Today, in the traditional Roman Rite, is Good Shepherd Sunday.
In the Novus Ordo people heard for the Gospel a passage about a post Resurrection appearance of the Lord.
Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard during the Mass you attended as you fulfilled your Sunday obligation?
For my part, I had the great honor of giving a boy his 1st Holy Communion. Here is what I offered today. I winged part of it, but it seemed to engage. The 1st communicant was really tuned in. What a privilege.
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I talked about our hope of resurrection and what our glorified bodies will be like. Biretta tip to our genial host for the idea.
Father talked about whether we believe Jesus is really alive. He said how we approach the Eucharist shows whether we do believe that. He talked about that point for a bit.
The pastor preached on St Justin Martyr’s description of the Mass and the Eucharist, emphasising how it is the same thing we do today (though I have my doubts about his judgement that it proves the antiquity of the offertory procession). It was nice to hear it proclaimed from the ambo, twice, that no one may partake of this food except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has been washed with the laver of regeneration, and is living in the way that Christ commanded.
NO and Father went through the Gospel discussing how it was really a reinactment of Holy Thursday…and also a model for every Holy Sacrafice of the Mass.
Well, this came from St. Augustine in my pre-Mass preparation reading from the Catena Aurea re “I am the Good Shepherd . . . “
“He [Jesus] could not have added good, if there were not bad shepherds as well.” ~St. Augustine
I don’t know why this hadn’t occurred to me before, but by making this very distinction with one single word, Jesus was acknowledging (predicting?) — before the Church ever even really got off the ground — that there would be bad shepherds. With all that’s been going on in the Church lately, it was rather consoling.
But this further quote by Augustine raised the hair on my neck:
“Lo, the wolf has seized a sheep by the throat, the devil has enticed a man into adultery. The sinner must be excommunicated. But if he is excommunicated, he will be an enemy, he will plot, he will do as much harm as he can. Wherefore you are silent, you do not censure, you have seen the wolf coming, and fled. Your body has stood, your mind has fled. For as joy is relaxation, sorrow contraction, desire a reaching forward of the mind; so fear is the flight of the mind.”
Ironic example that he chose to illustrate the point, no?! God forbid it be a bishop, a set of bishops, or a pope! Augustine is fierce on shepherds who behave like hirelings — because their actions prove that they do not truly care about the ultimate welfare of the sheep but they give priority to other goals. It moved me to pray for them so they can change sides in time and not get eaten by the devil-wolf in the end. And to be grateful for the good shepherds who, like The Good Shepherd, are recognizable by all their suffering for daring to defend The King’s flock.
Wonderful First Communion sermon, Father Z. Perfect.
Father’s homilies always put the gospel in context. We don’t have this priest every week and he will go back to a previous gospel to give us continuity. You can see his belief and feel his joy in the way he speaks. But it wasn’t just his words this Sunday.
Better than his homily was that he prayed Eucharistic Prayer IV which I can’t remember hearing before. It seemed to be so appropriate for today’s readings. When I mentioned this to Father after Mass, he said that was why he had chosen it. (I try to say encouraging words when a priest does not use EPII on Sunday.)
Thank you for posting an audio file of your sermon. We all need to be reminded frequently about what Communion is really about.
I understood very little of the sermon where I attended Mass because it was in the Japanese language (I speak a tiny bit and am still learning). The priest is from French-speaking Africa and his command of the Japanese language was truly impressive. Japanese is a very hard language to learn. The church had leaflets in English but they contained only the Mass readings. Hymns were in Japanese.
I am thankful that all the priests can speak English (so I can go to Confession at this particular church), even though their native language is French.
Don’t you love the Catholic Church? French-speaking Canadian priests plus French-speaking African priest who all speak Japanese fluently, and give Confessions also in English!
NO – Our deacon gave the homily at our 9am Mass. He spoke of our need to be constantly aware that we don’t become ignorant our mission to tell all people as St. Peter proclaimed in the reading from Acts that Jesus died to offer salvation from their sins. In order to do this he reminded us that we must constantly be in prayer (he recommended the Rosary)and to make frequent use of the sacraments.
We don’t go directly into high school at the age of 5.
Learning is a process, it takes time.
First, a student needs to be ready to learn;
Second, a student needs to able to comprehend;
Third, a student have to be able to put the lesson to use.
Luke was a master teacher and and story teller.
In the 24th chapter we are provided a triptych, or three pictures;
In the first, the disciples hear, but do not see;
in the second, they see but do not recognize;
in the third, they see the Lord face to face.
Luke knew that we need to be ready and able to absorb the good news;
and that it takes longer still to put the lesson to use in our lives.
In the West the approach to the Easter Sacraments have been to separate them:
Baptism: The sanctifying grace readies us to hear the good news;
Confirmation: The gifts of the Holy Spirit enable us to understand them;
Eucharist: It is our encounter, face to face, with the Lord.
When we go forth, giving evidence to our face by manifesting peace and joy;
demonstrating the fruits of God’s life within us,
We provide a story of faith for others, as Luke has done for us;
we need to know that it will take time for our testimony to take root;
as learning the faith is a live-long process for us,
it will also be a process for others to see Jesus face in us.
We need to be patient.
Sunday of the Myrrh Bearers in the Byzantine Rite: our sermon was on being a faithful servant, in our families, in our communities, in our church. Often faithful servants do things that are unnoticed, unappreciated, sometimes even misunderstood, but are nonetheless essential. Often times grace is communicated to those who are faithful servants, like the myrrh bearers we hear of in the Gospel and see in the icon.
Byzantine Rite. Yesterday, due to the blizzard, we were told that our parish extended to our homes, to follow the weather advisories and pray at home today.
Canon pointed out how people want miracles, and big ones, and insist then they would believe, despite the fact that the Israelites had manna in the desert and constant big miracles for 40 years in the desert and yet apostatized just as frequently. He said people look to big miracles to do the “heavy lifting” of having Faith, and we ignore the smaller miracles that happen all around us, like the priest absolving us of our sins in Confession, the Eucharist, etc.
There was also an appeal for the seminarians and a reminder that there would be a second collection after Communion for the Institute’s seminaries in Italy and St. Louis.
The (much) younger of our Priests spoke mainly of being able to recognize Jesus when we encounter Him. The disciples did not at first recognize Jesus after the Resurrection (the road to Emmaus) or did not believe their eyes on first encountering Him afterwards (thought they were seeing a ghost). In order for us to recognize the True Christ we must not shy away from developing our intellect in the service of Faith or avoid the hard questions (I wondered at that point if he reads your Blog, Father Z) Our Lord welcomes the questioning mind (examples of Mary questioning Gabriel how it would be possible for her to conceive since she has no relations with a man, or Thomas doubting until he could verify with his own eyes and touch) “Dumbed down” Catholicism is a poor gift to our youth. Further, if we have not developed our intellectual understanding of our Faith we will not be able to explain or defend it to outsiders. Ask the hard questions, study Scripture and the great writers of the Church, ask your pastors if you hit a road block. He then cheerfully talked about his experience in meeting parishioners when he was in his street clothes and some of them not recognizing him without his vestments. How much more difficult to recognize a Risen Christ outside of the expected context.