Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Friday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. Callixtus, Pope and Martyr
October 14, 2016
Eph 1:11-14, Ps 33, Lk 12:1-7
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The outline for today’s homily was:
- “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.” God has indeed, as we heard yesterday from the beginning of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. In today’s passage, we see how both Jews — those “who first hoped in Christ” — and Gentiles are blessed by God so that we might exist “for the praise of his glory.” For the Gentiles, we have heard the word of truth, received the Gospel of salvation, believed in God, and received the seal of the Holy Spirit. All of this is just the down payment, the “first installment” of our inheritance.
- That identity should strengthen us at all times and influence all our actions. In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns us of the “leaven” or hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the particular corruption about which he’s been speaking for several days. It’s a cancer that metastasizes and grows. He wants us to be a different type of leaven, in correspondence with the Holy Spirit with which we’ve been sealed. When the Holy Spirit works within, we receive his gift of Courage. He convinces us of the truth of what Jesus teaches, that God cares for us more than many sparrows, that he has numbered every hair on our head, that we have nothing to fear from the Pharisees because all that we should care about is pleasing God and living for the praise of his glory.
- Someone who lived this way is the saint we celebrate today, Pope St. Callixtus, a slave who became Pope in the third century and died courageously as a martyr. His liberation from physical slavery to freedom the Church invokes as a paradigm for a similar freedom for us, from slavery to corruption to meriting an incorruptible inheritance in accordance with the down payment we’ve received. And he received all of those blessings and courage each day at Mass.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 EPH 1:11-14
In Christ we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.
In him you also, who have heard the word of truth,
the Gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him,
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
which is the first installment of our inheritance
toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.
Responsorial Psalm PS 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-13
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Alleluia PS 33:22
May your kindness, LORD, be upon us;
who have put our hope in you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 12:1-7
At that time:
So many people were crowding together
that they were trampling one another underfoot.
Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
“Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness
will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body
but after that can do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear.
Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna;
yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins?
Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be afraid.
You are worth more than many sparrows.”
