Hearing and Embracing the Word and Bearing Fruit through Perseverance, 24th Saturday (I), September 18, 2021

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, New York
Saturday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of Saint Joseph of Cupertino
September 18, 2021
1 Tim 6:13-16, Ps 100, Lk 8:4-15

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• As we begin our pilgrimage to the most beautiful Churches in Manhattan, the readings the Church gives us, and the saint we celebrate, orient us as to the spirituality we should have along our way today and throughout the pilgrimage of life. In the Psalm, the Holy Spirit through the psalmist bids us to “come with joy into the presence of the Lord” to “sing joyfully,” to “serve with gladness,” to “enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise,” and to rejoice that the “Lord is God,” that “he made us,” that “we are his,” that he “tends” or protects us, that he is “good,” that his his “kindness endures forever” and his “faithfulness to all generations.” Many come out of duty into the house of the Lord. Others wander in. Others come searching. Some come to complain. Some come just for show. We’re called to come with love, praise, gratitude, open to his mercy,  his grace, his nourishment. We’re called to come with the joy that always flows as a fruit of the awareness of God and of his love for us and how happy we make him when we place ourselves consciously in his presence and give him a chance to form us ever more to be his beloved children and sharers in his mission for the salvation of the world.
• In the Gospel, Jesus speaks about the receptivity we have to God. He seeks to sow his word, his love, his peace, his joy, indeed his very self within us, and by means of the metaphor of four different types of soil, helps us to analyze our openness to these gifts. He first mentions the tough soil by the path that signifies a shut mind and a hardened heart that refuses to allow the word to penetrate and change. He next turns to the superficial rocky soil with just a small amount of soil over a thick subterranean layer of limestone that initially receives the seed with joy but doesn’t nourish it to make sure it grows. Third he mentions the thorny soil full of the weeds of worldly cares, anxieties, riches and the fleeting pleasures of life that can suck up the energy that should be dedicated to the growth of the seed. Finally he mentions good soil that hears the word, embraces it with a generous and good heart and bears manifold fruit through perseverance. As we journey today, it is an opportunity to take again a soil sample of our heart to whether the word and gifts of God that Jesus seeks to sow in us daily changes our lives in 30, 60, 100 ways or more, or whether we’re resistant, superficial or existentially distracted from allowing our whole life to develop in accordance with what God proclaims and does. In the middle of the Gospel passage, when the disciples ask him about the meaning of the parable, he cites the Prophet Isaiah and explains, somewhat cryptically, why he teaches by means of parables: “Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.” In other words, he uses parables to test our vision, hearing and understanding. He uses analogies to see whether we’ll care enough to do the work necessary to understand the message. If we don’t care, we will just let his words pass through the other ear. If we do, then we will struggle to understand, for example, what the four types of soil are and to what extent I exhibit them, especially to what extent the words and work of God bear fruit in my thoughts, words, actions and priorities. As we journey on pilgrimage today, as God seeks generously to sow graces in us, let us go with great openness to let him change our life, short- and long-term, in 30, 60, 100 ways or more.
• In today’s first reading, St. Paul wraps up his beautiful letter from a Roman prison cell to his spiritual son, St. Timothy and he speaks to him about two ways we’re called to bear fruit from God’s action in our life. The first is to proclaim the faith, what St. Paul terms “the noble confession.” When the seed of the word hits good soil in us, it grows and produces fruit and those fruit contain the seed that we’re called to sow so that others, receiving on good soil, may bear fruit too. That is what is meant to happen in the proclamation of the Gospel, from Christ the Divine Sower, through the Apostles, all the way down to those who have passed on the treasure of the faith to us and those to whom Jesus is sending us to share this “noble confession.” The second main fruit St. Paul specifies is to “keep the commandment without stain or reproach.” That commandment is to love God with all we are and have and to love one another as Jesus loves us. This is the commandment Jesus calls’ “new” and “my,” and St. Paul says elsewhere that the one who loves his neighbor has truly fulfilled the law. The word of God sown in us is meant to produce fruit in the way we treat others as if we were encountering Christ himself. Because of work of God planted within us, we are called to become more and more like him in whose image we’ve been made, and with his mercy, he seeks to help us to do so ever more without stain or reproach. We can commit ourselves to keeping this commandment of love as we journey, in the way we care for each other, in the way we care for those in need along the way, in the way we ask God’s help to love better.
