Fr. Roger J. Landry
Corpus Christi Monastery of the Dominican Nuns, Bronx, NY
Thursday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Feast of St. Martin de Porres
November 3, 2022
Is 58:6-11, Ps 145, Gal 3:26-28; 4:6-7, Luke 10:25-37 (or Mt 11:25-30)
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
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St. Gregory the Great told us vita bonorum, viva lectio, that the life of the saints is a living reading of Sacred Scripture, a living, walking, breathing commentary on the living and saving Word of God. Today, on this feast of St. Martin de Porres, we can reread his life based on the readings chosen for his feast.
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With the Psalms there are five different proper readings in the Dominican lectionary for this feast. In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about how God hides things from the clever and worldly but reveals them to the childlike. Saint Martin de Porres was childlike. He learned from Christ who was meek and humble of heart, he took on Christ’s own yoke, which is the cross and learned in that school, the art of cruciform love. He was someone who had been cared for by the Lord the Good Samaritan, Jesus Himself, and was so changed by that encounter that he went in did likewise, turning the Convent of the Holy Rosary in Lima into one big Inn in which he cared not only for his fellow Dominicans, but used to constantly get in trouble with his superiors by bringing half of Lima into the convent to care for them when they were sick, including very often giving them his own bed. Like the Good Samaritan, even though he was an outsider — a mulatto son of a slave woman who had been freed, so that wasn’t even able, under Peruvian law technically, to enter that convent, a law that thankfully his Dominican superior broke to allow him to make vows — he drew near to the sick. In the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, we see why his prayers were heard, especially his prayers for miracles, because he did more than fast and abstain from meat his entire religious life, but he fasted in the way the Lord wanted, fasted through hungering for what God Himself hungered, to care for all those who are in need of the Lord’s mercy, as he turned basically, all of Lima into an extended convent. And in the letter the Galatians, we see how in a Christ there is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free person. And he himself though the son of a slave, shows us all the freedom for which Christ has set us free.
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Today on his feast day, we remember that our lives too, are supposed to be living readings of the Word of God, that we’re called to learn from St. Martin how to open ourselves up with spiritual childhood, to all that God wants to reveal to us, to take on Christ’s sweet and well-fitting yoke, so that we might learn like Martin, how to love like Christ. St. Martin is interceding for us that we might love God with all our mind, heart, soul and strength and learn how to love each other like he cared not just for all his Dominican brothers. Today, the same Lord Jesus, who told this scholar of the law, go and do the same, who helped St. Martin de Porres to do the same, comes here to feed us, so that we might do likewise as well.
The proper readings for this Mass were:
A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you and you give them their food in due season (Ps 145)
I will extol you, my God and king; I will bless your name forever. Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever. Great is the LORD and worthy of high praise; God’s grandeur is beyond understanding. One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works. They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, tell of your wonderful deeds. They speak of your fearsome power and attest to your great deeds. They publish the renown of your abounding goodness and joyfully sing of your justice. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love. The LORD is good to all, compassionate to every creature. All your works give you thanks, O LORD and your faithful bless you. They speak of the glory of your reign and tell of your great works, Making known to all your power, the glorious splendor of your rule. Your reign is a reign for all ages, your dominion for all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in every word, and faithful in every work. The LORD supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. You, LORD, are just in all your ways, faithful in all your works. You, LORD, are near to all who call upon you, to all who call upon you in truth. You satisfy the desire of those who fear you; you hear their cry and save them. You, LORD, watch over all who love you, but all the wicked you destroy. My mouth will speak your praises, LORD; all flesh will bless your holy name forever.
A Reading From the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians
For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
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A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew
At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
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