Fr. Roger J. Landry

Shepherds’ Field, Bethlehem

Pilgrimage of Passages for Catholics with Columbia Students

May 18, 2023

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/5.19.23_Nazareth_1.mp3

 

The outline of the homily was: 

* Celebrating this Mass of Christmas on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord allows us to unite the beginning and end of the manifestation of the physical appearances of Jesus on earth — the day he was born and could be seen by human eyes, and the day he was ascended and taken from human eyes.

* Joseph, Mary and Jesus came here on pilgrimage for the census to the town of David. Angels, Shepherds, Magi all did afterward, as did great saints like St. Jerome and St. Francis.

* Cave teaches us about the shepherds. Vigilance. Haste. Awe. Transformation.

* On the day we visit Yad Vashem, it always is an opportunity to think about the peace on those who rest in his favor the infant Savior brought into the world. At Yad Vashem we see in all its horror what happens when people don’t live in the peace of the Lord and how they can seek to destroy others.