Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Agnes Church, Manhattan
20th Sunday after Pentecost, Extraordinary Form
October 10, 2021
Eph 5:15-21, Jn 4:46-53
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided today’s homily:
- Today St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians and each of us not to waste the gift of life God has given us but to take full advantage of the time God has given us, the means of salvation with which he has blessed us, the opportunities he has placed before us to do something great, holy, life-giving and life-saving. Most people, including most Christians, do not live with sufficient intentionality. We sleepwalk through human existence, being changed by our environment more than we change it, adapting ourselves to what everyone else is doing, wasting time doing things that in the final analysis matter little. St. Paul is trying to wake us up, to help us to mature spiritually, and to make full use of the time we have. “Watch carefully then how you live,” he tells us today, “not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil.” We can live in one of two ways, he says: as fools or by God’s wisdom. We can cozy up to the fallen things of the age, or we can be the seeds of sanctification. And St. Paul is calling us to live like Christ did in the midst of what Jesus called a “wicked and perverse generation,” as Paul did in the midst of the sins of his own epoch, as the Popes have incessantly urged us to do in the modern world, and as Christians as salt of the earth and light of the world are called to do in every age.
- And so St. Paul gets practical: “Therefore,” he says, “do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.” Real wisdom is doing God’s will, seeking his kingdom, and hallowing his name. To live ignorantly is to do just as one pleases, without reference to the holy will of God, as if God doesn’t really exist or doesn’t care how we spend our day or dedicate our life. To live wisely is constantly to discern what God is asking in the concrete situations and places in which he has placed us, to be alert to his presence, accompanying us, guiding us, strengthening us, to understand and do his will and help him save and sanctify the world.
- Paul therefore continues, “Do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery.” That’s both a concrete counsel against getting hammered as well as a metaphor to depict what it means to live foolishly. When we get drunk, we are impaired not just from driving well but from living as God wants. Why do people get drunk? Some get drunk because they like the stuff, but lack self-control, and one drink soon becomes four, or eight or ten. Others do so because they don’t like something else, and rather than turning to God and others for help to face situations of stress and anxiety, they try to escape with a bottle. And we know that once we’re drunk, our guard is down to say no to things to which we would never consent otherwise. That’s why St. Peter would say to the first Christians, “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith” (1 Pet 5:8-9). Drunkenness is the opposite of spiritual vigilance and many of us get inebriated by imbibing too much worldliness, getting addicted to entertainment and distractions, setting our hearts on Friday and Saturday night rather than on Sunday, eating, drinking and being merry as if human life is a cocktail party with nothing really important going on outside the club. Others get intoxicated and cockeyed over politics, binge-watching cable news more than a cloistered nun adores the Lord. Others get soused on social media, or sports, or celebrity gossip.
- Paul confronts this, and in doing so, he’s not at all playing the part of a killjoy. Exactly the opposite. He’s trying to get us to change from the logic and morals of a frat party to those of the unending banquet of the kingdom. He points us to a different type of inebriation, what Father Raniero Cantalamessa has called the “sober intoxication of the Spirit,” and to a lifestyle that leads not to fleeting pleasures of debauchery but rather to the enduring joy of sanctity. In contrast to getting slammed on liquor, drugs or other worldly addictions, St. Paul tells us today for God, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and praying to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.” He is telling us to make our whole life a beautiful liturgy led by the Spirit, not only becoming so familiar with God’s word that it influences more and more the way we speak to each other, but loving it so much that we’re almost singing those beautiful words to each other — just like how Mary, in her Magnificat, when she greeted her cousin Elizabeth, gave glory to the Lord and rejoiced in God her Savior. He’s calling us to chant a song of gratitude to the Lord for the gift of every day, every relationship, even the Crosses that help conform us ever more to God and make us co-redeemers. The fruit of this type of life, St. Paul says, is that we become “subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” That means that we begin to see Christ in one another and then seek to serve each other as we would seek to serve Christ, with devout, grateful love. This is the path to make the most of our opportunity. This is how we live wisely. This is the goal for which St. Paul today is calling us to watch carefully how we live.
- Today in the Gospel we see an example of someone who made the most of his opportunity, whose example of wisdom and faith the Church puts forth perennially as an example for our own. A Royal Official, upon hearing that Jesus had returned to Galilee from Judah, left Capernaum to go to Cana in order to implore Jesus for a miracle for his son who was dying. The distance between the two places was 22 miles, but with fatherly love, the man hastened on the journey to do something that a royal official would rarely ever do: beg. He was already in some sense a believer. He had heard of Jesus’ miracles and was too down-to-earth and commonsensical not to put two-and-two together. He grasped that Jesus wasn’t a magician, but someone who time and again had been able to effect cures that were humanly impossible. He therefore journeyed to Cana to implore Jesus to make the return trip with him to heal his son. Jesus, however, wanted to give this man not only the miracle he was requesting but an even greater gift: the gift of faith not just for him but for his whole household — so that they might all live not as foolish persons but as wise.
- Jesus first said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” He was challenging him and others to put faith before miracles rather than miracles before faith. Jesus’ words are nevertheless a shocking thing to say to someone who’s begging for a miracle for a dying child. It’s reminiscent of what Jesus did with the pagan woman in Tyre, when, as she was imploring him to heal her possessed daughter, he first ignored her, then said he had come just for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and finally declared it was not fit to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. But just like that mom never gave up and Jesus not only worked the miracle she requested but proclaimed, “Woman, great is your faith!,” so today this non-Jewish father didn’t give up either. He humbly said to Jesus, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” And Jesus in response gave him the supreme test, saying, “You may go; your son will live.” The royal official would have to believe without seeing. The man trusted in the Lord and left. And as the royal official was on the 22-mile journey back, he received word that his boy had been healed. He asked for confirmation of the precise time he got better, and it was at the very moment Jesus had told him that his son would live. This led the entire household to come to the gift of faith.
- What do we learn from this scene that can help us make the most of our opportunity of our life, of our opportunity to grow in and live by faith? I think it’s this: we meet the same Jesus here that the Royal Official met in Cana. Like him, we bring to him a request for someone who needs to be healed — not just our family members and friends and others who have asked for our prayers, not just for our world, our country, our State and this city, but first and foremost ourselves. And Jesus gives us a gift greater than the miraculous healing of the royal official’s son; he gives us himself. And he wants, like he did with this official and his family, to give us the grace of a huge upgrade in our faith. But faith must precede that miracle. We have to ask for it.
- To watch carefully how we live, to understand the will of the Lord, means ordering our life to what Jesus is doing here. None of us has to walk 22 miles to get here, but even if we needed to crawl 2200 miles, it would be worth it. What we receive here is worth more than all of the most precious wine kept in guarded cellars and leads to a much holier and long-lasting inebriation. This is where we come to understand better the will of the Lord as he speaks to us in Sacred Scripture and are given the help needed to carry out what he commanded. This is where, filled with the Spirit, we address each other in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. This is where the instrument of our hearts sings and plays to the Lord in thanksgiving for the Lord’s goodness to us. This is where we help each other learn to do everything in the name of Jesus, united in communion with him and with each other. This is where we, beholding Jesus in the Sacred Host, learn how to recognize him in each other and are strengthened to subordinate ourselves to each other lovingly out of reverence for him. This is where we ultimately learn how to live not as foolish persons but as wise, and to make the most out of the opportunity and gift of our life. Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians
Watch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
The continuation of the Gospel according to St. John
Jesus returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left. While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe.
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