Becoming Great in the Kingdom, 10th Wednesday (II), June 10, 2020

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. Landry, Bishop of Paris (d. 660)
June 10, 2020
1 Kings 18:20-39, Ps 16, Mt 5:17-19

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• We continue today with the third of 16 installments of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount at daily Mass, which will continue to nourish us for nearly three weeks. After proclaiming the Beatitudes and our vocation to be salt of the earth and light of the world, today Jesus speaks to us about how he has come to fulfill the law and how we will become great in his kingdom through participation in that fulfillment and helping others to do so. While Jesus wasn’t going to let the smallest part of a letter pass away, he also wasn’t going to get us to focus first on the smallest part of the letter — as many of his contemporaries did — but on the big, bold headlines that oriented every letter and every part of the letter: how God’s law is all about loving God with all we are and have, and loving our neighbor as totally as God has loved us. That’s what the law is and Jesus was coming to fulfill it.
• Because of Jesus’ being the incarnate fulfillment of the law of God, he said that the greatest in his kingdom would be the one who would obey the law and teach others to do the same. The greatest would be the one who loved God and neighbor as fully as he or she could and trained others to love God and neighbor with similar wholehearted abandon. The law of God, God’s holy word, is something that must be received as a word to be lived. It’s the word of eternal life.
• Elijah was someone who obeyed God and taught others to do the same. He obeyed when God called him. He obeyed when God instructed him to journey through the desert. His whole prophetic life was meant to help others to learn how to obey God with all one’s heart, mind, soul and strength. But Elijah, generally considered the greatest of all of the Old Testament prophets (unless Moses is considered a prophet), is not known for his prophetic writings or speeches. He’s known for his prophetic actions. He taught by unforgettable gestures. Today we see one. People were “straddling the issue” as whether to obey God or obey their own impulses through the worship of Ba’al. He told them it was time to decide. And today we have one of the great scenes and illustrative miracles of the Old Testament. With faith in the power of God, he set up a test to demonstrate the falsity of the Ba’al and the truth of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. He bathed the sacrifice in twelve big jars of water that needed to be taken from the stream at the bottom of the mountain on which the sacrificial duel was taking place. But he could have put the sacrifice at the bottom of the Mediterranean. That was nothing compared to God’s power. And we see what God did in response to Elijah’s prayer and proclaiming of the Gospel through deeds: “The Lord’s fire came down and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench.” It consumed everything. And the people came to believe.
• Today we celebrate the Memorial of another who became great by seeking to fulfill the law of two fold charity and helping others to receive, reciprocate and imitate Christ’s love: St. Landry, Bishop of Paris from 650-660. Few Americans — outside Louisiana, where there is a whole county (called a parish) named after him and a huge Church in Opelousas where I celebrated my tenth Mass a week or so after my ordination — have a devotion to him, but in Paris there’s a chapel dedicated to him at Notre Dame Cathedral not to mention another beautiful chapel in St. Germain L’Auxerrois, where his relics were interred until they were destroyed during the French Revolution. St. Landry is famous in particular for caring for the poor and the sick. He sold all of his own personal property and much of what the Church had to care for the poor of Paris during a famine and, because there were no hospitals to speak of at the time, he built the first, which he dedicated to St. Christopher, because so many of the sick were pilgrims who had no family to care for them. Eventually this hospital grew to become the huge institution called Hotel Dieu, God’s hotel, where he sought to treat patients like they were Christ saying to him, “I will ill and you cared for me.” He gave alms generously with righteousness, praising and thanking God on the one hand and caring for him in disguise on the other. This charitable work preserved the faith, preserved real people from death and despair, and gave of a light that still burns 1360 years later. In the 1738 Paris Missal, the liturgical prayers for his solemnity (linked below) have both a proper preface and a length sequence pointing to his charity. A few years ago I translated them from the Latin. I’m confident in saying this is probably the only place in the world where you will have a chance to ponder them today, in light of today’s readings!
• In the beautiful, eloquent preface we pray, “You placed Saint Landry as bishop to govern your Church that Christ obtained by his blood. For he, anointed with the Spirit of your charity, indefatigably guards the flock entrusted to him. Watching over the needy, he provides for all; he clothes the naked; shepherds the hungry; visits the sick; and when he builds houses into eternity for the poor of every situation needing to be assisted, he prepares an eternal tabernacle for himself where the poor receive him.”
• In the 12 stanza Sequence we sing: “Let Paris celebrate the feast solemnly of its leader. The glory of St. Landry remains living for all eternity. While he as Supreme Pastor  held here authority for God, he offered himself with charity as God’s trustworthy vicar. To alleviate the needy he divested himself of his own possessions, distributing his life’s goods joyfully, willingly, and generously. Though his heart was physically limited it embraced all people, feeling their wounds and bearing their pains. He restrained the force of wrath God had toward the people and by making himself God’s servant proved himself a father of this people. He became a victim for the flock while God restrained his heavenly right hand And extending his left fed the hungry thousands. After he had sold all he had, He himself stripped the altar, melting the vessels of the temple to nourish the living temples. The altars so stripped of gold shone even holier to God, for to God the joys of his protected people are a better gift. He took the sick into his home which was called the House of God. Faith was its foundation, hope built it and charity defended it. Health returned to those languishing in body or in mind or, if earthly things passed away, the house of Heaven might appear the house. O shepherd (St. Landry) who now sit before  the Great High Priest in heaven, bring help to the people praying to you, love the flock, set the citizens on fire with faith. You are called father of the poor, be present to us in our need. Enrich your own with your powers as a steward of the gifts of God. Amen.” In both we see how he sought to love to the smallest letter of the law and in so doing, continues to teach us all to do the same.
• The greatest means by which we learn how to observe the law and the greatest school to train others is the Mass, where Jesus tells us “do this in memory of me” and urges us to make our whole life Eucharistic. It’s what Elijah’s great triumph points to, because this was the “sign” Christ said he would give to his generation. It’s where St. Landry’s charity flowed from and the way by which God makes each of us a Hotel (de) Dieu, a true dwelling place of God. Jesus enters within us, the Word made flesh, to help us to obey his two-fold command of love and collaborate with us in helping others to do the same. This is the path of greatest on which Jesus, Elijah and Landry call us to follow them.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

To view the propers for the Solemnity of St. Landry from the 1738 Paris Missal, please click below: 

St. Landry Liturgical Propers

To see a translation of the propers in English, please click below: 

St. Landry Propers Translation

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