Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Wednesday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Joseph Cupertino
September 18, 2019
1 Tim 3:14-16, Ps 111, Lk 7:31-36
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in today’s homily:
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus compares the people of the generation to whom he was preaching as “children who sit in the marketplace.” He says they call out to each other, “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge for you, but you did not weep.” Jesus was essentially correcting them about two aspects of the childish immaturity that was preventing their becoming disciples. The first is that they were seated. They were not willing to get up and follow him along the way of discipleship. They were not willing to change. The second is that that they wanted to be the ones playing the tune to which others would dance. If they were playing a joyful tune on the flute, they wanted people to dance; if they were playing something sad, they wanted people weeping. They were not willing to align themselves to the ever new song, the lyrics (Word of God) and melody (tone) that Jesus was playing rather than domesticate him by getting him to conform his message to their music.
- Jesus compared the generation to a group of spoiled, fickle children, because they had hardened their hearts totally to the message of God, trying to control and judge even God rather than obey and love him. He said that when John the Baptist came to him, rather than focus on his message of conversion, they criticized him for “neither eating food nor drinking wine.” They criticized him because he fasted, ate wild honey and consumed locusts. They “classified and conquered” him and refused to convert at his message. When Jesus came with a totally different approach “eating and drinking” because he was the Bridegroom and he wanted to teach them how to feast in God’s presence rather than fast — we would fast when the Bridegroom would be taken away — they criticized Jesus for not fasting and for not abstaining, calling him a “glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Again, they avoided his message by judging the messenger, coming at him from a position of superiority rather than docility. The upshot is that no matter whom God sent to them, they weren’t prepared to accept him; they’d find something to criticize, something to give them the excuse to remain seated, something that would keep them in control of the playlist.
- Jesus today is forcefully calling us and the people of our generation to be something far different from “children sitting in the marketplace.” He calls us to be spiritually childlike, a son or daughter who lovingly trusts God, who believes what he says is true, recognizes what he or she doesn’t know, and who seeks to become like chips off the old (divine) block. When Jesus says at the end of today’s episode, “Wisdom is vindicated by all her children,” he is communicating that he wants us to be his vindication by living according to his wisdom as sons in the Son, eating and drinking, fasting and abstaining, dancing and making music, and doing everything in union with him and at his lead.
- The truth is that there are many in our own generation who behave before God like the spoiled children Jesus mentions in his image. We judge God, we judge his Church, we judge those whom he sends us by our own criteria. We make our preferences the most important thing of all. Instead of heeding the message God gives us in a bishop’s pastoral letter or a priest’s homily, for example, we judge it by its length, whether it’s too short, or too long, or to strong, or too milk toast, judging it fundamentally by our own likes and dislikes rather than seeking to align ourselves to what God is doing. Many will choose Churches based on whether they play the music they like — whether chant, or polyphony, or hymnody, or polka, or rock, or contemporary praise and worship, or whether there’s no music at all — rather than seeing everything as an opportunity to praise God with others. We’ll notice all the things that don’t matter much if anything at all and fail to heed the things that matter most. Jesus is calling us, rather, to real spiritual childhood, to convert and become like the little children whose example he places for us all, not the capricious kids he mentions in the Gospel.
- St. Paul was one who after his conversion heeded the Lord’s message and became spiritually mature and paradoxically spiritually childlike at the same time. And in today’s first reading he summons St. Timothy and the first Christians to whom St. Timothy was ministering to the same full stature in Christ. He wanted them to know how to “behave in the household of God,” so that they wouldn’t be like the children in the marketplace but true children in God’s family. Using the words of what scholars believe is one of the earliest Christian hymns, he points them to Christ who was “manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.” That’s the tune he wants their lives humming. Christ was incarnate and he wants to take on our flesh. He was seen and adored by angels at his birth, at his agony, and always, as they were ascending and descending upon him, a reminder of how we should always see to adore him. He was proclaimed not just to Jews but to Gentiles, and we should likewise announce him to all. He was believed in throughout the world, and we should seek to imitate the faith of those who have accepted him from every circumstance. And he was taken up in glory — which is why we have this passage for Vespers on the Ascension — and he wants to help us to set our hearts on the things that are above, to help us think as God thinks, and keep our minds on the things of the Spirit. This is the exact opposite of capriciousness. This is how we are to behave. This is the way the Church — God’s household — is always supposed to behave.
- Today we celebrate the feast of a saint who knew how to behave as a true child of God in his household, who docilely followed Jesus even as he was “taken up in glory” in his lifetime! 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 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 St. Joseph Cupertino, because of a similar love and desire for Jesus, was able to do the physically impossible and leave the earth without propulsion. He was really quite 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 to joy that others started to notice him. They started to come 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 because, try as hard as he could, he just couldn’t retain it. 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, try as hard as 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. 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. But through it all, he grew in his adhesion to the Lord, his capacity to march to what the Lord was drumming. His example shows us that even in those places 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. We can still vindicate his wisdom!
- Today we have come to the house of God as members of his household. We come to love, adore and receive Him who before us becomes manifest in the flesh hidden under the appearances of bread and wine, who is in heavenly glory seen by the angels, who has been proclaimed to us and whom we seek to proclaim to the world. We come to let him move us from our seats, to help us align our lives to the lyrics of his holy Word, to move with the rhythm of the angels as we sing Alleluia, Hosanna, and Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We ask him to take away any spiritual immaturity that remains and help us to grow to full stature as we paradoxically become, like St. Joseph Cupertino, more childlike. And we ask for the grace in our lives to vindicate his wisdom!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 1 TM 3:14-16
Beloved:
I am writing you,
although I hope to visit you soon.
But if I should be delayed,
you should know how to behave in the household of God,
which is the Church of the living God,
the pillar and foundation of truth.
Undeniably great is the mystery of devotion,
Who was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated in the spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed to the Gentiles,
believed in throughout the world,
taken up in glory.
Responsorial Psalm PS 111:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (2) How great are the works of the Lord!
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.
R. How great are the works of the Lord!
Majesty and glory are his work,
and his justice endures forever.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.
R. How great are the works of the Lord!
He has given food to those who fear him;
he will forever be mindful of his covenant.
He has made known to his people the power of his works,
giving them the inheritance of the nations.
R. How great are the works of the Lord!
Alleluia SEE JN 6:63C, 68C
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life,
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 7:31-35
Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
What are they like?
They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’
For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,
and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
