when our parents read to us from the Bible or from Bible stories and told us that the Bible contains the words of God himself; when we first began to pray and we recognized that God was listening to us with love; when we first discovered that the Eucharist is God and comes down from heaven on the altar, and dwells within the tabernacle, or loves us from the monstrance; when we first started to hear about Jesus’ great miracles, his multiplication of the loaves and fish, his walking on water, his casting out the devil like he does in today’s Gospel, his healing the sick, and his rising from the dead. This is an amazement and astonishment that likewise would have enveloped us at the time of our becoming aware of God’s calling us to follow him in a special way as his disciples on the road to holiness. But we are vulnerable and prone to losing that amazement and astonishment, when we allow the things of God to start to become routine. That’s why it’s so important for us to approach the Word of God with awe.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Monday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year I

Votive Mass for the Sanctification of Human Work

Tenth Anniversary of the Death of Roger Soto (1929-2013)

September 4, 2023

1 Thes 4:13-18, Ps 96, Lk 4:16-30

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.4.23_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* Yesterday we pondered Jesus’ correction to Peter to think as God thinks, not as human beings do, and St. Paul’s echo not to conform ourselves to this age, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds so that we may discern what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect. Today the readings and the Mass we celebrate on Labor Day help us to deepen our appreciation of that renewal, that revolution, that metanoia in our thought and action that God wants to give us. We can ponder three ways the Lord wants us to enter more fully into the saving work he seeks to do in us and through us.

* The first is with regard to the spiritual work of mercy — and human reality — of grieving the death of our loved ones and other forms of grieving. Today St. Paul tells the truth about the last things to the Thessalonians so that they don’t grieve like all the others who grieve without hope. We are to think about death from within the context of hope in Jesus’ promises and saving work. There are two points here. The first is to grieve. Some Christians today don’t grieve, some even confess it, because they’re basically taught by osmosis in some circles, even Catholic, that death is a canonization: funerals are celebrated with white, certain clerics guarantee that no matter how one lived or died the person is in a “better place” despite the fact that Jesus told us not to judge, which means not to condemn or not to canonize but to leave the judgment to him. To grieve when someone else is automatically in a “better place” seems selfish and sinful. In short, many are not given permission to grieve. Others go to the opposite extreme, and grieve as if they’ve lost the most important thing in life: they sadly wear black for the rest of their life and define themselves from that point forward by the death of a loved one rather than by faith and hope in the Lord’s saving work and how he, rather than their deceased loved one, is meant to be their precious pearl. The way God wants us to look at things is to grieve because we love and our life on earth won’t be the same as before, but to mourn in such a way that we believe in God’s mercy and hope that by God’s mercy we will be together with our loved one again. What goes for grieving the death of our loved ones similarly goes for other types of grief, like when we lose a job, or a friend, of one of our family members moves away from us, when someone we know leaves the vocation to marriage, or the priesthood or religious life, etc. There are many forms of grief, but in all of them we’re called to grieve with hope, which is the second main point. St. Paul basically defines hope as “living with God in the world,” because hopelessness for him is living without God in the world (Eph 4:10). To grieve with hope is to grief with Christ, who blesses those who mourn (with him) because they will be consoled. All of us are called to show the Church and the world how to grieve in this way so that they grief and hope can be renewed in the renewal of their mind and so that they can think as God thinks with trust in his saving work.

* The second revolution Christ wants to give us is with regard to the way we look at him and the extent of his saving work. In the Gospel today, Jesus was trying to help his fellow Nazarenes learn how ...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

September 3, 2023

Jer 20:7-9, Ps 63, Rom 12:1-2, Mt 16:21-27

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.3.22_CCM_Homily_1.mp3

 

This is the text that guided the homily: 

* A huge welcome to all our new students and a great welcome back to all of our returning students. This new academic year about to start is one in which we hope to grow together in love of God and of each other. Jesus wants to accompany us up close so that we can make 2023-2024 a true year of the Lord.

* As we begin the readings of Sacred Scripture give us much to ponder and pray about. We begin with what motivates us as we are beginning this year of studies and overall human growth. For what do we hunger? What drives us as we approach our studies, our work and our various extracurriculars? What are our goals, to which the various components of our life this year are supposed to be means? Many, we know, are motivated ultimately by the things of the world, like making money, becoming famous, seizing some power and taking charge, perhaps romance or various forms of pleasure. Others have far more modest goals, like surviving the year, overcoming various anxieties or issues. But it’s important for us as Catholics to ask what is our heart set on as we begin this year. Even if we might have a confused and conflicting mix of drivers, deep down within, what is our principal motivation?

* The Psalm today describes the most fundamental human desire. It’s thirst for God. We prayed earlier in the famous words of Psalm 63, “O God, you are my God whom I seek. For you my flesh pines and my soul thirst like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary, to see your power and glory, for your kindness is a greater good than life. … My soul clings fast to you; your right hand upholds me.” On Monday, we celebrated the feast of St. Augustine, who famously wrote at the beginning of his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” His young life took many detours. He looked for God in various ancient philosophies, in oratorical brilliance, in the pleasures of the flesh, but he didn’t find what he was seeking. He wrote in the Confessions, “In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you. … You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” St. Augustine wrote what he did, among other things, so that we could learn from his mistakes. He wants us to grasp that we’ve been made by God for God and that even the best things of the world, apart from God, will ultimately never satisfy. God wants to pour his living water to quench our existential thirst. He wants to feed our deepest hungers with his word, with his love, and with the Sacrament of Love, the-word-made-flesh. Real maturity, which is what we all seek, means first a capacity to take responsibility; second, it means to learn how to prioritize, to give up bad things for good, and good things for the sake of something better. Doing so is the path to meaning, to fulfillment, to true and lasting happiness. So as we begin this new year, which is a time to set good resolutions, I’d urge you maturely to make resolutions above all about how to act on the thirst God has placed in you for him,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

September 3, 2023

Jer 20:7-9, Ps 63, Rom 12:1-2, Mt 16:21-27

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/9.3.23_MCs_Homily_1.mp3

 

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* There’s a dramatic turnaround from last week’s Gospel. As we saw seven days ago, Jesus called Simon Peter “the Rock on whom I will build by Church” and promised that “the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” Today, Jesus calls Peter, “Satan,” and tells him, essentially, that the gates of Hell are prevailing against him. Why? Because Peter was refusing that Jesus would suffer, be killed and be raised: “God forbid it, Lord!,” he shouted. “This must never happen to you!” We might think that this was just the concern of a friend trying to prevent Jesus from suffering harm, but Jesus, the Lord, saw something much deeper. The reason why he called him “Satan,” was because Peter at that moment was, without realizing it, playing the part of Satan the tempter, effectively trying to steer him away from doing his Father’s will of giving his life out of love to save ours. The reason why Jesus said, “Get behind me!,” is because Peter was trying to lead Jesus rather than to follow him, and no creature can ever do that to the Creator, and no disciple can ever do that to the Master. Jesus very directly summed up what was the cause of Peter’s fall: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

* As challenging as that was, Jesus then upped the ante. It was tough enough to accept “the way God thinks” when that meant that the “Christ, the Son of the Living God” (as Peter confessed him last week) was going to undergo great suffering and be crucified. But Jesus said that if we wanted to be his disciples, we would need to do the same. This is God’s standard for us, too. “If anyone wishes to become my disciple,” Jesus tells us at the end of today’s Gospel, “he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” We obviously desire to be the Lord’s true disciple. We pray for and want our fellow priests and religious, our family members and friends, and all those we serve to be true be disciples of Jesus. But we and they cannot be Jesus’ disciples unless we do what he indicates — deny ourselves rather than affirm ourselves, pick up our Cross daily, and follow Jesus rather than doing our own thing, which means thinking as he thinks, willing as he wills, choosing as he chooses, serving as he serves and loving as he loves.

* Paul echoes Jesus’ call to begin thinking according to God’s logic rather than our own in today’s second reading. “Do not conform yourselves to this age,” he wrote to the Romans, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect.” His words lead us to come face-to-face with one of the most important issues in the spiritual life: Do we think as other human beings do and conform ourselves, our thought patterns, our way of life, to the customs and expectations of the world and of our age? Or do we seek to think as God does, to discern what his will is, and to allow him to renew our minds with his holy wisdom?

* This is especially true about the Cross. St. Paul says his words about not conforming ourselves to this age immediately after he urges us, by God mercies, to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, our spiritual worship. Spiritual worship is an insufficient translation of the words St. Paul uses in his Greek original, “logike latreia,” something that is better rendered “the only worship that is logical,” “the only adoration that makes sense.