Fr. Roger J. Landry
Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph
Alexandria, South Dakota
Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Extraordinary Form
March 3, 2022
Is 38:1-6, Mt 8:5-13
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- Today in the first reading the Prophet Isaiah tells the righteous king Hezekiah — the 10th generation grandson of David and 18th generation grandfather of St. Joseph in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus — “Put your house in order, for you are about to die.” This is a classic Lenten theme, as we were reminded yesterday as we were marked with ashes in the sign of the Cross and reminded that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. It’s also a lapidary retreat theme, as we remember that we, too, die — memento mori! — and learn truly how to live. That’s what so many retreatants have done, like famously St. John Paul II, revising his last will and testament at the beginning of Lent each year on his annual retreat. On this second day of the Lenten season, it’s important not to miss acting on the prophet’s message.
- In Thomas à Kempis’ spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ, he urged all believers, “Very quickly will there be an end of you here; take heed therefore how it will be with you in another world. … O the dullness and hardness of man’s heart, which thinks only of the present, and looks not forward to the future. You ought in every deed and thought so to order yourself, as if you were to die this day. … Happy is the man who has the hour of his death always before his eyes, and daily prepares himself to die. … When it is morning, reflect that you shall not see the evening, and at eventide dare not to boast yourself of the morrow. Always be prepared, and so live that death may never find you unprepared. Many die suddenly and unexpectedly. For at such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man will come. … Strive now to live in such a way that at the hour of death you may rather rejoice than fear. Learn now to die to the world, so shall you begin to live with Christ. Learn now to spurn all earthly things, and then you may freely go unto Christ. … Think of nothing but your salvation; care only for the things of God. Make friends for yourself by venerating the saints of God and walking in their footsteps, so that when you die, you may be received into everlasting dwellings. Keep yourself a stranger and a pilgrim upon the earth, to whom the things of the world belong not. Keep your heart free and lifted up towards God, for here we have no lasting city. To Him direct your daily prayers with cries and tears, that your spirit may be found worthy to pass happily after death to its Lord.”
- Kempis’ spiritual wisdom, which has formed many saints over the last six centuries, is based on the insight that it is only when we realize that today may be our last day, that we may not have the opportunity to put off the truly important things until tomorrow, that we begin to think clearly and put our house in order today. We act differently toward people when we realize our interaction with them might be our last. We begin to look at time differently and no longer wish to waste it. We’re not tempted in the same way toward the harsh word, or the impure thought, or the vengeful action, knowing that that might be the last thing we ever do. We begin to have a far deeper appreciation for prayer and the Sacraments. We cease to sleepwalk spiritually and become fully alert to the meaning of every moment, thought, word and deed.
- A little over ten years ago, two days before he would retire as Archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali wrote for the priests of his archdiocese an extraordinarily beautiful meditation on Christian preparation for death. “Preparing for death is the greatest opportunity in our lives,” Cardinal Rigali wrote somewhat provocatively. Rather than dreading death as the inexorable occasion in which our life will be taken from us, we can all learn from Jesus, he said, how to make our death an act of supreme self-giving love. He advised we focus on two passages. The first is Jesus’ words, “No one takes [my life] from Me; I freely lay it down” (Jn 10:18). Just as Jesus made his death an act of self-giving love, so we can do the same. “Seen in this perspective,” the Cardinal continued, “death is the moment to give all, to surrender all with Jesus and in union with His sacrifice. … When anticipated by an act of loving acceptance, death is an opportunity to say ‘yes’ to the Father, just as Jesus did; to say ‘yes’ with all our heart, as Jesus did.” That leads us to the second passage, Jesus’ last words from the Cross, when he said, “Father, into your hands I commend My spirit” (Lk 23:46). Our self-giving love is a self-entrustment to the Father, something the Cardinal urges us to do every day before we go to bed, as the Church does in Compline. He comments, “When the hour of death comes, we may not be conscious. It may come very suddenly, by reason of an accident, by reason of a heart attack; there are a million and one possibilities left to our imagination but this does not matter. The point is: the surrender will have been made thousands of times! The Father will understand that each of us had the power, which we exercised, the power, with His Son Jesus, to lay down our life freely, lovingly and definitively. Then there will be no obstacle to the consummation of our love. Life and holiness will be ours forever in the communion of the Most Blessed Trinity.”
- So today we heed the Prophet Isaiah to put our house in order in view of our death and to keep our house in order each day. We see that Hezekiah did. He immediately turned to the Lord to pray. Even though he was plagued with a very painful and life-threatening boil, he wasn’t asking for death, because his people were under threat and he wanted to help lead them through crisis. He prayed, reminding the Lord how he had sought to do his will, how he had cleansed the idols from the Temple and restored true worship. And the Lord hear his prayer and sent Isaiah to inform him that the Lord would heal him, add 15 years to his life and rescue Jerusalem from the King of Assyria. He was acting on what we prayed in the Gradual: “Cast your care upon the Lord, who will give you support. God will never allow the righteous to stumble. I will call upon God, and the LORD will save me from those who war against me.”
