Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Apollinaris
July 20, 2021
Ex 14:21-15:1, Ex 15, Mt 12:46-50
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in this homily:
- Jesus entered our world, we see in today’s Gospel, to found a family composed of those who do the will of his Father as Jesus does. Jesus’ words, his fundamental message upon coming into the world, were, as the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10:7). When Mary and Jesus’ relatives (all referred to in the composite by “brothers”) had come to see Jesus, Jesus used their visit as an opportunity to speak about a far more important bond than blood. He wanted to speak his plan for us spiritually to be bound to him through doing the will of the Father.
- We know that that family comes into existence through the incredible miracle of baptism. We ponder just how great baptism is in today’s first reading. Our imaginations are pushed to the wondrous brink when we meditate on the Israelites’ walking through the Red Sea at the bottom of the sea bed with walls of water on the left and the right. But as great a miracle as that was, what God has done for us through the exodus of the waters of baptism is even greater, as he’s led us on a passover from alienation to God through original (and perhaps personal) sin to divine filiation. It’s not enough, however, for us to remain merely spiritual-ontological sons and daughters of God through baptism. Jesus wants us to become moral children as well, those whose identity is shown by how they obey the heavenly Father. That’s what the Gospel is about.
- To the one who told him that his mother and brothers were outside hoping to see him, Jesus said, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.’” At a superficial level, it could seem as if Jesus were denigrating his mother and cousins, but rather, he was specifically praising his mother for the bond she had with him, just like he did when he responded to a woman who praised her womb for having borne him and her breasts for having nursed him. Mary’s whole life can be encapsulated by her words to God through the Archangel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Mary is the exemplar of all of those who do the Father’s will, or as Jesus responded to the anonymous woman praising her for her physical relationship with him, “Blessed are they who hear the word of God and observe it.” As St. Athanasius once commented, before she had ever conceived the Word in her womb, she had conceived him in her heart, as a doer of God’s word and will. We don’t know much about Jesus’ relatives. We know that later they tried to seize him because they thought he was out of his mind, and so it’s possible that Jesus was trying to convert them to doing the Father’s will together with him and his mother. But Jesus was certainly trying to convert his listeners and us to what it takes to become his family members.
- Jesus says something startling in the Gospel that can help us, via Mary’s example, to do God’s will. We can somewhat understand how Jesus might call us his “brother and sister” through imitating him and entering into his filial obedience of the Father. But he also says that the one who does the will of his heavenly Father is “my mother” as well. To understand what this means, we need to go back to St. Ambrose. Even though there’s only one mother of Jesus in the flesh, Saint Ambrose told us, every Christian believer in some way is meant to become Christ’s spiritual mother, someone who interiorly conceives and gives birth to the word of God: “Thus, what took place for Mary can daily take place in each of us, in the hearing of the word and in the celebration of the sacraments,” Pope Benedict wrote, commenting on St. Ambrose’s insight. I want to repeat that last sentence. What took place for Mary can take place in each of us daily, when we hear the Word, when we receive the Word made flesh in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, when we allow Jesus and his word to grow within us in such a way that we give birth to him in loving actions. Each of us is meant to conceive the Word, to become pregnant with it, and let it grow so big that we have to “give it to the light” (dar a la luz, give birth in Spanish) transmuted by our own existence as our existence has been transmuted by it. This is what Mary shows us how to do. This process happens by the power of the Holy Spirit, who seeks to overshadow us as he did Mary as we attach ourselves to Christ by means of a spiritual umbilical cord that nourishes not him as the child growing within, but us as the spiritual mothers.
- Today as we celebrate the Eucharist, we know that Jesus wants to make us every more his family, his kin, his mother and siblings, by strengthening all of us to receive his Word within like Mary, to let that Word grow so that it takes on our flesh, to strengthen us to do the Father’s will together with him, and to pass on the faith by helping others to become his spiritual mother, brother and sister through doing the same. To strengthen us to do so, Jesus has us do this in his memory. As we receive his body and blood, with his humanity received from Mary, he helps us to imitate her in following him all the way.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 Ex 14:21—15:1
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and the LORD swept the sea
with a strong east wind throughout the night
and so turned it into dry land.
When the water was thus divided,
the children of Israel marched into the midst of the sea on dry land,
with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.
and the LORD swept the sea
with a strong east wind throughout the night
and so turned it into dry land.
When the water was thus divided,
the children of Israel marched into the midst of the sea on dry land,
with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.
The Egyptians followed in pursuit;
all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and charioteers went after them
right into the midst of the sea.
In the night watch just before dawn
the LORD cast through the column of the fiery cloud
upon the Egyptian force a glance that threw it into a panic;
and he so clogged their chariot wheels
that they could hardly drive.
With that the Egyptians sounded the retreat before Israel,
because the LORD was fighting for them against the Egyptians.
all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and charioteers went after them
right into the midst of the sea.
In the night watch just before dawn
the LORD cast through the column of the fiery cloud
upon the Egyptian force a glance that threw it into a panic;
and he so clogged their chariot wheels
that they could hardly drive.
With that the Egyptians sounded the retreat before Israel,
because the LORD was fighting for them against the Egyptians.
Then the LORD told Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea,
that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians,
upon their chariots and their charioteers.”
So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and at dawn the sea flowed back to its normal depth.
The Egyptians were fleeing head on toward the sea,
when the LORD hurled them into its midst.
As the water flowed back,
it covered the chariots and the charioteers of Pharaoh’s whole army
that had followed the children of Israel into the sea.
Not a single one of them escaped.
But the children of Israel had marched on dry land
through the midst of the sea,
with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel on that day
from the power of the Egyptians.
When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore
and beheld the great power that the LORD
had shown against the Egyptians,
they feared the LORD and believed in him and in his servant Moses.
that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians,
upon their chariots and their charioteers.”
So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and at dawn the sea flowed back to its normal depth.
The Egyptians were fleeing head on toward the sea,
when the LORD hurled them into its midst.
As the water flowed back,
it covered the chariots and the charioteers of Pharaoh’s whole army
that had followed the children of Israel into the sea.
Not a single one of them escaped.
But the children of Israel had marched on dry land
through the midst of the sea,
with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel on that day
from the power of the Egyptians.
When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore
and beheld the great power that the LORD
had shown against the Egyptians,
they feared the LORD and believed in him and in his servant Moses.
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD:
I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant;
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.
Responsorial Psalm Exodus 15:8-9, 10 and 12, 17
R. (1b) Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
At the breath of your anger the waters piled up,
the flowing waters stood like a mound,
the flood waters congealed in the midst of the sea.
The enemy boasted, “I will pursue and overtake them;
I will divide the spoils and have my fill of them;
I will draw my sword; my hand shall despoil them!”
R. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
When your wind blew, the sea covered them;
like lead they sank in the mighty waters.
When you stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them!
R. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
And you brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place where you made your seat, O LORD,
the sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands established.
R. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
At the breath of your anger the waters piled up,
the flowing waters stood like a mound,
the flood waters congealed in the midst of the sea.
The enemy boasted, “I will pursue and overtake them;
I will divide the spoils and have my fill of them;
I will draw my sword; my hand shall despoil them!”
R. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
When your wind blew, the sea covered them;
like lead they sank in the mighty waters.
When you stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them!
R. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
And you brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place where you made your seat, O LORD,
the sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands established.
R. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
Alleluia Jn 14:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mt 12:46-50
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds,
his mother and his brothers appeared outside,
wishing to speak with him.
Someone told him,
his mother and his brothers appeared outside,
wishing to speak with him.
Someone told him,
“Your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
asking to speak with you.”
But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
asking to speak with you.”
But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
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