Fr. Roger J. Landry
Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
October 7, 2018
Gen 2:18-24, Ps 128, Heb 2:9-11, Mk 10:2-16
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- God’s plan from the beginning to create us in his image and likeness in a loving communion of persons and how the marriage between a man and a woman envisages the loving communion of persons who is the Trinity as well as the faithful, fruitful, indissoluble bond Christ the Bridegroom has with his Bride the Church.
- As we mark today the 68th anniversary of the official establishment of the Society of the Missionaries of Charity on October 7, 1950 by Archbishop Perier in the little chapel at 14 Creek Lane in Calcutta, when Saint Teresa of Calcutta and her first eleven companions — including Sister Francesca here — were erected as a Religious Congregation of Diocesan Right, I would like to focus more on what today’s readings mean for religious in general and Missionaries of Charity in particular.
- The Missionaries of Charity were founded to “quench the infinite thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross for love of souls… by laboring at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor.” It was founded to serve as Missionaries of Christ’s infinite love: of the love we see in Creation; of the love we see in the Redemption, with Jesus’ going out after each of us, including his most lost and abandoned, as his beloved sheep.
- We see in the first reading about the loneliness that the Missionaries of Charity are called to help remedy. It is not good for man to be alone. But so many of us live without love. So many of us are discarded. Our lives seem empty. Mother Teresa found them on the streets of Calcutta. She found them all over the world. Christ thirsts for them to know how much he loves them. The Missionaries of Charity have been founded to bring that message of God’s love, and the reality of its warmth, to the most forgotten places on earth through their own love and care.
- The second is about the nuptial meaning of our existence. We’ve been made in the image of the Divine Giver, the Divine Lover, and we’re called to live in a total exchange of self-giving love. We have a nuptial nature. This points to the commitment not only of marriage but of chaste celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. This is at the essence of the consecration of Missionaries of Charity to be virginal spouses and spiritual mothers. Mother Teresa said, “The vow of chastity sets us free to love with our whole heart and soul for God’s sake. Is Jesus not the One who can fill you to the brim with love for God? By my vow of chastity I free myself for the kingdom of God.” She added, “By the vow of Chastity we respond to the Lord’s thirst for us and express in a radical way our own thirst for God.” … Embraced ‘for the sake of the Kingdom,’ chastity is the source of abundant fruitfulness, freeing the human heart in a unique way and filling it with love for God and for all mankind.” Fruitfulness, not sterility! This is a challenging vocation, but God intercedes, Mother Teresa says: “The Lord who has called us to this exclusive love ceaseless offers us the grace and the means to respond faithfully. Among these means must be numbered: above all, a life of intimacy and oneness with the person of Jesus Christ and deep devotion to our Lady.”
- Our Lady is the third point. Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Mary is the model Missionary of Charity, whose virginal, spousal and maternal loving trust, total surrender and cheerfulness is the example to follow.
- Children are the last point. Jesus says in the Gospel, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” This is what Mother Teresa preached at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston the day I first met her, June 14, 1995. Today on Respect Life Sunday, we rejoice that the Missionaries of Charity, in your care for the unborn also shows us how to care for everyone, because we recognize in each person, from the youngest to the oldest, the smallest to the largest, the most loved to the most abandoned, Christ in a distressing disguise, and you see to love them as you love Christ, helping us all to do the same.
- We make our Thanksgiving for the past 68 years and in advance for all the fruits still to come here at Mass, which is the consummation of the spousal union between Christ and the Church in which today’s readings about marriage find their fulfillment. As we prepare to receive Christ, we ask him to bless you and all Missionaries of Charity with his love so that you may continue to overflow with that love for all people and quench Jesus’ thirst for them and their thirst, often unawares, for him!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 GN 2:18-24
The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep,
he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib
that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ‘woman, ‘
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.
Responsorial Psalm PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
R. (cf. 5) May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
May you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
May you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Reading 2 HEB 2:9-11
Brothers and sisters:
He “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels, ”
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
He “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels, ”
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated
all have one origin.
Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers.”
Alleluia 1 JN 4:12
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If we love one another, God remains in us
and his love is brought to perfection in us.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MK 10:2-16
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
“Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it.”
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.
