Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Monday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. John Chrysostom
September 13, 2021
1 Tim 2:1-8, Ps 28, Lk 7:1-10
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in today’s homily:
- Today St. Paul tells us emphatically God’s will is for “everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” God’s direct will is that 100 out of 100 be saved, that all his prodigal children return home, that each receive his love and gratuitous offer of salvation and align their lives with it. That doesn’t eliminate the gift and responsibility of human freedom to accept that gift of salvation and live in accordance with it. God’s permissive will allows us to choose communion or definitive self-alienation, but God does provide the means of salvation, somehow, to everyone. That’s the context to understand St. Paul’s words that “supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority.” He was writing this letter from a prison cell in Rome during the time of the emperor Nero, who would massacre Christians for sport. He was saying that we need to pray even for leaders like Nero who persecute the Church, just as St. Stephen prayed for Saul, just as the faithful in Milan prayed for Ambrose, just as we pray for the conversion of so many political leaders who oppose the gift of life, love or the family, and for the salvation and growth in wisdom of the good. God wills not just Jews, not just Christians, but all to be saved, to come to the knowledge of Christ the Truth incarnate, and we cooperate in that will by our prayers, petitions, supplications and thanksgivings.
- We see the beauty of God’s saving will shown in today’s Gospel, when a pagan centurion is praised by Jesus for having greater faith than he had found in Israel. We see that faith on display in the way that the centurion asks for a miracle for his dying slave. He comes to faith in Jesus in a particular through the exercise of authority. Jesus had already demonstrated in Capernaum his authority over demons, over storms, over illnesses and over the crowds. The centurion faithfully grasped that with that power came the ability to say “come” and “go” and “do this” over diseases, even from a distance. The centurion himself had used his authority to do good to others, like building a synagogue for the Jews. It helped him to grasp how Jesus could and might use his power and authority, to command even unseen spiritual realities, and to do good even to the slave of a pagan. Even though the Jewish leaders said to Jesus, “he deserves” this to be done for him as a quid pro quo for his generosity, the centurion was humble and knew that he deserved nothing, that everything would be a grace, that he wasn’t fit even to welcome Jesus into his home. And Jesus was amazed the faith he had. Even though he hadn’t received the same formation as the Jews in the Psalms, in the miracles of the Exodus, in the liberation from Babylon, in the litany of wonders God had worked, he had total trust in Jesus’ power and goodness. And that amazed Jesus. Since we need to be saved by grace through faith, this shows us the type of faith that can happen, thanks to God’s grace, in those raised with natural virtues. Jesus wants all to be saved, for all to have great faith. Today as we pray for those like the Centurion who do not yet fully follow Jesus in the way, that they may respond to the seeds of faith God has implanted and amaze Jesus and us all.
- Today the Church celebrates the memorial of St. John Chrysostom. St. Paul wrote to Timothy today, “I was appointed preacher and apostle, teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth” and St. John Chrysostom received a similar divine appointment to proclaim Christ and the faith Christ hopes to give and find to those in Antioch, then in Constantinople, and because of the power of his words, across the known world and now the centuries. He was one who was constantly having to pray for those in authority who were seeking to harm him and the Church he was serving. When he was baptized as a young adult (age of 18-22, scholars disagree), he began to live a truly different life. John was the greatest student of the rhetorician Libanius, who wanted him to succeed him, but instead John left the world to fill his mind with the things of God. He spent two years as a hermit continually standing, scarcely sleeping, and learning the Bible by heart. He was so zealous in his fasting that he damaged his stomach and kidneys and needed to return to civilization for reasons of health. There the Patriarch of Antioch ordained him a deacon and then a priest and allowed him to begin to preach publicly, and his sermons quickly became famous and his eloquence, speaking about the things of God. His words reverberated throughout the empire. In 397, he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople — another Patriarchal see at the center of the empire — and there he went. Whereas he could have lived a sumptuous life, he lived as if he were poor; rather than be a social animal, he wept; rather than feast he fasted; rather than bask in his reputation over his oratory, he used it to call everyone, including the emperor and empress to conversion. For this he quickly became a sign of contradiction and suffered, being exiled many times. But that didn’t shake him, because he knew it would happen for anyone who modeled his life and preaching after Christ. We see just how much he saw all things by the light of faith by the passage from the Office of Readings this morning, given right before he was about to be exiled again. “The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus. What are we to fear? Death? “Life to me means Christ, and death is gain.” Exile? “The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord.” The confiscation of goods? “We brought nothing into this world, and we shall surely take nothing from it.” I have only contempt for the world’s threats, I find its blessings laughable. I have no fear of poverty, no desire for wealth. I am not afraid of death nor do I long to live, except for your good. … If Christ is with me, whom shall I fear? Though the waves and the sea and the anger of princes are roused against me, they are less to me than a spider’s web. … For I always say “Lord, your will be done;” not what this fellow or that would have me do, but what you want me to do. That is my strong tower, my immovable rock, my staff that never gives way. If God wants something, let it be done! If he wants me to stay here, I am grateful. But wherever he wants me to be, I am no less grateful.” As a great man of faith, he was able to preach it. In his commentary on the healing of the Centurion’s slave, found in his commentary on the parallel passage in St. Matthew’s Gospel, St. John Chrysostom marveled at the Centurion’s phrase about the power to command to come and go and applied it to the capacity to say come and go from death and hell. The Centurion was an example, he said, of Jesus’ fulfilling the words, “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all things will be given to you besides,” including the return of his servant from death. Jesus was showing from this point forward that salvation is by faith, not by works of the law, and Jesus praised his faith among the Israelites. We pray through his intercession that all may come to a faith like that, and that those who already have the name Christian, might live faith filled lives.
- As we today prepare, unworthy as we are, to receive Jesus under our roofs, let us ask Jesus to help us, like the Centurion. And in this Mass, at the altar, we lift up the most important prayer of all — Christ’s from the Last Supper, the Cross and leaving the empty tomb — for kings and all those in authority, that they may come to know Christ the Savior, Christ the Truth, and lead and help others to lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 1 TM 2:1-8
Beloved:
First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers,
petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,
for kings and for all in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life
in all devotion and dignity.
This is good and pleasing to God our savior,
who wills everyone to be saved
and to come to knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God.
There is also one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as ransom for all.
This was the testimony at the proper time.
For this I was appointed preacher and Apostle
(I am speaking the truth, I am not lying),
teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray,
lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument.
Responsorial Psalm PS 28:2, 7, 8-9
R. (6) Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
Hear the sound of my pleading, when I cry to you,
lifting up my hands toward your holy shrine.
R. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
The LORD is my strength and my shield.
In him my heart trusts, and I find help;
then my heart exults, and with my song I give him thanks.
R. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
The LORD is the strength of his people,
the saving refuge of his anointed.
Save your people, and bless your inheritance;
feed them, and carry them forever!
R. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.
Alleluia JN 3:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 7:1-10
When Jesus had finished all his words to the people,
he entered Capernaum.
A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die,
and he was valuable to him.
When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him,
asking him to come and save the life of his slave.
They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying,
“He deserves to have you do this for him,
for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.”
And Jesus went with them,
but when he was only a short distance from the house,
the centurion sent friends to tell him,
“Lord, do not trouble yourself,
for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.
Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you;
but say the word and let my servant be healed.
For I too am a person subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, Go, and he goes;
and to another, Come here, and he comes;
and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him
and, turning, said to the crowd following him,
“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”
When the messengers returned to the house,
they found the slave in good health.
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