Responding to the Lord’s Superabundant Grace, 29th Tuesday (I), October 20, 2015

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Paul of the Cross
October 20, 2015
Rom 5:12.15.17-21, Ps 40, Lk 12:35-38

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Jesus calls us to a two-fold vigilance in the Gospel: to have our lamps lit like prudent virgins for his coming and to have our loins girded ready to leave with him and go out to continue his mission. He says that if he finds us vigilant in this way, he will do something totally shocking: pretend he’s our servant and proceed to wait on us at table, something he did during the Last Supper and something he promises to do at the Eternal Wedding banquet. His response is so much greater than our receptivity.
• We see the same dynamic of generosity in today’s first reading. St. Paul describes that that God’s response to our sin and openness to his mercy will be far surpass the depth of our sin. St. Paul stresses this superabundance: “If by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” “For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.” “Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We’re living in a day in which sin abounds and therefore the death to which sin leads is all around us. But St. Paul tells us that it’s precisely at this time where God’s grace and life overflows all the more. We just need to be vigilant with lamps lit to receive it and with loins girded to live in it and bring it to others.
• Someone who lived in this way was St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists, who in pondering the Lord on the Cross saw not only what sin did but also how God in his mercy responded. The Resurrection is so much greater than the Crucifixion and that’s how God responds beautifully to the ugliness of our sin. When St. Paul of the Cross would preach missions on this, he was able to pierce even the hardest hearts, because he himself was overflowing with the Lord’s superabundant grace. It’s an indication for us of precisely what is possible for each of us.
• Today we have come here with lamps lit and loins girded and the Lord is going to have us here around his table where not only will he serve us but feed us with himself — and the whole rest of the day is an opportunity to allow the superabundant gift of God we receive here to overflow, bringing his peace to the disquiet of so many hearts, his mercy to sin, his life to death.

The readings for today’s Mass were: