Hearing and Acting on the Lord’s Words of Mercy, 25th Tuesday (I), September 24, 2019

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of Our Lady of Mercy
September 24, 2019
Ez 6:7-8.12.14-20, Ps 122, Lk 8:19-21

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today we can ponder anew the lessons of yesterday, in how the rebuilding of the Temple after the exile by Ezra and Nehemiah, with the help of Cyrus, Darius and the Persians, is meant to be a sign of the Resurrection of Jesus (the rebuilding of the true Temple on the third day) and our rebuilding on him the cornerstone. To do so we build ourselves solidly on the rock of his word, just like the exiles, as we will hear a week from Thursday,  listened to the scrolls of the covenant from dawn to midday with attention, tears and eventually celebration.
• In the Gospel, Jesus says that the family he has come to found is comprised of those who hear his word and act on it, just like his Mother, who conceived the word through her “ear” and in her heart, before she had ever conceived the Word made flesh in her womb. We’re able to “conceive” the word in the same way and allow it to grow within us until we have to give it to the light. The Word of God, heard and put into practice, helps form the family of God. It unites. The family that prays together stays together and the family that prays the Word of God together similarly has a much greater bond. That’s why the liturgy is so important when the Word of God is celebrated as it deserves, well proclaimed, well preached, well received on good soil. That’s why pondering the word of God in the family is so important. That’s why praying with the Word of God in religious communities, rectories, small Catholic groups and more are so important. Pope Benedict in Verbum Domini, his apostolic exhortation on the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church, focused on the power of the Word of God in forming and strengthening familial bonds, which has analogous lessons for the Church as a whole and for every Church in miniature. He wrote that “with the proclamation of the word of God, the Church reveals to Christian families their true identity, what it is and what it must be in accordance with the Lord’s plan. … Through their fidelity and the unity of family life, spouses are the first to proclaim God’s word to their children. The ecclesial community must support and assist them in fostering family prayer, attentive hearing of the word of God, and knowledge of the Bible. To this end the Synod urged that every household have its Bible, to be kept in a worthy place and used for reading and prayer. …  The Synod also recommended the formation of small communities of families, where common prayer and meditation on passages of Scripture can be cultivated.”
• There’s a very important lesson in today’s first reading. During the years of exile, God’s people longed for freedom to return home to rebuild the Temple and worship God aright. Eventually, as we heard yesterday, they were permitted to return. Cyrus actually encouraged people to help them with donations that would help them adorn it. With great eagerness, with their own resources, they started building. But as we see today King Darius decreed that they would be reimbursed for all of their expenses, “in full and without delay.” They were, in other words, wanting to do something for God, and quite willing to sacrifice for him. But God through Darius wanted to show them that he was going to be blessing them far more. Rather than a sacrifice, it would be a gift received! The same thing happens with the Word of God. We can sometimes think, “I have to pray. I must read Sacred Scripture. It’s too important.” We approach God, or his Word, or the worship of him, out of duty, fidelity, loyalty, even wisdom and prudence. But God blesses us so much more when we do. He pays us back and more. So our approach should always be like we prayed in the Psalm, “Let us go rejoicing to the House of the Lord.” The post-exilic Jews always looked at the Temple through the prism of having been deprived of it for generations. They would go up with great joy and meet God who would far repay them for their efforts in getting there. Likewise we should say, “Let us pick up with rejoicing the Word of the Lord! Let us go to Mass with joy where we will hear the Word of God proclaimed! Let us take that word with joy out to our common home and make it familial, make it truly a house of the Lord, since he built it!”
• Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of Mercy. It’s always had a special meaning for me not merely because I love our Lady and am so grateful for her maternal merciful love for me in the ways I’m aware of and in the many ways she’s prayed for me before I even knew I had a need. It also has great meaning because the prayers for the Mass, approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, were written from the contemplative heart and scholarly head of one of my great friends, Sr. Esther Mary Nickel, of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. To turn to “Our Lady of Mercy” is to understand her not just as “Mother of Mercy,” as we pray in the Salve Regina, but also as “Daughter of Mercy,” “Spouse of Mercy,” “Disciple of Mercy, “Apostle of Mercy,” and so many other angles. She is one who heard the words of mercy throughout Sacred Scripture as words to be interiorized and lived. We see how deeply they impacted her entire world view in her Magnificat, when her soul joyfully proclaimed the greatness of the Lord whose “mercy is from age to age,” who helped Israel his servant, “remembering his mercy,” and who out of mercy looked on her lowliness and blessed her such that all generations would recognize the great things he has done for her, who has lifted up the lowly and filled the hungry with good things. She experienced God’s mercy at the Annunciation when God’s plans were fulfilled. She saw God’s mercy on full display on Calvary. She instigated his public manifestations of his merciful love in Cana. And she’s praying now that we will hear as efficaciously as she did Jesus’ words about mercy, come to him to receive it, build our life on it, and help others to build their lives on it.
• Now, together with our Mother and each other as brothers and sisters, we have come with joy to hear God’s word and now we act on it, doing “this in memory of” Christ.

The readings for today’s Mass were: