Podcasts – Page 53 – Laudet Dominum

By Jewish tradition, the woman in the Gospel today should have never been allowed to even speak to Jesus, much less receive the healing of her daughter. Jewish law was very strict towards Gentiles – people from other nations – prohibiting Jews from associating with them, so none of the Jewish observers would have been surprised by Our Lord’s responses to the Canaanite woman, as any observant Jew would have responded in much the same way.

What would have been a surprise was how He reacted to her persistence. To show that He came for all peoples, and not just those of Jewish ancestry, He cast out the demon while remarking on the strength of her faith. Our Lord showed that faith in Him is far more important than what family or national heritage we come from.

When we look at the first reading, we can see that Our Lord’s actions are in fulfillment of the promise of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied to the people of Israel that foreigners – the Gentiles in other words – would “join themselves to the Lord, ministering to Him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming His servants”. In return for their faithfulness to God, they will be able to enter into the salvation promised by God to the Israelite nation and the temple of God “shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

As we see through St. Paul’s ministry, and through the fact that many of us are followers of Christ despite a lack of Jewish ancestry, Our Lord did come to save all people. This means that everyone can enter into the salvation promised by Christ, not just those who are of Jewish descent or are the “right” people socially or politically. Sadly, this is still a difficulty today, as we still have the tendency to judge people as worthy Christians or not. We may look at someone who is deep in sin and consider them the “dogs” unworthy of the food of Our Lord’s salvation.

Yet, just as the daughter of the Canaanite woman was saved, despite being the “wrong” kind of people, those who are living in sin are just as in need of receiving the saving message of Christ’s forgiveness and love. The question for us who believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ and hope for His salvation is: have we ever reached out and shared the Gospel of salvation to those who are struggling with addictions or those whose lives are wrapped up in the desires and concerns of the world?

This was a major part of St. Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles. Not only did he spread the Gospel among those of Jewish descent, but he sought out opportunities to bring the Gospel to those peoples among whom the Jewish people had scattered. When we look at those around us who are not Catholic, and even some who are, do we seek to bring them the message of mercy from God our heavenly Father? Yes, it’s uncomfortable to share our faith, especially with those who might reject it, but we are all called to follow the example of St. Paul. As we share our faith with the same persistence that the Canaanite woman showed, we will lead others to know Our Lord and enter into His salvation.

All are called to enter into the salvation of Christ. Our job as Christians is to help those around us find it as we seek our own salvation.

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Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Cory Sticha | August 6, 2011 - 13:54 |August 8, 2011 Homily, Year A

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Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Cory Sticha | July 30, 2011 - 15:23 |August 6, 2011 Homily, Year A

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Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Cory Sticha | July 23, 2011 - 15:07 |July 23, 2011 Homily, Year A

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Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Cory Sticha | July 16, 2011 - 14:22 |July 16, 2011 Homily, Year A

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Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Transcription of homily:) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: prayer is essential for Christian life. To be a Christian means that we have to be praying. I would argue that daily prayer, spending some time in prayer each day, is as essential for our spiritual life as daily food and water is for physical life. Now, we’ll take time every day to eat – might be really quick and might be on the go – but we still take time to eat, we still take time to drink water or drink some other type of fluid, so we should be able take some time each day for prayer. Even if it’s just daily petitions asking God for help or assistance in this part of my life or that part of my life, or asking God to intercede on behalf of someone else for their needs, we still need to take time for this prayer.The argument that comes back usually is, “I don’t know how to pray” Well, you know what, none of us do. As St. Paul tells us today, “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” (Rom 8:26) We don’t know how to pray properly, but we can allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through us so that we can engage in prayer.

We can draw closer to our Lord through prayer. We do this by daily taking time for silence and prayer. A vital part of truly entering into prayer is silence. Now, I know some people can pray with meditative music in the background or something, but as we’re learning how to pray, the best thing we can do is learn how to develop silence. We do this simply by turning off anything that makes distracting noise: we turn off the TV, we turn off the radio, the cell phone, MP3 player, all these things that provide the noise that is constantly a part of our lives. Prayer is an action of its own right, and we need to put our focus on that prayer. So, yeah, it’s fine to pray while doing things such as gardening or fishing, but we should really take time every day where our sole attention is on prayer. So don’t do any other activity: don’t be gardening, don’t be fishing during this time. Take this time to focus on that prayer. It might be difficult at first because we live in a culture of constantly doing things and constantly keeping our attention.

To take time to just sit in silence and prayer is difficult, but we can’t develop if we don’t do it. While we’re sitting there in prayer doesn’t mean we have to sit there in absolute silence not moving, not saying anything, not doing anything. We can use devotional tools such as the daily Mass readings. Of course praying over the Scripture is a wonderful way to pray. We can use the daily Mass readings to reflect and meditate on during our prayer time. We can use the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet and other forms of chaplets like that to help us enter into our prayer. There’s also a wonderful prayer called the Jesus prayer. This is most commonly used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Christian Churches, but we can use it as well. It’s a very simple prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. We just repeat that over and over while breathing: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Just enter into meditation on that phrase and meditating on our Lord.

Now, why do we want to do this? Why do we want to enter into prayer? Why is it so important to pray? Through prayer, Jesus reveals to us the kingdom of heaven. As Christians, we should all desire to be united with the kingdom of heaven, to enter into our Lord’s body as Christians, and then enter into heaven when our time on earth is done. Through prayer, Our Lord helps us understand the parables in today’s Gospel in which he reveals the kingdom of heaven to his listeners, and to us as well. He helps us understand what we need to do to be the wheat in the parable instead of the weeds. He helps us see our mustard seed of faith grow: that when we enter into prayer our faith will grow, our faith will develop. Through our prayer, we receive the strength to be the leaven of faith in the world that we’re all called to be. We’re all called to be that leaven in the world.

Most importantly, through our prayer we will desire all the more to enter into the kingdom of heaven. We don’t want to be the weeds. We don’t want to be that plant which is bundled up and burned in the fire, but we want to be the wheat that is gathered into the barn. To enter into the fullness of life that our Lord promises us should be our desire in life. Prayer will lead us to enter into that fullness of life.

So I repeat myself here: daily prayer is as essential as daily food and drink. It’s a must! To enter to this daily prayer, we just need to be quiet and let the Holy Spirit do its work in our lives.