• Today the Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of someone who always went with joy into the house of the Lord, who had good soil that produced extraordinary fruit, who sought to share the faith with everyone even when it was hard and they didn’t want to hear it and who sought to love all God’s creatures with great affection. St. Joseph Cupertino (1603-1663) is famous above all because he is the most celebrated and attested levitator in the history of the Church, able even to fly joyfully in Churches to grasp onto Jesus in the Crucifix and unable to keep his feet on the ground as he was celebrating Mass. He was able to fly toward Jesus because he loved him, because he sought communion with him, and — like with Peter whose love for God, together with God’s obvious help, led him to do the physically impossible and walk on water — so he, because of a similar love and desire for Jesus, was able to do the physically impossible and leave the earth without propulsion. He was simple and unintelligent, unable to finish sentences, unable to hold a thought or a job. He wanted to become a Franciscan but he seemed so absentminded that they dismissed him. He applied to the Capuchins, but they didn’t take him either. Eventually he was able to return to the Franciscans as a third order brother and care for the mule and animals in the shed. He did so with such great gratitude to God and joy that others started to notice him. They went to him to explain their problems with prayer or with life and the advice he gave them in response made many begin to think that he would make a very good priest. So he was allowed to study for holy orders and received all of the minor orders, but when it was coming time for the diaconate and the priesthood, most thought that there would be no way he would pass the examinations: try as hard as he could, he just couldn’t retain information. At the diaconal examination, they asked him to comment on the passage, “Beatus venter qui portavit,” and he put his head down. He shamefacedly explained that his Latin was terrible, no matter how hard the friars worked to teach him. So they courteously said to him in Italian as a last resort, thinking that it probably would make no difference, “The passage is ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you,” at which point he smiled and began to give an extraordinary disquisition in response! That was the passage in Sacred Scripture he pondered more than any other because of his devotion to our Lady. He pondered the soil of the receptivity of her immaculate heart, he meditated often on the blessed Fruit of her womb, that he was able to astound by the fruit of that seed within him.  The examiners were blown away and he was passed to the Diaconate. When it came time for the even more stringent examination for the priesthood, the first several Franciscans did so well on the exam that the examiners thought they were wasting their time and passed everyone else, including St. Joseph Cupertino, without testing them. He’s been the patron saint of exam takers ever since! When he started to levitate and even fly across Churches to embrace Christ on high crucifixes, he was denounced to the Inquisition as if he were possessed, before he was vindicated. Through it all, he grew in his adhesion to the Lord, in his joy, in his capacity to give the “noble confession” out of season and “keep the commandment” even when others weren’t. His example shows us that even in those places where we’re not appreciated, even when others — including in the Church — don’t respect us according to our dignity and just see our faults, even when we seem to be the least important part of Christ’s mystical Body, we can still bear great fruit in God’s plan. He preached and proclaimed the Good News, and the joy it brings and the life to which it leads, in all circumstances.
• We start the pilgrimage here at Mass, as Jesus sows his word within us and those sows his very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. We come with joy and a receptivity to be changed so that we might, always and everywhere, give the noble confession through our lips and through our Christ-like love. Jesus here reminds us that he journeys with us not only today but on the pilgrimage of life and wants all of us, especially at our death, to be able to fly to him with love like St. Joseph Cupertino. Let us ask him who is good, whose kindness endures forever, whose faithfulness to all generations, to bless us with all he knows we need for today’s pilgrimage and tomorrow’s.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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