Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest and Martyr, Saint Paul Chong Hasang, Catechist and Martyr, and Their Companions, Martyrs Yrs 1 and 2 2025
Ordinary Time Homilies • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 6 viewsThe Good News about Jesus Christ as Lord and that we are able to confess him before the world is the “one thing necessary” for Christian life. Jesus puts this in a parable: not the hearer who does not inwardly receive the word, not the one who has an experience of joy at the word and does not persevere, and not the one who starts well in the faith but gets distracted by the world end up “in the kingdom” but those who with a generous and persevering heart receive and do the word. We must take this to heart and focus our hearts on the one thing necessary and recognize the difference between those whose faith needs strengthening and those who are in need of evangelism.
Notes
Transcript
Title
Title
Keep The Commandment
Outline
Outline
Sometimes we complicate things
Sometimes we complicate things
We act as if one must carefully keep every rubric of the liturgy, observe carefully the Code of Canon Law, and carry out the moral instruction of Thomas Aquinas to be pleasing to God. Now all of these are good and helpful if used rightly and I seek to know them better and better, but they come later in time than the Gospels and Epistles, developed by reflection upon them and on the instruction passed on by many saints, and were not known in their present form by any of the early saints and martyrs.
The one thing necessary is to “keep the commandment”
The one thing necessary is to “keep the commandment”
The commandment is the Good News about Jesus, that Jesus Christ is Lord and that we are to confess him before the world as our Lord and live in accordance with that confession. And they are to do that even at the cost of their lives.
And that is the core point that Jesus makes. He points to four results of seed, the Good News, being sown. The first reject it outright or at least put it on the shelf of their minds and the devil comes and removes it. The second do receive it “with joy,” but when tests come, whether outright persecution or hardships of life (of which Job is an extreme example) they fall away from the faith. Following Jesus is too hard. The third seem to be enduring, but daily life with its anxieties, finances, and pleasures choke the faith, take priority in life, and no fruit matures. Good outward appearance but no substance. Now while we might want to include the second and third as “in” for they are baptized Catholics even if non-practicing or not practicing much, Jesus only views those who “bear fruit with perseverance” as “in the kingdom.” Only they have at their core the one thing that matters.
So this should be helpful to us
So this should be helpful to us
There is one thing that matters in life, which is the confession of Jesus as Lord and living this out by following his teachings. That part is clear.
But to be “in the kingdom including” or “life giving” that confession must be enduring and lived out by following the teaching of Jesus, by adopting his worldview. As James says, faith without works is dead. But Jesus also knows human weakness, so he does not say how much fruit or how many times one may stumble in the process. If there is a ‘generous and good heart” and “perseverance” he is working with us for his good purposes. On the other hand, those who lack perseverance or get distracted by the stuff of this work are in need of evangelism. They are not OK.
Thus our focus should be and remain on Jesus and on growing in how well we life and exemplify his teaching. That, says Paul, will make us ready for the manifestation of Jesus as Lord at God’s proper time.
