The Word of God and the Christian Family Bond, 25th Tuesday (I), September 26, 2017

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of SS. Cosmas and Damian
Memorial of Blessed Paul VI
September 26, 2017
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 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 practical, 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 in the family is so important. That’s why pondering in religious communities, rectories, small Catholic groups 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 in forming and strengthening the family, 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 Synod urged that every household have its Bible, to be kept in a worthy place and used for reading and prayer. …  The Synod also recommended the formation of small communities of families, where common prayer and meditation on passages of Scripture can be cultivated.”
• Today the Church celebrates the feast of SS. Cosmas and Damian and of Blessed Paul VI. SS. Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers who were doctors and martyrs under Diocletian. They helped each other grow in love of God and his Word and letting that word become the pattern of their life. As doctors they never charged their patients, which gave them an opening to care for their patients’ souls as they were caring for their bodies, because unlike so many doctors at the time, they were not doing it for their own benefit. They lived by Jesus’ words of love and sought to love others as he had loved them first. Who is Cosmas to your Damian? Who can you help, who can help you, grow in hearing and living the Word of God? We also celebrate Blessed Paul VI, whose encyclical on announcing the word of God is one of the most beautiful documents in the history of the Church. He wrote in that document, “One cannot fail to stress the evangelizing action of the family in the evangelizing apostolate of the laity. At different moments in the Church’s history and also in the Second Vatican Council, the family has well deserved the beautiful name of ‘domestic Church.’ This means that there should be found in every Christian family the various aspects of the entire Church. Furthermore, the family, like the Church, ought to be a place where the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates. In a family that is conscious of this mission, all the members evangelize and are evangelized. The parents not only communicate the Gospel to their children, but from their children they can themselves receive the same Gospel as deeply lived by them. And such a family becomes the evangelizer of many other families, and of the neighborhood of which it forms part.” The Word of God strengthens the family and builds it up.
• Now, as a family, we together will obey 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, SS. Cosmas and Damian, Blessed Paul VI and all the saints.

The readings for today’s Mass were: