Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Thursday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
June 18, 2020
Sir 48:1-14, Ps 97, Mt 6:7-15
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Today is one of three times this year we’ll have a chance to ponder in the Gospel the Lord’s prayer, twice in St. Matthew’s Gospel and one in St. Luke’s. Jesus wants to teach us how to pray not by babbling words but by entrusting ourselves to God the Father in the inner room, as we heard yesterday, where we hold our treasures. He gets us first to call him “Dad,” to recognize that we’re part of a big family with whom and for whom he wants us to pray, he wants us to start by seeking God’s glory, kingdom and will, and then to entrust him our biggest needs, for material and spiritual food, for a second, third or 77th chance and for the help to give others that same mercy, to help us remain faithful when tempted and to deliver us from the way that the devil tries to attack or already has a hold on us.
- It’s important for us to look at the Lord’s Prayer not just as words to be prayed but as a prayer to be lived. Jesus wants us to live in filial relationship to his Father and ours, to recognize that divine filiation means to look on and treat each other as brothers as sisters. He wants us to grasp that we hallow his name, we glorify him, but our “good deeds” that cause others to praise him. He wants us to seek and live in that kingdom of the Father which is our great inheritance. He wants us, just like the saints, to do the will of the Father which is for our and the world’s salvation. He wants us to be grateful to God’s providence and come receive the supersubstantial bread come down from heaven, to be as merciful as he is merciful, to count on him for strength in trial and to free us from evil. The Our Father is meant to lead to a whole Christian way of life together with the Father, something that means even more to us as we approach Father’s Day.
- In the first reading, we have Sirach’s great praise of the Prophet Elijah, who illustrates this type of life. His whole life was in communion with God. He sought God’s glory, he strove to live and get others to live faithfully in the Lord’s vineyard, he anointed kings and reminded good and bad they were under God’s dominion, he always sought to do what God was asking, no matter how difficult. He prayed to God for food and God provided while he was in the desert or through the widow of Zarephath. He learned from God the way of mercy, as we saw with Ahab, and convinced people of their need to repent. He was repeatedly strengthened when he was tested, as by the priests of Ba’al, and was delivered from evil, as God liberated him from Jezebel’s diabolically inspired machinations. All of this came from Elijah’s prayer, which was not full of babbling, but a gentle whisper, and a bold heart that recognized that God could do anything, including ignite a sacrifice drenched in water. Elijah’s example inspires us to this same type of filial prayer and life.
- It’s significant we always pray the Our Father in the heart of the Mass, because it’s in the Mass that God answers the prayer Jesus taught us, giving us his Son precisely so that through, with and in Him, we can relate to God as Father, live for the Father’s glory, kingdom and will, be nourished by him, strengthened mercifully to let our sun and rain fall on the good and the bad, unite ourselves to him in the midst of trials and remain attached to the Stronger Man who came to free us in this world and forever from the evil One.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
SIR 48:1-14
Like a fire there appeared the prophet Elijah
whose words were as a flaming furnace.
Their staff of bread he shattered,
in his zeal he reduced them to straits;
By the Lord’s word he shut up the heavens
and three times brought down fire.
How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
Whose glory is equal to yours?
You brought a dead man back to life
from the nether world, by the will of the LORD.
You sent kings down to destruction,
and easily broke their power into pieces.
You brought down nobles, from their beds of sickness.
You heard threats at Sinai,
at Horeb avenging judgments.
You anointed kings who should inflict vengeance,
and a prophet as your successor.
You were taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with fiery horses.
You were destined, it is written, in time to come
to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD,
To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons,
and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.
Blessed is he who shall have seen you
And who falls asleep in your friendship.
For we live only in our life,
but after death our name will not be such.
O Elijah, enveloped in the whirlwind!
whose words were as a flaming furnace.
Their staff of bread he shattered,
in his zeal he reduced them to straits;
By the Lord’s word he shut up the heavens
and three times brought down fire.
How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
Whose glory is equal to yours?
You brought a dead man back to life
from the nether world, by the will of the LORD.
You sent kings down to destruction,
and easily broke their power into pieces.
You brought down nobles, from their beds of sickness.
You heard threats at Sinai,
at Horeb avenging judgments.
You anointed kings who should inflict vengeance,
and a prophet as your successor.
You were taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with fiery horses.
You were destined, it is written, in time to come
to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD,
To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons,
and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.
Blessed is he who shall have seen you
And who falls asleep in your friendship.
For we live only in our life,
but after death our name will not be such.
O Elijah, enveloped in the whirlwind!
Then Elisha, filled with the twofold portion of his spirit,
wrought many marvels by his mere word.
During his lifetime he feared no one,
nor was any man able to intimidate his will.
Nothing was beyond his power;
beneath him flesh was brought back into life.
In life he performed wonders,
and after death, marvelous deeds.
wrought many marvels by his mere word.
During his lifetime he feared no one,
nor was any man able to intimidate his will.
Nothing was beyond his power;
beneath him flesh was brought back into life.
In life he performed wonders,
and after death, marvelous deeds.
Responsorial Psalm
PS 97:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7
R. (12a) Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
Clouds and darkness are round about him,
justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes round about.
His lightnings illumine the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
All who worship graven things are put to shame,
who glory in the things of nought;
all gods are prostrate before him.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
Clouds and darkness are round about him,
justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes round about.
His lightnings illumine the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
All who worship graven things are put to shame,
who glory in the things of nought;
all gods are prostrate before him.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Gospel
MT 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
‘Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
“If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
