Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Thursday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of Our Lady of Mercy
September 24, 2020
Eccl 1:2-11, Ps 90, Lk 9:7-9
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were attempted in the homily:
- Today we begin three days pondering the Book of Ecclesiastes. There has been debate over the course of time as to whether this book is inspired and therefore whether it should be part of Sacred Scripture. Is everything a “vanity of vanities?” Is there “nothing new under the sun?” Does man “profit nothing” from all his labor? Is everything just cyclical, where what has been will recur and what has been done will be done again? Is there no remembrance of men of old and no hope that others will remember us? The Christian faith is ready to reject what these questions imply, but before we do, we should ask again why the Church would consider this text nevertheless inspired. The fundamental reason is because it shows the meaningless of a life without reference to God and eternal life and shows the longing of all created reality for the radical newness that the kingdom of God will bring.
- St. Paul talked about this vanity of a life without the Risen Christ in the passage we had a week ago: “For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” The Exultet each Easter proclaims the same truth: “Our birth would have been no gain had we not been redeemed!” Jesus himself mentions it in the image of building an earthly grain bin, or in placing our treasure in the things of this world, or in trying to take our possessions through the eye of the needle.
- We see an image of the vanity of earthly life and the newness that happened with the resurrection in today’s Gospel, where there are several references to raising from the dead. The paranoid Herod Antipas worried that Jesus was John the Baptist or one of the other prophets risen from the dead, but for him and for the people of his day, to be risen basically meant resuscitated, only to die anew. If John were really resuscitated, the Herod could just chop off his head again at a lustful whim. But Jesus’ resurrection really was something new, something that gave meaning to suffering, crucifixion and death. It was truly a new life that gave all things meaning. In response to Ecclesiastes’ pessimism that we can never really say truthfully, “See this is new!,” Christ, risen from the dead, says in Revelation, “Behold, I make all things new!”
- How does that revolution happen from vanity to newness and meaning? It happens through the mercy of God, the mercy received in Baptism, in Confession, in the new life of conversion. Jesus speaks to this in his conversation with Nicodemus about being born anew. He speaks about it when he tells us to work not for the food that perishes but for the food — his Body and Blood — that leads to eternal life. Christ seeks to bring us into communion with him through the grace, through the Sacraments, and to innest us on Him who is the Vine and the Resurrection and the Life. Once again from the Easter Praeconium, “Our birth would have been no gain had we not been redeemed!” But we have been Redeemer. And we praise the Mercy of the Redeemer!
- Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of Mercy, in which we see the meaning of a life lived in communion with the mercy of God. This feast has a special meaning for me not merely because I, like you, love our Lady and am so grateful for her maternal merciful love for me in the ways I’m aware of and in the many ways she’s prayed for me before I even knew I had a need. It also has great meaning because the prayers for the Mass, approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, were written from the contemplative heart and scholarly head of a great friend of mine, Sr. Esther Mary Nickel, of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. To turn to “Our Lady of Mercy” is to understand her not just as “Mother of Mercy,” as we pray in the Salve Regina, but also as “Daughter of Mercy,” “Spouse of Mercy,” “Disciple of Mercy, “Apostle of Mercy,” and so many other angles. She is one who heard the words of mercy throughout Sacred Scripture as words to be interiorized and lived. We see how deeply they impacted her entire world view in her Magnificat, when her soul joyfully proclaimed the greatness of the Lord whose “mercy is from age to age,” who helped Israel his servant, “remembering his mercy,” and who out of mercy looked on her lowliness and blessed her such that all generations would recognize the great things he has done for her, who has lifted up the lowly and filled the hungry with good things. She experienced God’s mercy from the first moment of her existence at the Immaculate Conception. She experienced it anew at the Annunciation when God’s plans were fulfilled. She instigated his public manifestations of his merciful love in Cana. She saw God’s mercy on full display on Calvary. And she’s praying now that we will hear as efficaciously as she did Jesus’ words about mercy, come to him to receive it, build our life on it, and help others to build their lives on it. That would be a life with meaning!
- Every time we go up to the altar of God, Jesus seeks to rejuvenate us, to make us new, to give us a new heart and a new life, one that will live forever. Even though it may seem that nothing is new under the Sun and that in the liturgical cycle we just repeat everything from year to year, it’s actually a spiral that is meant to lead us ever more deeply into eternity. As we prepare to receive within the Blessed Fruit of the womb of Our Lady of Mercy, the Resurrection and the Life, we ask Him for the grace to so transform us that we may bring the hope of new life to those who are struggling through what seems like a meaningless existence by introducing them to God so that they might have his life to the full!
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 ECCL 1:2-11
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor
which he toils at under the sun?
One generation passes and another comes,
but the world forever stays.
The sun rises and the sun goes down;
then it presses on to the place where it rises.
Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north,
the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
All rivers go to the sea,
yet never does the sea become full.
To the place where they go,
the rivers keep on going.
All speech is labored;
there is nothing one can say.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing
nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.What has been, that will be;
what has been done, that will be done.
Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!”
has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of the men of old;
nor of those to come will there be any remembrance
among those who come after them.
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor
which he toils at under the sun?
One generation passes and another comes,
but the world forever stays.
The sun rises and the sun goes down;
then it presses on to the place where it rises.
Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north,
the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
All rivers go to the sea,
yet never does the sea become full.
To the place where they go,
the rivers keep on going.
All speech is labored;
there is nothing one can say.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing
nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.What has been, that will be;
what has been done, that will be done.
Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!”
has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of the men of old;
nor of those to come will there be any remembrance
among those who come after them.
Responsorial Psalm PS 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 AND 17BC
R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Alleluia JN 14:6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 9:7-9
Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening,
and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying,
“John has been raised from the dead”;
others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”;
still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.”
But Herod said, “John I beheaded.
Who then is this about whom I hear such things?”
And he kept trying to see him.
The propers for our Lady of Mercy are:
Our Lady of Mercy, September 24, Mother of Mercy Roman Missal Insert
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