Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of Sunday Obligation? Let us know.
I’m with a pilgrimage group in S. Italy and we are having the TLM all through. Today, very briefly indeed, I commented with some irony on the admonition in the 1st letter of Peter about the “carnal desires” in relation to the spectacular food and the amazing sensory things we are enjoying. Then I shifted into the word “apta” in the Collect in relation to our “Christiana professione“, rejecting (respuere) whatever is against who we are known to be by our identity.
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Sheep have good, directional hearing; they go in the direction of a friendly voice that brings them together; they are gregarious. If we are to be good sheep, we will hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and disregard the divisive voices that attempt to scatter the flock, and putting the sheep in danger. The Good Shepherd calls all together; even those who are not of this flock: the immigrant, the refugee, all of the marginalized of society. There is only one flock; it is by our coming together and following the Shepherd where we find true security and peace.
I heard Mass at the convent of the Handmaids of the Eucharist (Seitai Hoshikai) in Akita, Japan. The homily was in Japanese, so I read from Mother Loyola’s excellent “Coram Sanctissimo.” I was privileged to offer prayers before the miraculous image of Our Lady for Fr Z and his readers (among many others).
The title of my homily was “The Shepherd’s path and same-sex attraction.” I explained the Church’s teaching, I addressed how we got where we are, and how to respond to the challenges of our time.
Sunday of the Paralytic in the Byzantine Rite. Jesus asks the paralytic by the sheep gate whether he wants to be made well. It might seem obvious, but then it’s true that sometimes one might ask a sick person, in the larger sense of what we mean by “sick”, whether they truly want to be made well, now. For example an addicted person, a gambling person, a lying person, jealous, impure, stealing…a sin-sick person. They might want to but not be ready to be made well. They may not want to. The world is full of sickness which is made clear to us by glancing at the news every day. We should look to Jesus as the healer par excellence and, once he heals us, we should like the paralytic, tell others that He healed us, and testify that He does heal.
Vocation Sunday in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Father drilled into the Greek of what “Good Shepherd” really meant in the gospel and said that in Greek it could be rendered as I AM the perfect and best shepherd, and that Jesus chose this wording to claim his divinity by using the same title Our Father uses speaking to Moses – “I AM” and also that he is the true and best shepherd.
Father then went into about vocations – priesthood, religious life, married life, single life and that all of our shared goal is to live holy lives regardless of our vocation. He then said that God is still calling many workers to the harvest but the call is being lost – and challenged parents to be supportive if their son is being called – it’s easy to say yes vocations and point at some other family but God calls who he wills.
First Communion this weekend: If you want to know the Good Shepherd as well as he knows you, you need to follow him and spend time with him: at the very least, you need to come to Mass every Sunday (and kids, though you can’t drive yourself, the way you must live your Sunday obligation is to ask your parents every week when, not if, your family is going to Mass).
Saturday evening we attended Divine Liturgy (Melkite Greek Catholic rite). The Gospel reading is full of symbolism. The 5 sided pool represents the 5 books of the law which by themselves cannot heal, but the water when stirred represents the water of baptism. Sometimes we say we want to be healed but like the paralytic there is always something that keeps us from going through with it, the various distractions of life.
On Sunday I attended the Extraordinary Form Mass where the Gospel was from Jesus long discourse on Holy Thursday. The disciples don’t understand when Jesus says in a little while they won’t see him and then in a little while they will see him. Unlike us who know how it ends, their sadness is intense as they thought he was gone forever after the crucifixion. For us even when we have hard times and we feel Jesus is gone from us, in a little while we will see him again which gives us hope.
Father talked about names and how they are powerful. How God knows us all by name and cares for us as a shepherd does his sheep.
Father preached about the virtue of Temperance and some of its related virtues. He wasn’t graphic about chastity but he wasn’t skirting around it, either, and made clear the link between gluttony and lust; I’ve heard far too many sermons that treat those sins as being totally unrelated, so it was refreshing to hear the connection made somewhere besides “The Screwtape Letters.”
Our homilist also went with the Good Shepherd. He talked about same sex couples, transgender disorder, and the rights of children to know their real/biological parents. He acknowledged the disorder of the first two and the need for us as Catholics to help shepherd these people to a life closer the plan the Lord has for all His sheep.
In the OF, I talked about Our Lord the Good Shepherd and how He told us there would be some bad shepherds. There are some today. We need to know the Catholic faith inside out. Everyone needs to have a copy of the Catechism and read it daily. Pray to the Holy Spirit, and read a small section, read the footnotes, read the Scripture verses that relate to it. When someone – priest, bishop, or even a cardinal says something contrary, close your ears and stick to the truth.