God’s Repayment According to our Works, 28th Wednesday (I), October 16, 2019

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Wednesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
October 16, 2019
Rom 2:1-11, Ps 62, Lk 11:42-46

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click here: 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

• Today St. Paul tells the Christians in Rome, who were influenced by many of the thoughts of the Scribes and Pharisees from the very large Jewish community in the city, that they would be held to no less a standard than the pagans when it comes to conforming themselves to what God has revealed through nature and through revelation. In yesterday’s passage, St. Paul described how some were suppressing the truth through their wickedness, foolishly exchanging the glory of God for pagan idols, the truth for lies and love for the lust of their hearts and the degradation of their bodies. Today he stresses that God “has no partiality,” plays no favorites and “will repay everyone according to his works.” He reminds them that they condemn themselves when they condemn others and yet do the same things, worshipping idols, living lies, and living according to sinful desires — in short selfishly disobeying the truth and obeying wickedness. He tells them that God’s “priceless kindness, forbearance and patience,” was meant to lead them to repentance so that they, converted, would “seek glory, honor and immortality through perseverance in good works.” And those good works would be ultimately to receive God’s “priceless kindness, forbearance and patience” in a fruitful way, converting and then seeking to imitate it.
• In the Gospel, Jesus is addressing the Pharisees and Scribes about their externalism and hypocrisy. These groups, which often overlapped, payed tithes, said prayers three times a day, fasted and observed the feasts, but neglected the weightier things of the law, “judgment and love of God.” Even though they thought they were living the way God wanted them to live, even though they thought they were doing the works of the law, Jesus was reminding them that they were not paying attention to what was most important and the failure to do these works was leading to their not being right with God. He uses “woes” with them, communicating that unless they change they’re doomed because while they pay tithes on the smallest of garden herbs they “pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.” They focus on the most conspicuous seats and the greetings of others, but are spiritually dead “like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”  They impose burdens on others hard to carry without lifting a finger to help them, the exact opposite of a Good Samaritan. On the outside they seemed to be doing the works of God, Jesus was saying, but on the inside they were not loving God and loving neighbor and taking a positive verdict at the judgment for granted.
• Jesus wants us all to pay attention to judgment and to love of God. He wants us to hold his priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience in high esteem and let it lead us to repentance. He wants to transform us so that our faith will perseveringly overflow in deeds of love that will seek God’s glory and honor. Today the Church remembers how this message of Jesus, echoed by St. Paul, was reiterated by Christ in the 17th century through his apparitions in Paray-le-Monial France to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the 17th century Visitation nun who was the instrument Jesus used to reveal the love of his Sacred Heart to the world. At this time, many Christians looked to God as a harsh judge just waiting for an excuse to send us to hell forever, rather than a merciful Father who would sacrifice his only begotten Son in order to save us. They didn’t see his kindness, forbearance and patience. Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary to reveal the heart that so much loved men that it exhausted itself for our salvation. St. Margaret Mary experienced the lack of love of neighbor, the lack of persevering works, in her own life. After the death of her father when she was a young girl, she and her mother were abused by in-laws. She suffered because of an ulcer on her leg for five years. She suffered from opposition to her vocation. She suffered from various Visitation nuns inside the convent. But she clung to Jesus on the Cross and Jesus chose her to be his instrument to reveal to us the love of his Sacred Heart. In a series of apparitions, Jesus told St. Margaret Mary that he had exhausted himself out of love for us, but from “most” he received only indifference, irreverence, coldness, sacrilege and scorn toward his presence in what he called the “sacrament of love,” the Eucharist. He said he was particularly pained that those consecrated to him treated him in this way.  In response to “most” treating him in the “sacrament of love” with indifference by missing Mass as if it makes no difference, Jesus was communicating that he wanted us to treat him in the Mass as the greatest difference-maker in our life, as our true priority, as the “source and summit” of our existence, the fulcrum of our week and day. In response to “most” who treat him with irreverence, who just go through the motions or who even pray Mass poorly as if it doesn’t matter, he wants us to treat him with deep piety. In contrast to “most” who relate to him with coldness and lack of enthusiasm, who come to Mass as bored and distracted spectators rather than ardent participants, he wants us more passionate about him at the Mass than the most fanatical sports fans are during a successful playoff run. Instead of treating him with scorn, he wants us to relate to him with grateful appreciation. And rather than receiving him sacrilegiously, without being in the state of grace, he wants us to receive him with souls fully intent on holiness and cleansed of sin. Those of us, moreover, who are consecrated to him in baptism and in the priesthood and religious life have, in a sense, a duty to make reparation for all of those who treat Jesus poorly. If he feels most keenly the lack of love from those who are consecrated, then how much more consoling will be the love of those who are conscious of their special dedication. The best way we train to do so is by receiving Jesus in the Eucharist with precedence, piety, passion, praise and purity — in short, by treating him as he deserves. Every Eucharist, every celebration of the sacrament of his love, we receive Jesus’ own heart as he seeks to transform us so that our who lives may be an alms and an expression of faith working through love. Jesus wants to give us all the help he knows we need to be transformed unto repentance through his kindness, forbearance and patience. He wants to imprint his law of love on our hearts so that in following the law, we will be doing something connatural, full of faith. Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary to take St. John’s place during the celebration of the Mass, to rest her head on his heart and, not only to sense his love, but to share in it. She felt the Lord take her heart, put it within his own, and return it burning with divine love into her breast, so that her heart, like his, might become a “burning furnace of charity.” Jesus wants, in essence, through the Mass to give us the same type of transplant. He wants us to rest our heart on his as he celebrates in the Upper Room and to receive from him his own heart so that we might love God and others as he loves us. The Sacraments are how Jesus fulfills the prayer Catholics have lifted up for centuries: “O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine!”
• Today as we celebrate this Mass, we turn to Jesus in his mercy, we ask him to make our hearts like his — kind, forbearing, patient, persevering, and loving — so that we may persevere in the works he has given us to do, both on the inside and the outside, and live in such a way that gives him honor and glory and bring us to immortality in that kingdom where St. Margaret Mary, St. Paul and all the saints rejoice and pray for us to share.

The readings for the Mass were: 

Reading 1
ROM 2:1-11