Holding Fast to the Hope that Lies Before Us, Second Tuesday (I), January 22, 2019

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Mass in Thanksgiving for the Gift of Human Life on the 46th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
January 22, 2019
Heb 6:10-20, Ps 111, Mk 2:23-28

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today on this 46th anniversary of the execrable Roe v. Wade decision that has led to 60 million abortions in our country, a day of prayer and fasting for Catholics in the United States, an occasion on which we might legitimately prayerfully ask, “How long, O Lord?,” the Letter to the Hebrews has us focus not merely on faithful perseverance but on the reasons for faithful perseverance. This Letter was written to first century Christians facing persecution. Up until now, the Letter has been helping them not to harden their hearts to the Lord’s word, to the Lord’s promises, as Jesus the incarnate Word, the eternal high priest, seeks to lead them through suffering to the glory of God’s children. The author of the Letter calls them to soldier on: “We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.” Those who have inherited the promises through faith and patience are the martyrs, the confessors, the perseveringly faithful men, women, boys and girls of every age, and we’re called to be as eager as they are for the fulfillment of all the hopes Christ himself has announced. There’s a temptation to become sluggish, to get weighed down by the struggle, and to begin to downplay the enthusiasm we should have for what God is promising to those who persevere. This is a temptation that presents itself every time we have a setback with one of the mothers we’re trying to help persevere in choosing life. But the Lord, today, wants to strengthen us to continue on.
• The motivation for that hope is the commitment Jesus has made to us in the New and Eternal Covenant. The Letter to the Hebrews makes an analogy to the Covenant God made with Abraham, saying that “after patient waiting, Abraham obtained the promise.” Abraham needed to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of land. He needed to wait 25 years for the promise that he would become a father. He’d need to wait even longer until he would become the father of many nations. But he waited patiently. He waited eagerly. And God fulfilled his promise. To help Abraham believe, God made a Covenant with him and Abraham had faith in the Covenant. The Letter to the Hebrews alludes to the Covenant God made with Moses to help all the Jews and to the Covenant Jesus made with us to help all of us. “When God wanted to give the heirs of his promise an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose, he intervened with an oath, so that … we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.” That oath was the new and eternal Covenant in Jesus’ blood. Jesus’ Resurrection in a sense verified that Covenant and Jesus has entered into the Holy of Holies in Heaven praying for us to receive the fulfillment of that promise. That promise, we remember on the anniversary of the most deadly Supreme Court decision in history, is a promise of life over death.
• In a striking and unforgettable image, the Letter says that the Covenant sealed in Jesus “we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil, where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” We know how important anchors are for boats in stormy harbors. It’s what keep them from being overturned or just drifting out to sea. Jesus, the new and eternal Covenant, is like that Anchor for us. Our hope in Jesus and his promises are like that Anchor, cast beyond the clouds, cast into the Holy of Holies of Heaven, preventing not only our spiritual capsizing but keeping us tethered to the promise. Jesus’ Covenantal promise is what helps us not to become sluggish but to continue with the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end.
• Jesus gives us an image of his piercing through the veil where he intercedes for us in today’s Gospel. When the Pharisees were objecting that they were picking the heads of grain to get something to eat on the Sabbath, when they weren’t supposed to do any work even shucking the grains, Jesus reminded them that when David and his soldiers were hungry, he went into the Holies of the House of God and ate the show bread that was destined exclusively for the priests after its period in the temple. King David grasped, and Jesus evidently approved, that some things like God’s servants starving were more important that ritual symbolism. Jesus communicated that the Sabbath was made not to enslave or starve man but to serve him. Likewise, the Son of David, Jesus, is taking all of us not just into the Holies but into the Holy of Holies provided that we have the “hunger” for it and it’s there that he seeks to give us far more than show bread but the eternal wedding banquet. Jesus is the forerunner going before us on earth, leading us across the veil. He’s the one who spurs us on toward eager perseverance.
• Today Jesus enters with us into the sanctuary where he gives us himself in response to our deepest hungers. He seeks to Anchor our hope and our life here to the altar, to keep us connected to him in the midst of the occasionally seas of life. We have that type of high priest who has made us heirs of his promise, a promise of eternal life, a promise on which he now gives to us himself as the down payment. This convinces us never to become weary, because as we prayed in the Psalm, the Lord remembers his Covenant forever!

The readings for today’s Mass were: