Bearing Fruit through Living the Truth in Love, 29th Saturday (II), October 24, 2020

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Saturday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. Anthony Maria Claret
October 24, 2020
Eph 4:7-16, Ps 122, Lk 13:1-9

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Yesterday we shifted emphasis in our biennial two-week liturgical lectio divina on St. Paul’s words to the members of the early Church in Ephesus, from the theological truths he makes in the first half of his letter about how Jesus has come into the world in order to reconcile all things in himself to how he calls us morally to live in a manner worthy of the vocation we have received to be holy and immaculate in God’s sight. Today he continues to build on that connection, stressing that Jesus’ work makes possible that vocation. He tells us that grace is given to each of us “according to the measure of Christ’s gift,” who is total self-giving. Christ ascended to heaven to give us every spiritual blessing in the heavens. He’s given us charisms — St. Paul describes some: apostles (traveling witnesses of the Lord who knew him and witnessed his resurrection and whom he made pillars), prophets (who travel to actualize the word of God and call to conversion), evangelists (who repeat what Jesus said in the Gospel so that people, in an age before many could read or had books or scroll to read, could learn the word of God), shepherds (who guide, nourish and protect the flock from wolves), and teachers (catechists, who help apply the word of God to particular circumstances) — with a clear purpose: “to “equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ.” Every gift is to help us to form others for their Christian mission, which is service and loving others and building up Christ’s body the Church “until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God.” The goal of the Church is unity. We pondered this yesterday in St. Paul’s appeal for us to dwell in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, conscious of the fact that there’s one baptism, one faith, our Lord and Father of all. To know Christ Jesus is to act on his will that we be one. This is what St. Paul describes as “mature manhood to the extent of the full stature of Christ” and “grow[ing] in every way into him who is the head, Christ, … who brings about the Body’s growth and builds itself up in love.” This process of maturation happens through “living the truth in love.” When we live the moral truth, when we live the doctrinal and sacramental truth, we begin to love others to the full stature of Christ, we grasp that he wants us to love them just as much as he loves us, to remember that that whatever we do to them, we do to him — and the more we do so, the more communion comes about. To live the truth in love means to grasp that we are called to live together as one body, one spirit in Christ.
• In the Gospel today, Jesus calls us to repentance with urgency. Using current events at the time — Pilate’s massacre of Galileans and the falling tower of Siloam — Jesus tells us, “If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.” He then gives a parable about how we’re called to bear fruit rather than be barren fig trees. He’s cultivated the ground around us and fertilized it with his blood, he’s equipped us for building up the Body of Christ, but he wants us to act, to bear fruit, and that fruit is living the truth in love. Today we celebrate the feast of someone who did, and who was God’s instrument to help so many others grow to mature manhood to the extent of the full stature of Christ. St. Anthony Mary Claret was born in Catalunia in 1807. I once happened upon his birthplace walking in the Pyrenees back in 1993. I prayed at the place he was baptized. I pondered the meaning of his life and my life. And since I’ve had a devotion to him. He was so passionate about spreading the faith, as serving as an apostle, prophet, evangelist and teacher, not to mention administrator, servant and so many other spiritual hats that he was named a missionary Archbishop of Santiago in Cuba, where he strove to help the Cubans grow in faith. He founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate to help him in this work. He was recalled to Spain by the Queen to be her chaplain and he continued to use his office, through the power of the queen, to do a tremendous amount of good. In response to his vigilance and work, Christ responded superabundantly, calling so many to be “Missionary Sons of the Immaculate” and spiritual sons of St. Anthony and together with him bear abundant fruit in building up the Church in love. In 1992, there was the beatification of 51 of his sons as martyrs from Barbastro; in 2005 the beatification of Fr. Andres Sola who was killed in Mexico; in 2013, there was the beatification of 23 Claretian brothers from Tarragona. And in 2017, another 109 martyrs from the Spanish Civil War were beatified. On the Claretian website, they call themselves a “Martyrial Congregation,” drawing from the assassination attempt suffered by St. Anthony Mary in 1856 in Cuba. And their stories are tremendous testimonies to their faith and courage under extraordinary duress. They came to full stature as individuals and as a Congregation by the way they were apostles, prophets, evangelists and catechists even in death.
• Today we have a chance to receive according to the infinite measure of the gift of Christ, who wants to help us mature to full stature in Christ, to live the truth in love, to build up his Body. He does so by giving us himself in Holy Communion. This is the means by which he “brings about the Body’s growth and builds itself up in love.” This is the means by which he fertilizes us on the inside, even attaches us as branches to the Vine, so that we might bear abundant fruit. That’s why we come rejoicing to the House of the Lord.

The readings for today’s Mass were:

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