Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Monastery of St. Anne, Swieta Anna, Poland
Saturday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of SS. Louis and Zelie Martin
July 12, 2025
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:
- Two main points of Christian life: to become a devout disciple and ardent apostle of Jesus. Both are contained in today’s Gospel. The point of discipleship is to become like Jesus. He says today, “It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher.” The point of the apostolate is not principally to share truths, but to give witness to Jesus. He wants us, as he says today, to acknowledge him, to show our friendship with him.
- Once we become like Jesus we begin to imitate his divine filiation and his courage, as he speaks about today toward the end of his instructions to his followers as he was sending them out for the first time. We shouldn’t be afraid of anything or anyone except have a holy fear of God, who loves us more than sparrows and has numbered every strand of hair.
- We have three examples today of those who became like Jesus.
- The Patriarch Joseph in the first reading was prophetically like Jesus in mercy. The way he treated his brothers was an illustration of the main truths of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son.
- SS. Louis and Zelie Martin, whom the Church remembers today, remind us of how marriage is supposed to be for the mutual sanctification of the spouses, helping them to become like Christ and his Church. They modeled that type of life, they showed their knowledge of Jesus, to their nine children, especially the five who survived, including St. Therese Lisieux. They show every married couple how to imitate Christ’s holiness and help others come to know Jesus.
- Our Lady conformed her whole life to the “Word,” who took on her own flesh.
- The Eucharistic Jesus helps us to become like Jesus our teacher, who speaks to us in the Liturgy of the Word, feeds and becomes one with us in Holy Communion, and then sends us out on mission, acknowledging him in communion with him, just like Mary herself did in the mystery of the Visitation.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading I
Jacob gave his sons this charge:
“Since I am about to be taken to my people,
bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies
in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
the cave in the field of Machpelah,
facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan,
the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite
for a burial ground.
There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried,
and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah,
and there, too, I buried Leah–
the field and the cave in it
that had been purchased from the Hittites.”
Now that their father was dead,
Joseph’s brothers became fearful and thought,
“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!”
So they approached Joseph and said:
“Before your father died, he gave us these instructions:
‘You shall say to Joseph, Jacob begs you
to forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers,
who treated you so cruelly.’
Please, therefore, forgive the crime that we,
the servants of your father’s God, committed.”
When they spoke these words to him, Joseph broke into tears.
Then his brothers proceeded to fling themselves down before him
and said, “Let us be your slaves!”
But Joseph replied 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.”
By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.
Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father’s family.
He lived a hundred and ten years.
He saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation,
and the children of Manasseh’s son Machir
were also born on Joseph’s knees.
Joseph said to his brothers: “I am about to die.
God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land
that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued,
“When God thus takes care of you,
you must bring my bones up with you from this place.”
Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see Psalm 69:33) Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
make known among the nations his deeds.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
R. Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
R. Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of God rests upon you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!
“Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
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