Fr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Wedding Feast of Cana
Murray Hill Conference Center, Manhattan
Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. John Vianney, Patron Saint of Parish Priests
August 4, 2022
Jer 31:31-34, Ps 51, Mt 16:13-23
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Jeremiah, like Ezekiel, prophesied that God wanted to give us a new heart on which a new law would be inscribed, the law of the love of God, the law of the Holy Spirit. God would take out our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh, a heart in which his divine law and loved would transform our humanity. This would be the new covenant Jeremiah describes. That prophecy came to fulfillment when the Son of God came into our world, as Jesus inaugurated the new and eternal covenant through his Passion, death and Resurrection.
- In the Gospel that Messiah and Son of God took a poll as to who people in general, and who the apostles, said he is. Peter, moved by a gift of God the Father, got the right answer and proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God, but he hadn’t sufficiently pondered all that God had revealed as to how the Messiah would carry out his work, inaugurate the new covenant and perfect the prophecy of a heart transplant. He hadn’t adequately pondered what was revealed by the sacrifice of Abel, the sacrifice of Isaac, the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, the just man beset by evil doers, the Suffering Servant led like a lamb to a slaughter, the innocent one whose beard was plucked, whose bones were counted, whose thirst was parched. Peter, though graced by God to see and name the deeper identity of Jesus, was thinking as human beings do, as Jews awaiting a political Messiah were, rather than thinking as God does. He was, in fact, thinking according to the way Satan thinks, who was horrified at the humility of the love of God, and was opposing the way Jesus would give us a new heart on Calvary at at the altar. That’s why Jesus, after having given Peter the name rock, changed it again temporarily to Satan, and told him to “get behind” him, since Peter was trying to lead Jesus according to Peter’s fallen, worldly categories.
- To think as God thinks, not as others think: this is something that characterized the life and ministry of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, whom we have the joy to celebrated today. His most famous saying was “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus,” and this is true in a subjective and objective sense. In Biblical mentality, the heart is not just a physical organ, but the center of the person where thoughts, will and emotions all converge. Jesus in giving us a new heart, in writing his law upon it, in pouring out the Holy Spirit into our hearts and making them clean, was helping us to think what he thinks, to will what he wills, to love what he loves, to feel what he feels. And the priest, subjectively, loves the heart of Jesus and seeks to become one with it, as St. John Vianney did. Objectively, the priest is the expression of the love of Jesus, because through the priest Jesus continues to love his people, to cleanse their and give them a new heart through the sacraments of Baptism and Confession, to nourish and strengthen the heart through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The priest of the new and eternal covenant, therefore, is meant to be an icon and agent of the Sacred Heart of Christ the Eternal High Priest.
- At this Mass, we prepare for a heart transplant. We recognize we need to be cleansed. We come to hear the word of God, which helps us to think as God thinks. We then consume Jesus in the Eucharist, by which he transforms our heart and makes it beat in synchrony with his, so that, like Peter, we may confess him as the Messiah and Son of God, and help the whole world enter through the Eucharist into the new and eternal Covenant.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
JER 31:31-34
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers:
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers:
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
Responsorial Psalm
PS 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
R. (12a) Create a clean heart in me, O God.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Gospel
MT 16:13-23
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
and he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
and he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ.
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
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