The Church as a Family That Listens To and Acts on the Word of God, 25th Tuesday (I), September 26, 2023

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Tuesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of SS. Cosmas and Damian
September 26, 2023
Ez 6:7-8.12.14-20, Ps 122, Lk 8:19-21

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

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today we can ponder anew the lessons of yesterday, in how the rebuilding of the Temple after the exile by Ezra and Nehemiah, with the help of Cyrus, Darius and the Persians, is meant to be a sign of the Resurrection of Jesus (the rebuilding of the true Temple on the third day) and our rebuilding on him the Cornerstone. To do so we build ourselves solidly on the rock of his word, just like the exiles, as we will hear a week from Thursday how the post-exilic Jews listened to the scrolls of the covenant from dawn to midday with attention, tears and eventually celebration.
• In the Gospel, Jesus says that the family he has come to found is comprised of those who hear his word and act on it, just like his Mother, who conceived the word through her “ear” and in her heart before she had ever conceived the Word made flesh in her womb. We’re able to “conceive” the word in the same way and allow it to grow within us until we have to give it to the light. The Word of God, heard and put into practice, helps form the family of God. It unites. The family that prays together stays together and the family that prays the Word of God together similarly has a much greater bond. That’s why the liturgy is so important when the Word of God is celebrated as it deserves, well proclaimed, well preached, well received on good soil. That’s why pondering the word of God in the family is so important. That’s why praying with the Word of God in religious communities, rectories, small groups in parishes, Bible studies and more are so important. Pope Benedict in Verbum Domini, his apostolic exhortation on the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church, focused on the power of the Word of God to form and strengthen familial bonds, which has analogous lessons for the Church as a whole and for every Church in miniature. He wrote that “with the proclamation of the word of God, the Church reveals to Christian families their true identity, what it is and what it must be in accordance with the Lord’s plan. … Through their fidelity and the unity of family life, spouses are the first to proclaim God’s word to their children. The ecclesial community must support and assist them in fostering family prayer, attentive hearing of the word of God, and knowledge of the Bible. To this end the [Church urges] that every household have its Bible, to be kept in a worthy place and used for reading and prayer. …  [She] also recommend[s] the formation of small communities of families, where common prayer and meditation on passages of Scripture can be cultivated.”
• There’s a very important lesson in today’s first reading. During the years of exile, God’s people longed for freedom to return home to rebuild the Temple and worship God aright. Eventually, as we heard yesterday, they were permitted to return. Cyrus actually encouraged people to help them with donations that would help them adorn it. With great eagerness, with their own resources, they started building. But, as we see today, King Darius decreed that they would be reimbursed for all of their expenses, “in full and without delay.” They were, in other words, wanting to do something for God, and quite willing to sacrifice for him. But God through Darius wanted to show them that he was going to be blessing them far more. Rather than a sacrifice, it would be a gift received! The same thing happens with the Word of God. We can sometimes think, “I have to pray. I must read Sacred Scripture. It’s too important.” We approach God, or his Word, or the worship of him, out of duty, fidelity, loyalty, even wisdom and prudence. But God blesses us so much more when we do. He pays us back and more. So our approach should always be like we prayed in the Psalm, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.” The post-exilic Jews always looked at the Temple through the prism of having been deprived of it for generations. They would go up with great joy and meet God who would far repay them for their efforts in getting there. Likewise we should say, “Let us pick up with rejoicing the Word of the Lord! Let us go to Mass with joy where we will hear the Word of God proclaimed! Let us take that word with joy out to our common home and make it familial, make it truly a house of the Lord, since he built it!”
• Today the Church celebrates the feast of SS. Cosmas and Damian, twin brothers who were doctors and eventually martyrs under Diocletian. They helped each other grow in love of God and his Word and let that word become the pattern of their life. They were called anargyroi, “penniless ones,” or “non-mercenaries,” because they never charged for their medical services at a time when many doctors were charlatans taking people’s entire savings on one invented “remedy” after another. That gave them an opening to care for their patients’ souls as they were caring for their bodies, to explain why they were so generous, because of the generosity they received from the Divine Physician. Like with the Jews building a temple prepared to pay what they could, when God wanted them to recognize his care in reimbursing them, so God wanted those treated by the twin saints to perceive his care. That’s one of the reasons why, following the Word of God and recognizing that others are our spiritual siblings, that we should have a similar ambition to give and to serve out of love rather than for remuneration, even if we should happen to be remunerated. Saints Cosmas and Damian recognized that they were receiving far more by having the opportunity to love together with Christ, to serve rather than to be served, than they ever would have received through payment. They also lived out the familial aspect of our faith by working together. It leads us to ask: Who is Cosmas to our Damian? Whom can we help, who can help us, grow in hearing and living the Word of God?
• Now, as a family, seeking to hear and obey the Word of God together and to put it into practice through charity in tandem, we get ready to act on that part of the Word of God to which the Church has perhaps been most faithful, to do “this” in memory of Christ. May we do so with the same response to the Word of God and Word-made-flesh as Mary did, SS. Cosmas and Damian did, and all the saints have done.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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