- Prayer, obviously, is the first way we get our house in order, because we seek to build it on the foundation of our relationship with God, putting him first, making him the center. Such prayer, when done appropriately, leads to charity. Prayer and charity are always interconnected. We see that in the Gospel, in the prayer of a faithful pagan centurion who approaches Jesus to heal his servant. His prayer was simple. Like Mary in Cana, he just informed Jesus of the need: “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” When Jesus indicated he would come to cure him immediately, the Centurion, with extraordinary faith, professed he was unworthy to have Jesus enter his pagan home, but asked him to work the miracle at a distance. He believed that just as he had the authority to command soldiers to come and go, Jesus had universal authority and jurisdiction to command illnesses to depart. The faith that undergirded his prayer of petition amazed Jesus, who said he had not found such faith — such amazing trust in his love and power — among the Israelites, including among his apostles, and curiously even among his Mother, who might have been an exception based on having far less ground to cover, since from Jesus’ conception her faith was marked by God’s clear and palpable intervention in her life. Jesus worked that miracle. “You may go,” he told the centurion. “As you have believed, let it be done for you,” he said, and from that instant the servant was healed.
- On this retreat focusing on Reinvigorating our Eucharistic Awareness, Amazement, Love and Life, it’s important for us to see the connection between our approach to Jesus in the Eucharist, preparation for death, and living by prayer, which is faith in action. St. Teresa of Calcutta urged us to receive Jesus each day as if it were our first, last and only time; to receive Jesus each time as our viaticum, because one time we will be right. To live each day as a precious gift we don’t take for granted. Freely to lay down our life with him as Eucharistic self-givers rather than play the victim. To entrust ourselves to the Father together with Jesus on the Cross. To pray to and with him for our needs, the needs of those we know, the needs of those under siege, like our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. To recognize we’re not worthy to receive him under our roof, but he died on Calvary to say the word of forgiveness that makes that visit possible. The more we have death before us, the more we in faith can come alive and live truly Eucharistic lives.
- Someone who did is the saint the Church remembers someone who truly lived a Eucharistic life. St. Katharine Drexel, who died 67 years ago today, was born into a very wealthy Philadelphia family in 1858. Her father was a rich investment banker. When she was young, she spent lots of time praying before the Blessed Sacrament and her prayer overflowed into charity. She sought to give to the poor, setting up with her two sisters and her step-mother a charity center from their own home, where twice a week they would distribute food, clothing and rent money to the poor mothers and single women of the area. But her young heart was touched hearing stories of the black and native American Indians who were growing up not only in material poverty but spiritual poverty. She began to contribute to their causes even taking long train rides to visit their reservations. When her father died when she was 27, she and her two sisters inherited his $15.5 million fortune, the equivalent of about $250 million in today’s dollars. Rather than seeking to squander it like the prodigal son, she sought to employ it — and herself — for God’s kingdom. She gave consideration to becoming a cloistered nun, but a priest friend of the family suggested that she wait a little while to see what God was asking. She took a pilgrimage to Rome where she had a private audience with Pope Leo XIII. She mentioned the plight of the African American and Native American immigrants to the United States and how they need spiritual, educational and material care. The Pope surprised her by saying that she should found an order to care for them. After much prayer, that’s precisely she did, dedicating herself and her entire fortune to the care of the poor and neglected, building many schools and even Xavier University in New Orleans in order to try to help people to recognize that God so loved them that he gave his only Son so that they wouldn’t perish but have life. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to share the joy of Christ the Bridegroom and how he gave his Body and Blood for them as their supersubstantial nourishment. She understood her vows in a Eucharistic key: Christ’s love for all infuses chastity, his voluntary self-emptying poverty, his loving surrender to the Father’s will obedience. “Our is the Spirit of the Eucharist, the total gift of self,” she would say to the Sisters. The spirit of the Eucharist, she said, “is a never-ending sacrifice. It’s the Sacrament of love, the supreme love, the act of love.” She said, “My sweetest Joy is to be in the presence of Jesus in the holy Sacrament. I beg that when obliged to withdraw in body, I may leave my heart before the holy Sacrament. How I would miss Our Lord if He were to be away from me by His presence in the Blessed Sacrament!” She shows us how to live a Eucharistic life in preparation for death. The Church prays today to her in the Collect, “God of love, you called Saint Katharine Drexel to teach the message of the Gospel and to bring the life of the Eucharist to the Native American and African American peoples; by her prayers and example, enable us to work for justice among the poor and oppressed and keep us undivided in love in the Eucharistic community of your Church.” Amen!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
In those days, when Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: “Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: “O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD’s temple; I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will be a shield to this city.”
Gradual
Cast your care upon the LORD, who will give you support. God will never allow the righteous to stumble. I will call upon God, and the LORD will save me from those who war against me.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will 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 and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour [his] servant was healed.
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