Acting on our Read of the Signs of the Times, 29th Friday (I), October 23, 2015

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Friday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. John of Capistrano
October 23, 2015
Rom 7:18-25, Ps 119, Lk 12:54-59

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today Jesus speaks about our reading the signs of the times spiritually as well as we do meteorologically, to know that all of Christian life is a journey to meet the “Magistrate” and to have us reconcile with God and with others, and do reparation and restitution, as we’re heading toward the court. He urges us to settle, to plead guilty, before we get to the court and receive the verdict. As St. John Chrysostom would say, now is the time of mercy; later is the time of justice.
• Learning how to read the signs of the times is important to see what we need to do with regard to the experience of concupiscence St. Paul describes in today’s first reading. He says, “I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” Despite the fact that he “take[s] delight in the law of God in my inner self,” he recognized “in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind.” Jesus had warned people of this battle between spirit and flesh, telling him that “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Peter, we know, was willing to die for the Lord, but when push came to shove, he denied even knowing him. St. Paul was himself recognizing this battle between weak flesh and willing spirit. He struggled with it so much that he prayed at the end, “Miserable one that I am? Who will deliver me from this mortal body?”
• Before we answer that question, we need highlight two things we find in the passage that are key to the Christian moral life. The first is that knowing is not enough. Plato once taught that all that we need to do the good is to know the good. But that’s not true because, like SS. Peter and Paul, we do not do the good we want, but we do the evil we do not want. As much as we say, “Lord, teach me your statutes” and he responds with that instruction, it’s not enough; we also need to win the battle to do what he says, having our spirit of obedience triumph over the weakness that makes obedience at times so hard. The second thing we learn is that not even resolutions are enough. We need to set them, to strengthen our will, but at the same time, it’s not enough for us to set them. Keeping them requires this same triumph over spirit over flesh.
• So we come back to the question: “Who will deliver me from this mortal body?” The answer we’ll get tomorrow, as we enter into one of the most important chapters in the Bible, Romans 8. It involves two things: the Holy Spirit and mortification. First, we need God, but God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to help us live according to that Spirit and not according to the flesh. Second, we need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and “put to death,” “mortify,” whatever in us is earthly, liberating ourselves by God’s grace precisely from that dominion of the flesh. It’s hard work. It’s the work of a lifetime. But it’s possible. When Jesus told Peter that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, he gave him the medicine for that diagnosis: pray, therefore, that he would not undergo the test. We need to recognize our weakness and turn to the Lord in need and Jesus promised that whenever we ask the Father for anything, he sends the Holy Spirit: “If you who are evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” The Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him for anything.
• Someone who illustrates these truths is the saint we celebrate today, St. John of Capistrano (1386-1456). He was a brilliant young man who became mayor of his town at 26. He was used to being in charge. But he had a major conversion, recognized his vanity, and discerned that the Lord was calling him to be a Franciscan despite his weak flesh. The day he presented himself to the Franciscans, he mounted a donkey, sat backward toward the tail, put a paper on his back listing all his sins, and then let the donkey be led to the Franciscan monastery as the people of the town, especially the kids, pelted him with filth and epithets. He was broadcasting just how weak his flesh had been. Then, once accepted, the Franciscan who was put in charge of him knew how difficult it would be to get him to obey the Holy Spirit after he was used to being in charge, so he was brutal with him, but eventually with the help of prayer, the Holy Spirit and lots of mortification, God strengthened his flesh to obey the Spirit and he became an instrument of so much good within the Franciscan order, in Italy and even in various countries where he was sent to reconcile. God was able to work miracles through his flesh because that flesh was more and more united to God.
• Today as we come forward, we grasp that the Lord wants to work the great miracle of strengthening our flesh to live according to the Holy Spirit. He sends the Holy Spirit to overshadow us just like he overshadows this altar: the total change of bread and wine into God is a sign of the power of transformation that the Holy Spirit can work likewise in our matter. As we read the signs of the times, we grasp that not only we’re heading toward the Judge but toward the Sun of Justice, rising with his healing rays.

The readings for today’s Mass were: