The Challenge to Love our Neighbor
Homily Notes: Twentieth Sunday - Year A (Matthew 15:21-28)
Homily Notes: Twentieth Sunday - Year A (Matthew 15:21-28)
Compassion, the human feeling that allows us to see and feel the pain of others, motivates us to reach out to the other and help. If we call ourselves Christian, and have no compassion or love for the other, then we really don’t understand what Christianity is all about. But here is where it get tricky. Just because we feel for the other, doesn’t mean that we will try to help.
This weekend I am preaching on two very significant, if not the most significant Christians responsible for the spread of Christianity after the Ascension of Jesus. This weekend we celebrate the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.
This weeks Gospel (Matt. 10:26-33) is about being sent to bring the good news. It is not a request, but a command. Jesus’ disciples resisted anyway. If we truly understand and celebrate and live the Eucharist, we understand Jesus’ command and realize that it is just what we do, if we are Christian. Here are two quotes from the 49th Eucharistic Congress that is going on in Quebec City this weekend that should help clarify what I mean when I say, “It is just what we do.”
The opening words of this Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 9:36) remind me of the time when Jesus looked down into the old city of Jerusalem and wept: “When Jesus saw the crowd, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless….”
Four Year Old (out of the mouths’ of babes)
HOMILY - FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY
2007