Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
February 28, 2019
Sir 5:1-8, Ps 1, Mk 9:41-50
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
February 28, 2019
Sir 5:1-8, Ps 1, Mk 9:41-50
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Throughout this week we’ve been pondering the wisdom of God in the Book of Sirach. Today the inspired Ben-Sira takes us to the wisdom of recognizing our sins and our need for God’s help and forgiveness and imploring that mercy and grace without delay. The wise person doesn’t rely on “wealth,” or “power,” or “strength” or the “desires of [his] heart.” The wise person doesn’t say “I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?,” as a means to sin worse and more, presuming upon his mercy, declaring, “Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive.” Rather he turns to the Lord with humility: “Delay not your conversion to the Lord; put it not off from day to day.” The wise person recognizes, as C.S. Lewis once quipped, that the devil’s greatest deception is that there’s always time to convert, and he continually converts to the Lord without delay. This is the path of the one who, as the Psalm says, “follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of the insolent but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night,” the person who will be “like a tree planted near running water that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves never fade.”
- Jesus calls us in the Gospel to a similar, urgent conversion. Throughout this chapter of St. Mark, he has been describing the path of true greatness: it’s the path of sacrificial agape, of his picking up his Cross and our picking our own own and following him. The Cross is not so much a sign of pain but of the love that makes that pain bearable. Jesus begins the Gospel with reminding us that even our smallest acts of love matter. Charity begins with simple little deeds, as simple as giving a cup of cold water to others. This is not anything spectacular, but charity doesn’t begin with superhuman feats beyond, we fear, our capacity, but simply little deeds. The authentic Christian life doesn’t involve fidelity only when threatened with martyrdom, but fidelity in looking out with the eyes and the heart to care for the needs of anyone who is thirsty, aware that Christ identifies with everyone who is thirsty and longs to say to us, “When I was thirsty, you gave me to drink.” The more we give to Christ in others, the more we’ll be prepared to give all when the supreme moment comes. We need to convert to living our cruciform love with regard to little deeds like these.
- But that’s a preparation for the bigger stuff. If we really love God that we will seek to eradicate from our life whatever keeps us from him or may keep others from him. Jesus tells us to be willing to pluck out eyes and cut off hands and feet if they’d voluntarily separate us from Christ; that type of loving boldness helps us to lose our whole body for Christ and receive it back from him after death. It similarly involves a hatred of scandal, recognizing that our good example is a great act of charity toward others and our bad example is one of the most harmful things we could do. Jesus says it would be better to die being drowned with a millstone around our neck than to lead others to sin.
- Jesus tells us at the end of today’s Gospel. “Keep salt in yourselves,” he states, “and you will have peace with one another.” The principal purpose of salt in the ancient world was as a preservative, to keep things from being corrupted. Rather than grasping onto things and wealth, rather than treasuring the things of the world in our hearts, we need to keep our heart salted, preserved from that type of idolatry, of sinfulness. He reminds us that our salt can lose its flavor and be fit for nothing, so he wants us to constantly be pouring preservative salt on our heart. And he teaches us that “everyone will be salted with fire.” That’s an allusion to Old Covenant sacrifices when the lamb or ox or other animal, after it had been slaughtered in the temple, would be salted before it would be put on the fire and offered to God. We need regularly to be salting ourselves for that sacrifice and the more we do, the more we will give ourselves and our things in sacrificial love for others. Jesus ultimately is speaking to us about the importance of our being salted by him so that we can become the salt of the earth. That’s the way we not only not become insipid and worthless but will have peace with one another, because when we receive God’s help to prevent ourselves from becoming morally corrupt, like salt prevents the corruption of fish and meat, then we will not give into the sin that divides.
- So today we have the chance to delay not our conversion, to recognize our need for God’s mercy, to pluck out whatever in our life is unworthy of God and unworthy of a Godly example to others, and allow Christ to salt us by his perfect sacrifice so that we may be preserved from everything that hinders our fully joining that sacrifice. This is the means that we will become the salt of the earth and rather than lead people to the bottom of the Sea of Galilee with millstones, lead everyone upward to Christ’s eternal right side.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 SIR 5:1-8
Rely not on your wealth;
say not: “I have the power.”
Rely not on your strength
in following the desires of your heart.
Say not: “Who can prevail against me?”
or, “Who will subdue me for my deeds?”
for God will surely exact the punishment.
Say not: “I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?”
for the Most High bides his time.
Of forgiveness be not overconfident,
adding sin upon sin.
Say not: “Great is his mercy;
my many sins he will forgive.”
For mercy and anger alike are with him;
upon the wicked alights his wrath.
Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
For suddenly his wrath flames forth;
at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
Rely not upon deceitful wealth,
for it will be no help on the day of wrath.
say not: “I have the power.”
Rely not on your strength
in following the desires of your heart.
Say not: “Who can prevail against me?”
or, “Who will subdue me for my deeds?”
for God will surely exact the punishment.
Say not: “I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?”
for the Most High bides his time.
Of forgiveness be not overconfident,
adding sin upon sin.
Say not: “Great is his mercy;
my many sins he will forgive.”
For mercy and anger alike are with him;
upon the wicked alights his wrath.
Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
For suddenly his wrath flames forth;
at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
Rely not upon deceitful wealth,
for it will be no help on the day of wrath.
Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6
R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Alleluia 1 THES 2:13
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but as it truly is, the word of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but as it truly is, the word of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MK 9:41-50
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
“Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
“Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another.”
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another.”
