Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Friday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time (I)
May 28, 2021
Sir 44:1 9-13, Ps 149:1-6 9, Mk 11:11-26
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- In the first reading from the Book of Sirach, with words that we’re accustomed to hear on the Memorial of SS. Joachim and Anne, Ben Sira praises the holy men and women who had gone before him, saying that the faithful, the virtuous, the keepers of the Covenant, are the ones whose memory endures. He speaks about the fruit of their fidelity in the fruit they bear, namely their children and descendants, to whom they bequeathed a treasure of faith. Of those who did not remain faithful to the Covenant, he says, “there is no memory.” This is a truth we see in the history of the Church as well. For the most part, those whom the world honors during their lifetime because of political power, or good looks, or wealth or even intelligence, are most often forgotten. But the saints, those who have really been faithful to God, live on, not just in God, as we know they do, but often are the ones remembered here on earth. Few people know who were the celebrities 100, 500, 1500 years ago. But we can name many of the saints, those who have borne fruit, those who have passed on a legacy of faith.
- The chief characteristic of a “godly man or woman,” of someone through whom God’s holiness radiates, is prayer. Prayer, as we’ve spoken about, is not so much an exchange of ideas or words but of persons, and a person of prayer abides in God and God in him. Today’s Gospel is an illustration of prayer and how prayer is meant to bear fruit. Many times people are confused by this Gospel scene. Jesus curses the fig tree for not producing fruit even though it was the time of year when it shouldn’t have produced any fruit at all. Is the takeaway that Jesus demands us to do the impossible, to bear fruit even when physically impossible, at the risk of being cursed by him forever? No, the lesson is much simpler. We can see that within the context. As soon as Peter points out to Jesus that the fig tree he cursed the previous day had withered, Jesus replied immediately with a lesson not about fruitfulness or condemnation but about praying with faith in the God who hears: “Have faith in God,” Jesus said. “Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.” What Jesus was indicating was that on the previous day, when he said to the fruitless tree out of season, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!,” God the Father was hearing him. The withered fig tree was above all a lesson about the power of prayer, a prayer that can literally move mountains or desiccate trees because God is listening attentively to his sons and daughters like he was listening to his Son and dried up the fig tree in order to give his Son a chance to speak about the power of prayer.
- We can learn four things about prayer from this scene.
- The first is about faith, faith that God can do anything, as we’ve already seen.
- The second is about the conviction with which we pray, that we pray without doubting but believing in our heart. “Therefore I tell you,” Jesus says, “all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.” Many times we pray without this conviction. We ask, but we really don’t trust that our prayer will be heard, often because we don’t really trust that God is listening with love ready to respond. By these words, Jesus isn’t telling us a “magic formula” to ensure that every prayer we ask is heard — even when we’re asking for things that would not foster his kingdom, or our salvation, or others’ — but describing the type of trust we should have in the One to whom we’re praying, who won’t give us a stone when we ask for bread, a poisonous eel when we ask for fish, but who also loves us so much that he won’t give us poison even if we ask him for it and who will often give us, not exactly what we ask for, but something far more. Jesus is calling us to pray, imitating his conviction.
- The third is to pray with purity. Jesus drives the money changers and the animal sellers out of the Temple precincts today, quoting the Old Testament, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, but you have made it a den of thieves.” They were selling animals for the sacrifices at exorbitant profits and exchanging money for the temple tax at total ripoff return rates, something that wouldn’t impact the rich very much but seriously hurt and take advantage of the poor. Jesus wanted the Temple to be a place where God was worshipped in words and in action, where the love of God who be translated into love of action, and if people were turning the temple into a place of profiteering, God was being blasphemed. Jesus likewise seeks to cleanse us, to purify our souls, so that we may be a house of prayer, a fitting dwelling place for him, a true temple of God. He does so not necessary with cords and overturning tables, but he will do so with some difficult experiences that occasionally may overturn our life so that our life can be turned right-side up. Even though it may be really hard, even violent, to go through these experiences of purification, Jesus loves us enough to treat us with “tough love.” And he’ll do this in a particular way when we ourselves make the cords and drive away our sins, bringing them to him in the Sacrament of Penance.
- After we’ve been purified and cleansed by God, the fourth condition of prayer is to forgive others. Jesus says, “When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.” We can’t be saying, “Thy will be done!,” “Thy kingdom come!,” “Thy name be hallowed!,” when we are failing to do his will in forgiving others, when we’re excluding others from our forgiveness which in turn will exclude us from God’s forgiveness and kingdom, when we’re failing to acknowledge that the other bears God’s name. One of the most important fruits of prayer is that we become like God, that he truly abides in us, and so through prayer Jesus wants to make us merciful like the Father. If we’re refusing others forgiveness, then we’re not really in the union with God that prayer is meant to facilitate.
- All of these conditions ought to influence the way we pray the Mass together with Jesus. Jesus wants us to do so with faith, the faith of the Church; conviction that if God the Father didn’t spare his Son but gives him to us as our food, everything else we ask is small; with purity, which is why we always begin Mass with the penitential rite, beginning Jesus mercifully to cleanse us of whatever in us is not worthy of a house of prayer; and forgiving others, which is why we have the sign of peace before Holy Communion. Praying Mass well is the means by which we become godly. It’s the way we come to abide in Jesus and he in us so that we will bear fruit that will last, perhaps even bear fruit even when physically impossible or least expect it!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading I
Now will I praise those godly men,
our ancestors, each in his own time.
But of others there is no memory,
for when they ceased, they ceased.
And they are as though they had not lived,
they and their children after them.
Yet these also were godly men
whose virtues have not been forgotten;
Their wealth remains in their families,
their heritage with their descendants;
Through God’s covenant with them their family endures,
their posterity, for their sake.
And for all time their progeny will endure,
their glory will never be blotted out.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 4a) The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I chose you from the world,
to go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area.
He looked around at everything and, since it was already late,
went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.
Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf,
he went over to see if he could find anything on it.
When he reached it he found nothing but leaves;
it was not the time for figs.
And he said to it in reply,
“May no one ever eat of your fruit again!”
And his disciples heard it.
They came to Jerusalem,
and on entering the temple area
he began to drive out those selling and buying there.
He overturned the tables of the money changers
and the seats of those who were selling doves.
He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area.
Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written:
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples?
But you have made it a den of thieves.”
The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it
and were seeking a way to put him to death,
yet they feared him
because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city.
Early in the morning, as they were walking along,
they saw the fig tree withered to its roots.
Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look!
The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God.
Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,
‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’
and does not doubt in his heart
but believes that what he says will happen,
it shall be done for him.
Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer,
believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
When you stand to pray,
forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance,
so that your heavenly Father may in turn
forgive you your transgressions.”
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