Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass that fulfilled your Sunday Obligation? What was it?

For my part… I have some jocular introductory remarks about the TMSM and singing. I’ll start the video at the Sign of the Cross.

Forgiveness and the Armor of God.

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8 Comments

  1. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Like Zacchaeus, we have to be willing to drop everything that keeps us away from Jesus, and then salvation will come to our house, too.

  2. Mike says:

    Father offered several points of practical advice for forgiving one who has wronged us. One I wouldn’t have thought of is to pray and do penance for the person.

  3. ajf1984 says:

    Father made a point that both the Evil One and Our Lord confront us with our sins: the Enemy does so in an accusatory way, so as to drag us down into despair, while Our Lord shows us our sins as a mercy, in an effort to make us recognize where we have missed the mark and are in need of His compassion, which He freely gives to those who ask it. The question remains: to whom are we listening?

  4. Chris Garton-Zavesky says:

    Father managed to encompass Senator Warren, Canon 915, our need to forgive others, and the charity of the anathema in his sermon for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost.

    He said (in no particular order):
    1. Refusing Holy Communion to an obdurate public sinner is an act of charity.
    2. The servant who owed the large amount (which he compared to the cost of Sen. Warren’s healthcare bill) owed so much that it couldn’t possibly be repaid, but he held his confrere to account for a much smaller amount, which could have been reasonably repaid.
    3. A person who is genuinely sorry for his evil acts, once confessed and repented, may take many false starts to overcome his inclination to those sins.
    4. Our job is to welcome back the repentant sinner.

  5. mbarry says:

    At the end of the sermon, our priest spoke about investigating changing to ad orientem. Knowing this priest, that means he’s going to do it. I almost jumped out of my seat and gave a Yelp for joy!

  6. JonPatrick says:

    Ten thousand talents is a huge amount of money. A talent was basically a man’s wages for a year. It is a debt that can never be repaid and it represents the debt we owe to God due to original sin. However as with the servant, we are only forgiven our huge debt if we forgive others the much smaller debts or offenses against us. As the Lord’s Prayer says “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.

  7. I explained that Zacchaeus was someone who would have been hated and feared; so it was rightly shocking that Jesus befriended him. I recalled a film, The Scarlet and the Black, which told the story of a real Catholic priest who rescued Jews from the Nazis in Italy, and the Nazi commander, who tried to kill the priest; but later, came to him for help. The priest helped the commander’s family escape, and then visited the Nazi in prison every month for 14 years; that commander eventually was baptized. Sometimes befriending a Zacchaeus has instant results, but more often, takes great patience and may show no results in this life.

    But while we will be mocked and criticized for naivete in this life, that is not what will happen on Judgment Day. Imagine being Monsignor O’Flaherty introducing his friend, Commander Kappler, to Jesus on Judgment Day? Was he ashamed of his kindness?

  8. zeremoniar says:

    Thanks for this sermon, Father!

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