Measuring Out by Christ’s Own Measure, Third Thursday in Ordinary Time (I), January 30, 2025

Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Eternal Word Television Network, Irondale, Alabama
Thursday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Hyacinthe Marescotti, Virgin
January 30, 2025
Heb 10:19-25, Ps 24, Mk 4:21-25

To watch the homily, as well as the Mass in which it was preached, please click below:

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

The following text guided the homily: 

• Today in the Gospel Jesus gives us a principle that should govern every Christian life. “The measure with which you measure,” he states, “will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you. To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
• At a human, natural level, this is basically the law of “use or it or lose it,” which every student, every athlete, every musician knows. The more we learn, the more we can learn. The more we work out, the greater our stamina and strength and the tougher the exercises we can do. The more we practice the piano, the more our talent develops; the less we practice, the more our skills atrophy. If we develop a gift, it grows; if we neglect a gift, it diminishes.
• At a spiritual level, the principle is also true. Jesus says in St. Luke’s Gospel, “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.” He instructs us to “give to everyone who asks,” to “forgive and we will be forgiven,” to “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:30-38). The law of the Christian life is one of love and total generosity. Jesus Christ has taken on our nature and given it for our salvation down to the last drop of his Precious Blood. He has bestowed on us every spiritual blessing in the heavens. And now he calls us to love one another as he has loved us first. He wants us to measure out to others the lavish love he has measured to us. And that is meant to lead to a virtuous spiral. Having been loved totally by him, and seeking to love others to that same total Christ-like degree, we become capable of receiving even greater gifts from him.
• That’s why Saint John of the Cross, one of the greatest doctors of the interior life in the history of the Church, has told us that if we don’t find love, put love, and we will find love. The more we pay forward by the Lord’s standard, the more we create a culture in which others live by that standard, and we receive more not just because we have a greater openness to the love that comes from God and others, but also because we have raised the bar for others and at least some will seek to live by that Christian standard we set.
• The specific context of the Lord’s challenge and command in today’s Gospel is the way we respond to the gift of his holy word. He tells us, “Take care what you hear.” That’s because immediately before today’s passage, as we heard in yesterday’s Gospel, is the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, which describes not just how we receive the seed of the Word of God but even more generously how generously we allow the Lord to act on our life. Jesus describes that there are four types of soil with which we receive his Word and work. The first is hardened, stubborn, almost impenetrable, and the Word he generously seeks to sow is totally wasted. The second is rocky, or superficial, in which we seem to bear fruit initially, but then it gets scorched by the heat of the noonday sun. In the Holy Land, there is a thick layer of limestone 3-5 inches under the soil in many parts of the country. The seed penetrates, but the roots can’t go very far, which is why when the sun rises, it dessicates the soil and kills the new growth. People with this soil are prone to give in too much to their preferences, to their likes and dislikes, and don’t allow God’s word to go very deeply in their life. The third soil is thorny, and thorns, Jesus describes, are not sins, but worldly cares and anxieties and the lure of riches and pleasure. These worries or these human desires can often exhaust our attention and distract us from what God wants to do. But the type of soil Jesus wants is good and rich soil, which he says bears fruit 30, 60, or 100 fold, which changes our life in 30, 60 or 100 ways over time. Jesus tells us to “take care what you hear.”
• First, he wants us to pay attention, to listen well to what he’s saying, to receive on good soil the seeds he sows as he speaks. He wants us to be at the edge of our seats when Jesus speaks, attentive to his every word, remembering it, pondering it in our hearts, placing it together with what he’s taught us before and letting it become a foundation for what he wishes to teach us later in our prayer, in our listening to Sacred Scripture, in what he reveals to us in day-to-day events.
• The second way he wants us to take care of what we hear is to treasure what he reveals, to nourish it, to water it so that it may grow.
• And the third way is to teach it, to pass it on, to measure it out as generously as he has sought to sow it in his. Any teacher will tell you that if you really want to learn something, try to teach it to others. That’s why Jesus begins today’s Gospel asking, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?” Jesus has lit the lamp of our minds and hearts with his holy word and he doesn’t want us to place it under a bushel basket or a bed but on a lamp stand. He doesn’t want us to keep what he teaches us secret but to make it visible, to bring it to the light of day so that others might similarly be illuminated. The word should take on our own flesh and we should become living commentaries of it in the midst of others, who should be able to “see” it in us even before they “hear” the word through us.
• I am honored to be the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, four papal societies that are all directed toward sharing our faith until the ends of the earth: the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, which most know of because Archbishop Fulton Sheen led it for 16 years; the Missionary Childhood Association, formerly Holy Childhood, which asks children to help their peers grow in faith throughout the world; the Society of Saint Peter the Apostle, which helps young men and young women follow vocations to the priesthood and religious life in missionary territories where they, and their local churches, are too poor to fund their studies; and the Missionary Union, which links cloistered sisters and religious men, the homebound, and so many others in a union to pray for the missions just like the co-patroness of the missions, St. Therese Lisieux, did from a Carmel in France.
• Before Jesus ascended, he gave us all the command to go to the whole world, to all nations, and proclaim the Gospel to every creature, baptizing them and bringing them into a sacramental life, teaching them everything he has taught us so that they might be faithful disciples and apostles, remembering that he is with us always until the end of time. He gave as the Father’s first missionary to give us everything we needed — his Word, himself in the Sacraments, his trust in this great commission, his presence in the Eucharist until the end of time — and on the night he rose from the dead told us, “Just as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He wants us to measure out to others the Word he has without measure given to us. How faithful have we been to that summons? Do we share the faith with our family members and friends and colleagues at work or school? Do we pray and sacrifice for those missionaries across the globe who are generously giving their whole life so that others may come to know, love and serve Christ in this world so as to be happy with them in the next? Do we hide our faith like a light under a lampstand or do we live our faith, as the light of the world reflecting Christ’s own risen light, so that others in seeing our good works may glorify God the Father in heaven together with Jesus and with us? Today is a day in which Jesus once again gives us himself in his Word and the Word made flesh so that we may generously measure out the power of that word to others, so that we may say, “This is my body, this is my blood, this is my sweat, my tears, all I am and have given out of love for you.
• The Letter to the Hebrews today focuses on the radiance of faith that should flow from all Jesus has done for us. It describes how Jesus has entered the eternal sanctuary of heaven that he has opened for us through the veil of his flesh. The sacred author tells us that Jesus’ actions should give us a “sincere heart” and absolute trust,” a pure conscience and soul so that we can “hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope,” “encourage one another” and “rouse one another to love and good works” with undiminished light. As the Letter has been telling us over the last two and half weeks, Jesus has entered heaven to intercede for us, still generously obtaining for us all that he knows we need in order to be able to fulfill our mission on earth, to fill others with the hope that he gives us, and to help them, in turn, shine as light in the world and bear fruit 30, 60 or 100 fold.
• Today the Church gives us the example of someone who eventually lived by this standard. We celebrate today the Third Order Franciscan holy one Saint Hyacintha Mariscotti (1585-1640). She was a pious child, but eventually gave in to the thorns of worldly cares and anxieties. She wanted to marry a Marchese, but he spurned her for her younger sister, and she made such a passive-aggressive fuss about it that her father sent her to enter the convent of the sisters who had taught her. But if she were going to go, she wanted to live as a noble, rather than according to the virtue and vow of poverty. She kept a private stock of food and her own kitchen, wore a habit made of the finest fabrics, and hosted all types of visitors for 15 years. She still had some faith, like devotion to Our Lady, to the baby Jesus, and to the Holy Eucharist, but she was barely lukewarm and self-centered. Eventually she got sick and the priest who brought her the sacraments in her room, seeing all of her luxuries, admonished her, and told us that it appeared the only reason she was in the convent was to help the devil. She was stunned by his words and resolved to amend her life. From that point forward, she allowed the measure of poor, obedient, chaste and self-giving Christ to become her own. She lived with great asceticism, wearing an old tunic, going barefoot, fasting on bread and water, keeping all night vigils, nursing the sick during the plague, gathering alms for the convalescent and prisoners, and helping to build homes for the aged. She founded two societies of Oblates of Mary to help her in these works of mercy. They were called Sacconi, because they were those who carried big sacks of food to help the indigent. After she died, the people were tearing so many pieces of her habit that she needed to be dressed anew three separate times. She needed three habits after her death. Her life is a sign to us that, no matter what we’ve measured until now, we, too, have time to change. We, too, can start living by Christ light. We do can start bearing abundant fruit from the word he sows in us. We too can measure out the measure we receive.
• Today at Mass Christ tells us “Take care what you hear.” He wants us to put what he teaches on a lampstand, to preach it from the roof tops, to pour out what he is pouring in. He has pierced the veil of the sanctuary to make it possible for us to bear as much fruit in our life, by his grace, as St. Hyacintha did in hers. May we up to this mission in which Jesus reconstitutes today so that one day, with St. Hyacintha, he may measure back to us eternal life.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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