The Path to Greatness, 26th Monday (I), September 28, 2015

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Monday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs
September 28, 2015
Zec 8:1-8, Ps 102, Lk 9:46-50

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click here: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Jesus gives the path to greatness, receiving little children in his name, as we would receive him. Infants are not a symbol here of innocence but of the inability even to remember what you’ve done or to thank you. To be great in God’s kingdom, we need to receive people selflessly. This is the way we become little in the kingdom, humbler. And once we get good at receiving children in this way, we can receive everyone better, including those who are exorcising in the Lord’s name who are not a visible part of the apostolic band. If one is seeking to advance himself rather than receive and serve others, that’s when he’ll be insecure at others’ doing Christ’s work.
• In the first reading we see an image of the Kingdom of God when God reestablishes a “faithful city.” In it we see “Old men and old women,” with walking staffs in their hand, sitting in the streets of Jerusalem. It’s also “filled with boys and girls playing it its streets.” Pope Francis says that Christ’s kingdom is one in which we care for those on the extreme of life, the very young and very old, and once we do that we’re able to receive everyone else on the inside.
• St. Lorenzo Ruiz and his companions were those who lived these lessons, receiving the faith and preparing others to receive Christ and others in the Lord’s name. Today’s martyrs are among the 35,000 Japanese Marytrs (from only 300,000 Christians) who perished in Japan between 1597-1639. They received kids as gifts and prepared them to give their lives as gives. Kids were taught in making the sign of the Cross to embrace God Father, Son and Holy as well as the Cross that they might give us as the immediate way to enter into their life. When they came to Mass, they grasped that Christ was giving his body and blood for them and they might in turn be called to give their body and blood for him in return. When they prayed the Rosary, they knew that in order to live the Glorious Mysteries, they first needed prayerfully to enter into the Sorrowful Mysteries. The preparation extended to practical instruction as well. Mothers trained their kids how to be faithful at the supreme hour. They taught them how to uncover their necks, fold their hands and look to heaven, as well as what to pray when their own hour came. They breast-fed them the stories of the heroic deaths of the apostles, the early Christian martyrs, and the Japanese martyrs before of them, and inspired them to strive for similar greatness. They paid attention to what they heard and they knew that Jesus was with them at that time. They were able to remain faithful at the time of martyrdom because they had been faithful in so many little things along the way and never pretended that such an end was not a part of the faith they signed up for. They received everyone, and everything, as a gift from God and tried to respond with faith.
• The best way we’re trained to receive everyone as Christ wants is here at Mass. Jesus says that if we receive infants in his name, we receive him and in him the Father. As we prepare to receive Jesus here, he helps us to learn how to receive all those made in his image and likeness!

The readings for today’s Mass were: