Catholic Preaching

The Prayer That Leads To An Heroic Christian Life, 14th Tuesday (I), July 8, 2025

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Msgr. Roger J. Landry

Chapel of the Vincentian Seminary, Krakow
Tertio Millennio Seminar
Tuesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
July 8, 2025
Gen 32:23-33, Ps 17, Mt 9:32-38

 

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

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/7.8.25_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

  • We’ve had an inspiring day focused on St. John Paul II. He was a man of heroic faith, hope and love. He became such because of his prayer. We pray as we live and live as we pray and he became heroic in life by heroic perseverance in prayer, which is where his faith, hope and love for God and others was honed.
  • In today’s first reading, we see that prayer is a battle, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms (2573). It’s where, as Pope Benedict said in a 2011 catechesis on prayer, is where we learn to fight the good fight of faith. Prayer is faith in action, the way by which we act on the hope in Jesus’ promises that the Father will answer whatever we ask in his name, the means by which we become like the one we lovingly adore as we come to share his love for ourselves and those around us. We learn in this first reading not just about the battle of prayer but about how we are called to walk by our prayer, that just as Jacob limped after his prayer, so prayer is supposed to change our “walk” as we walk as children of the light, following Jesus’ footsteps. We also learn that prayer and life is meant to seek God’s blessing, which he gave Jacob at the end of the scene.
  • We see similar perseverance in prayer in the Gospel when we are called to pray without ceasing to God the Harvest Master for laborers — hard workers — in his vineyards. The more we pray, the more we’re supposed to be influenced by that prayer to become those laborers, to see ourselves as the first answer to that prayer made to God.
  • Today’s readings — and the heroism of St. John Paul II — converge in Mass where sometimes we need to battle to get here and stay attentive, where we’re changed to walk differently, where we receive and become God’s blessing as we go forth as his harvesters. Let’s ask St. John Paul’s intercession to live these dimensions of our Christian life as heroically as he did.

    •  

    The readings for today’s Mass were: 

    Reading I
    Genesis 32:23-33

    In the course of the night, Jacob arose, took his two wives,

    with the two maidservants and his eleven children,
    and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
    After he had taken them across the stream
    and had brought over all his possessions,
    Jacob was left there alone.
    Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.
    When the man saw that he could not prevail over him,
    he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket,
    so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled.
    The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
    But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”
    The man asked, “What is your name?”
    He answered, “Jacob.”
    Then the man said,
    “You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel,
    because you have contended with divine and human beings
    and have prevailed.”
    Jacob then asked him, “Do tell me your name, please.”
    He answered, “Why should you want to know my name?”
    With that, he bade him farewell.
    Jacob named the place Peniel,
    “Because I have seen God face to face,” he said,
    “yet my life has been spared.”

    At sunrise, as he left Penuel,

    Jacob limped along because of his hip.
    That is why, to this day, the children of Israel do not eat
    the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket,
    inasmuch as Jacob’s hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle.

    Responsorial Psalm
    Psalm 17:1b, 2-3, 6-7ab, 8b and 15

    R.    (15a)  In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.

    Hear, O LORD, a just suit;
    attend to my outcry;
    hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.
    R.    In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
    From you let my judgment come;
    your eyes behold what is right.
    Though you test my heart, searching it in the night,
    though you try me with fire, you shall find no malice in me.
    R.    In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
    I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
    incline your ear to me; hear my word.
    Show your wondrous mercies,
    O savior of those who flee from their foes.
    R.    In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.
    Hide me in the shadow of your wings.
    I in justice shall behold your face;
    on waking, I shall be content in your presence.
    R.    In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord.

    Alleluia
    John 10:14

    R. Alleluia, alleluia.

    I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
    I know my sheep, and mine know me.
    R. Alleluia, alleluia.

    Gospel
    Matthew 9:32-38

    A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,

    and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.
    The crowds were amazed and said,
    “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
    But the Pharisees said,
    “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”

    Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,

    teaching in their synagogues,
    proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
    and curing every disease and illness.
    At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
    because they were troubled and abandoned,
    like sheep without a shepherd.
    Then he said to his disciples,
    “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
    so ask the master of the harvest
    to send out laborers for his harvest.”

    The post The Prayer That Leads To An Heroic Christian Life, 14th Tuesday (I), July 8, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

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