Becoming Like Jesus, Fourteenth Saturday (I), July 13, 2019

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Auckland Eucharistic Convention
Sacred Heart College, Glendowie, New Zealand
Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of Saint Henry
July 13, 2019
Gen 49:29-32.50:15-26, Ps 105, Mt 10:24-33

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• “It is enough,” Jesus tells us today, “for the disciple that he become like his teacher.” On Tuesday we began a five-day crash course on becoming like Jesus in sharing the gift of the faith. Today Jesus concludes his instructions to the Twelve about the mission he was giving them to complete his own. It’s all meant to help them to go out in the person of Christ, with his words, with his authority, and even with his sufferings. Jesus lets them know that if they’ve insulted him and tried to ascribe his work to the devil, they will do the same to the Apostles and us. But he reiterates to us not to be afraid, but to speak in the light what Jesus says in the darkness, to proclaim on the housetops what he whispers. He reminds us that we have nothing to fear from those who will seek to kill our bodies but can’t harm our souls. We should care far more about what God thinks than about what people think. We should have a greater awe for what God is doing than a fear of what others might be doing. But we don’t need to fear him the way that some might fear the body-killers of this world, because God is a loving father, who loves us, who counts every strand of hair, and who cares for us more than he cares for sparrows and lilies who never go without. Jesus has come to help and strengthen us to acknowledge him before others, literally to lead others to the knowledge of Christ, so that he in turn will acknowledge us for our union with him before the Father.
• Today we have three examples of those who with courage became like Jesus through acknowledging him before others.
• In the first reading, Joseph the Patriarch does it in prophecy. Perhaps the most important way we need to give witness to God is to his mercy, because he came into the world to save us. And we see an image of the mercy Jesus would speak about in his famous Parable of the Prodigal Son in the way Joseph treats his brothers. They were all worried that after Jacob their father’s death, Joseph will seek his revenge on them. They said, “Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now plans to pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!” Knowing their desperation, much like the Prodigal Son, they rehearse a speech to say to Joseph and finish by saying “Let us be your slaves!” They know that without the provisions Joseph would give they wouldn’t survive. But they still weren’t relating to Joseph as their brother because they still hadn’t realized the meaning of their father Jacob’s love. So Joseph said to them, “Have no fear. Can I take the place of God? Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people. Therefore have no fear. I will provide for you and for your children.” Joseph was treating his brothers as brothers, while they were still viewing him as a slave master, much in the same way that both brothers in Jesus’ parable didn’t understand the Father and his merciful love. God permits us to suffer — like he promises we will in yesterday’s and today’s Gospel — so that he can draw greater good from the evil we endure together with him. And we see something beautiful: it was from these ten brothers who so much needed mercy and to understand what it meant, and from Joseph and Benjamin who needed mercy and salvation in other ways, that the twelve tribes of Israel descended. The “Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” one of Jesus’ titles in the Book of Revelation, descended from Judah who sought to kill and then sell his brother. All of the priests descended from Levi. The school of the Lord’s service teaches its lessons in surprising ways.
• The second great witness is St. Henry, the Holy Roman emperor from Bavaria, who died 995 years ago today. The beautiful opening prayer indicates how he went from earthly kingdom to heavenly realms, and not just after his death, but during his earthly life. Even though he was king, he cared more about being a faithful servant of the King of Kings. He and his wife St. Cunegunda lived in continence and tried to dedicate themselves to God. So great was his desire to serve God that he sought to leave the crown and become a Benedictine at the Abbey of Verdun, but he was rejected. He has become the patron saint of all those who have been rejected for religious life. After his insistence, the Abbot let him make vows as an Oblate but then under holy obedience commanded him to continue to rule the empire well. And the Lord brought great good out of that rejection, helping St. Henry in humble obedience to God’s will. As Holy Roman Emperor he sought always to welcome the poor as if he were welcoming Christ and sacrificed to care for them. He also did all that he could to help the Church carry out its task of witnessing to the Lord and to his mercy before all, founding monasteries and even a Diocese. He sought to help all the people in his kingdom, leading by example, to become like Jesus the Teacher.
• The third witness is the greatest of all, the Blessed Mother, whom we remember in a particular way on this Saturday. Not only did she imitate her Son but in some ways he likewise learned from her. She is the faithful mirror of his grace and love. And she shows us how to overcome fear. After the Archangel Gabriel had told her not to be afraid, that the Power of the Most High would overshadow her and that the child she would conceive in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit who be the One who would save his people from their sins, she responded with courageous faith: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” Today, as we prepare to receive within us the same Jesus she carried in her womb for nine months, let us ask her prayers that we might respond to God’s word today as servants of the Lord by saying, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” as we seek to go out and acknowledge him before the world!

The readings for today’s Mass were: