Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Monday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of SS. Cyprian and Cornelius, Martyrs
17th Anniversary of Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
September 16, 2019
1 Tim 2:1-8, Ps 28, Lk 7:1-10
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in today’s homily:
- Today St. Paul tells us emphatically God’s will is for “everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” God’s direct will is that 100 out of 100 be saved, that all his prodigal children return home, that each receive his love and gratuitous offer of salvation and align their lives with it. That doesn’t eliminate the gift and responsibility of human freedom to accept that gift of salvation and live in accordance with it. God’s permissive will allows us to choose communion or definitive self-alienation, but God does provide the means of salvation, somehow, to everyone. That’s the context to understand St. Paul’s words that “supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority.” He was writing this letter from a prison cell in Rome during the time of the emperor Nero, who would massacre Christians for sport. He was saying that we need to pray even for leaders like Nero who persecute the Church, just as St. Stephen prayed for Saul, just as the faithful in Milan prayed for Ambrose, just as we pray for the conversion of so many political leaders who oppose the gift of life, love or the family, and for the salvation and growth in wisdom of the good. God wills not just Jews, not just Christians, to all to be saved, to come to the knowledge of Christ the Truth incarnate, and we cooperate in that will by our prayers, petitions, supplications and thanksgivings.
- We see the beauty of God’s saving will shown in today’s Gospel, when a pagan centurion is praised by Jesus for having greater faith than he had found in Israel. We see that faith on display in the way that the centurion asks for a miracle for his dying slave. He comes to faith in Jesus in a particular through the exercise of authority. Jesus had already demonstrated in Capernaum his authority over demons, over storms, over illnesses and over the crowds. The centurion grasped that with that power came the ability to say “come” and “go” and “do this” over diseases, even from a distance. The centurion himself had used his authority to do good to others, like building a synagogue for the Jews. It helped him to grasp how Jesus could and might use his power and authority, to command even unseen spiritual realities, and to do good even to the slave of a pagan. Even though the Jewish leaders said to Jesus, “he deserves” this to be done for him as a quid pro quo for his generosity, the centurion was humble and knew that he deserved nothing, that everything would be a grace, that he wasn’t fit even to welcome Jesus into his home. And Jesus was amazed the faith he had. Even though he hadn’t received the same formation as the Jews in the Psalms, in the miracles of the Exodus, in the liberation from Babylon, in the litany of wonders God had worked, he had total trust in Jesus’ power and goodness. And that amazed Jesus. Since to be saved we need to be saved by grace through faith, this shows us the type of faith that can happen, thanks to God’s grace, in others raised with natural virtues. Jesus wants all to be saved, for all to have great faith. Today as we pray for those like the Centurion who do not yet fully follow Jesus in the way, that they may respond to the seeds of faith God has implanted and amaze Jesus and us all.
- Today, the Church celebrates the feast of the martyrs Saint Cyprian and Cornelius, who are both famous for their courage and teaching during the ferocious anti-Christian persecutions of the 250s. After some Christians during the persecution of Decius had either sacrificed to idols or bought certificates saying that they had, there was a question about whether they could be forgiven. Some, following an anti-Pope Novatus, said that they could never be forgiven. Pope Cornelius and Cyprian of Carthage recognized, however, that God wills all to be saved, and they permitted people to be restored to communion after suitable penance, including at one’s deathbed. Similarly today marks the 17th anniversary of the death, and we humbly pray, birth into eternal life of the Venerable Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen van Thuan — whom I knew, who called me a friend, who died 17 years ago day, and whose feast I hope to be able to celebrate soon if a miracle is accepted for his beatification. He was imprisoned for 13 years, nine in solitary confinement, but while he was there, being mistreated in many ways, he never stopped praying not just for his flock but for his persecutors and loving his enemies. The only people he came into contact with for a while were his guards. He prayed for them and worked for their conversion. Eventually, won over by his meekness, humanity, goodness and faith, they started to give in. Then they were exchanged. He did the same for the next guards. Then they were changed, too. Eventually the communists grasped that he would convert all the guards sent to him and they just kept converted ones with him so that he would convert no more. After his eventual release and exile, he would appeal to Vietnamese emigres to forgive the communists who had killed their family members, imprisoned them, forced them into exile and more. He knew how much he was asking, but he was also reminding them that God desires all to be saved, not to perish, that he had come into the world to save sinners and had sent the Church out as his instrument to save sinners in every age.
- As we today prepare, unworthy as we are, to receive Jesus under our roofs, let us ask him to help us, like the Centurion, to open the door to him through faith. And in this Mass, at the altar, we lift up the most important prayer of all — Christ’s from the Last Supper, the Cross and leaving the empty tomb — for kings and all those in authority, that they may come to know Christ the Savior, Christ the Truth, and lead and help others to lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 1 TM 2:1-8
Beloved:
First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers,
petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,
for kings and for all in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life
in all devotion and dignity.
This is good and pleasing to God our savior,
who wills everyone to be saved
and to come to knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God.
There is also one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as ransom for all.
This was the testimony at the proper time.
For this I was appointed preacher and Apostle
(I am speaking the truth, I am not lying),
teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray,
lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument.
Responsorial Psalm PS 28:2, 7, 8-9
R. (6) Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
Hear the sound of my pleading, when I cry to you,
lifting up my hands toward your holy shrine.
R. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
The LORD is my strength and my shield.
In him my heart trusts, and I find help;
then my heart exults, and with my song I give him thanks.
R. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
The LORD is the strength of his people,
the saving refuge of his anointed.
Save your people, and bless your inheritance;
feed them, and carry them forever!
R. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
Alleluia JN 3:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 7:1-10
When Jesus had finished all his words to the people,
he entered Capernaum.
A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die,
and he was valuable to him.
When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him,
asking him to come and save the life of his slave.
They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying,
“He deserves to have you do this for him,
for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.”
And Jesus went with them,
but when he was only a short distance from the house,
the centurion sent friends to tell him,
“Lord, do not trouble yourself,
for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.
Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you;
but say the word and let my servant be healed.
For I too am a person subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, Go, and he goes;
and to another, Come here, and he comes;
and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him
and, turning, said to the crowd following him,
“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”
When the messengers returned to the house,
they found the slave in good health.
