It’s the 11th Sunday after Pentecost or else the 20th Ordinary Sunday. Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard during the Holy Mass in fulfillment your of Sunday Obligation? Let us know.
For my part, later this morning, I’ll be singing a Mass at St. Rose Philippine Duschesne Church in Kansas City, KS. I’ll more than likely speak about “speaking rightly”. How many sins could we avoid it we kept our mouths shut?
Oh… dear… I was just reminded that only converts have to keep their mouths shut.
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At an NO with a holy reverent new priest. Father spoke on the reality of hell and how we choose it. God will never interfere with the freedom He has given….but His Mercy is always there for the asking. Then he offered confession after Mass…as he almost always does. This priest is a blessing to our parish and the Church.
Today our parish marked the anniversary of the dedication of this church, which is a solemnity (so it is for every parish); further, it is permitted to transfer the celebration to the nearest Sunday if it’s Ordinary Time; and so we did.
My homily asked, what’s special about a church? Same question as, what’s special about sacraments, and what’s special about the Incarnation? The answer is that it means God is present, and acts, not in some vague way, but directly, in our lives, and in this place.
I challenged the members of the parish to consider ways to be a blessing to others in the community, to manifest God’s grace, with suggestions tied to the upcoming parish festival.
Father gave an excellent sermon on what happened in the Gospel reading today for the Ordinary Form. It’s one of those readings in which I always need to be reminded of what Jesus was really trying to say. Father alluded to the whole “moral therapeutic deism” approach to religion, and that these folks would contend that Christ’s response to the Canaanite woman would be “unChristian”. The irony was not lost on me, that’s for sure.
Father mentioned that what Jesus teaches us, through the Canaanite woman, is to become stronger in two virtues: humility and persistence. That we pray unceasingly, even if we FEEL that God is not listening to us, just as Jesus at first ignored the Canaanite woman. But in His wisdom, He knew what He was doing. Father mentioned that God gave this woman the grace to be superabundant in these two virtues, and she serves as a good example for us. Father also mentioned that it may be hard, but we have to realize that we are less than a speck of dust when compared to Almighty God. When we realize this, we start to possess that “fear of the Lord”, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Father also read a couple other “unChristian” passages that Christ spoke in the Gospels. He mentioned St. Luke’s Gospel, where Jesus talks about not bringing peace, but a sword, that is, division. Father essentially told us that we have to step back and see what Jesus was trying to accomplish in saying such “divisive” things, because at first glance it does seem like Jesus is “mean”, but that’s not the case at all. We have a wonderful example of how to address our Lord in the Canaanite woman.
Our parish has a tradition of a midnight mass for volunteers at the end of our annual festival. Our devout priest gave a very good homily on the virtues of hospitality, and how we can provide a true, stoic, Christian witness to the world.
Father referenced the recent attack in Barcelona and the killing of a young woman in Charlottesville. He made it explicitly clear that Nazism, anti-Semitism, terrorism, and any form of racism are all contrary to and incompatible with the Catholic faith. Father reminded us that all of us have a choice to do good or to do evil. Because of our Fallen nature, it is often harder for us to choose to do good. We must,however, take solace in the fact that the Cross of Christ absolutely confirms that in the end good will triumph.
The whole homily was about prejudice. Jesus was prejudice until the Caananite woman opened his eyes. Don’t think that sounds right, but that’s what he said.
Msgr on Saturday spoke on his experiences with prejudice in the Deep South when he was in seminary ( in the 1950’s). It seems he had classmates from South Carolina at the Sem here in Buffalo. He took a trip to South Carolina and spoke of how hard it was for him to witness the level of discrimination in daily life. Even in the Catholic Church there was a wall behind which the African Amerincas were supposed to sit. He sat with them behind that wall and garnered looks of hatred. He related this to the Gospel as how the Canaanites would have been viewed by the Jewish people of Jesus’ time, and how Jesus dealth with her as an outsider. By social mores of the time, he should have shunned her – instead he spoke, and eventually did as she asked.
He brought it back to modern times with how we treat people we consider “outsiders” and how we must not consider ourselves better than anyone, and anyone engaging in prejudice or exclusionary tactics can NOT call themselves Christian. It was very moving.
Wow… I can’t believe so many priests are still spouting this horrible eisegesis regarding this passage. I’m really surprised to hear that the Maryknoll Missioners would buy into this ridiculous interpretation too. Last summer, Fr. James Martin really doubled down on this interpretation, but it was clear that his “exegesis” was flawed. For Ben and JillMary, I think this essay by Fr. Ryan Erlenbush really makes clear why what you heard today was false and what my pastor, just a regular diocesan priest, was correct: Jesus used the Canaanite woman to teach US how to pray. She didn’t teach HIM anything:
“Jesus is teaching – Learn from him
Through it all – indeed, before even the woman began to ask – Jesus was moving her and inspiring her by his hidden graces. It was our Savior who had allowed the daughter to become ill. It was our Savior who inspired the woman to come to him and call out. It was our Savior who allowed the disciples to rebuff her, but he still sustained her with his grace. It was our Savior who gave her the strength to persevere, even when rejected. Through it all, the grace of Christ sustained this woman’s prayer – and thus, because it was all grace, her prayer was answered.
http://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-did-jesus-call-canaanite-woman-dog.html
Bonus EF Mass for St. Therese notes: Father(who is quite young) explained that saints such as St. Therese and other white martyr’s shows that all one must do to achieve sainthood is live a simple, contemplative life of service to God and neighbor.
Father talked about our parents knowing best, because they see the big picture and won’t let us have a bowl of Skittles for breakfast. That and his talk of still wanting his parents to buy Legos for him and wanting to emulate the children at toy stores at times distracted me from his real point.
Some of you readers seem not to get the point here.
GOOD points from sermons.
GOOD.
I’ve removed a few comments.
EF Mass. The Aramaic word “ephpheta” meaning “be opened” sums up Jesus’ mission. The deaf mute closed off from the world is now opened to him. But isolation does not just depend on our senses. Due to original sin we are deaf and dumb to God and to others around us. Jesus came so that we could fully live with God and our neighbor. This word is used as part of Baptism for this very reason, as Baptism opens us up to God and neighbor.
As an aside, last Sunday (when I did not have Internet access) we were at St. John Cantius in Chicago where by a happy coincidence it was the 13th of the month, wherein SJC holds a Rosary procession around the neighborhood after the 12:30 High Mass in honor of Our Lady of Fatima and the 100th anniversary of the apparition. Before the procession the superior Fr. Phillips gave a moving talk about the sufferings and betrayal of Lucia and how that relates to us today.