In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so please feel free to share with others these homilies and your own personal faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
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3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Saturday 5:00 p.m. Mass
Sunday 10:30 a.m. Mass
January 25-26th, 2025
End of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
First reading: Nehemiah 8:2-4, 5-6, 8-10
Responsorial: Psalm 19 "Your words, Lord, are spirit and life."
Second reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Alleluia. Alleluia. The Lord sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives. Alleluia.
Gospel: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Good News: In light of the "wedding feast of the Lamb", Jesus calls each and every one of us to be "God's secret agents" in the world... manifesting his power to extend his love, peace, and concord through us into other people's lives....
Homily Note Points (from Sunday morning)
Saturday, January 25th - Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul
2 weekends bookending it are the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Why pray for unity? Because we are divided into different traditions... with lots of other causes of division... See how in families there may be a policy of not talking about politics, religion, or sex, or whatever... Why? To avoid arguments and divisions.
We all feel the heaviness of our times... a world troubled and divided by wars, economic upheaval, instability of jobs, diseases, climate change, gender confusion, uncertainty, and many other troubles... making our times often dark....
Pope Francis has in prayer discerned a need in humanity for HOPE and has declared a jubilee year - Jubilee 2025 - with the theme "Pilgrims of Hope".
In our Roman Catholic Tradition, every 25th year is a regular Jubilee: 2000, 2025, 2050, etc. You may recall how ten years ago, Pope Francis gave us the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015-2016 in response to his observation of divisions in our Church between those resembling the Pharisees of Jesus' day... concerned, when not obsessed, with identifying who the sinners are by constantly harping on the commandments and the rules, on the one hand; and on the other hand, those who follow in Jesus' steps and emphacize rather the mercy of God. Pope Francis went so are as to declare, often, and instructing clergy that the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation - Confession - is not a torture chamber, nor like going to a psychotherapist.... Rather, it is simply going to the priest and declaring before God "Lord, I am a sinner." and then receiving God's forgiveness and mercy in the formula of absolution.
In Jesus, God is offering to all of humanity his friendship, friendship with the Holy Trinity. The Bible, especially the O.T., calls us to "know the ways of the Lord", that is, to share in God's love and life. How do we do this? We do it through the graces God offers everyone in the virtues of FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY. Because these graces are virtues, we must USE them in order to ACTIVATE them. I will now describe them.
(Dramatically holding onto the lectern / pulpit / ambo...) FAITH is HOLDING ON, CLINGING TO GOD, no matter what happens, or how I feel, or what people say....
As we use our faith by clinging to God - going to Church, praying, opening the Bible and reading, meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary, over time, we become familiar with God and his ways. We notice how God consoles us in distress, comforts us in our pain, sends people to us in our loneliness, lifts up our drooping spirits....
As we become more familiar with the ways of the Lord, we come to know that we can trust Him and rely on Him... and this is the virtue of HOPE, which we use and activate every time we turn our will to trusting in the Lord and anticipate his ongoing help and love.
Practicing Faith and Hope develops in our spirit an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE, which is actually love of God, CHARITY. We come to love God and want to please Him. The daily quality test of our love for God is in the quality of our love of neighbour, especially the neighbour who is most difficult to love.
The people of Israel in Ezra and Nehemiah's day lived some 4 to 5 centuries before Jesus. The people had been carried off into exile on 3 separate occasions and their Temple had been destroyed. Now, God had brought them back to their own land and had helped them to rebuild the Temple. They rediscovered the Word of God, and on this day, from early morning until noon - for 5 to 6 hours - the people stood and listened attentively to the Word of God and the explanations given to them. That is a lot longer than the mere hour of duration of our Sunday Mass....
On that occasion, as the people listened to the Word of the Lord, there were tears. Tears of sadness as they realized how they had failed to measure up and regretted having turned away from the Lord; but there were also tears of joy as they heard once again about the love and goodness of the Lord and his abundant mercy and blessing to them.
This is the movement and the flow that happens for us at every Sunday Liturgy and Holy Mass. We gather together before the Lord and turn over our burdens to God and his mercy. As the bread and wine are prepared, the Holy Spirit helps us call to mind all that we carry within us and care about: our weakness and sins, our fears and hopes, our plans and disappointments, and all the holy desires God puts into our spirit....
As Jesus offered Himself perfectly once to the Father at the Last Supper and on the Cross, so, now, Jesus helps us make a personal offering of ourselves, of our own life, to the Father, and He joins our offering of ourselves to his offering of Himself to the Father.
At Holy Communion, the Father gives us Jesus his Son as our nourishment and strength for the journey of life, to sustain us and make us more and more like Jesus and Mary.
Then, at the end of Mass, Jesus sends us back out into our lives and into the world as his SECRET AGENTS of God's love, mercy, and peace, so that He can manifest to the whole world his power of love, mercy and peace through us to others who also need Him.
As radio, TV, and cell phone towers transmit signals and content; so too, God wants to transmit in us and through us the power of his love, mercy, and life. How do we participate in this work of God? One example is how every day we may notice things that are not right: words, gestures, behaviours and actions that seem to be wrong or even evil. For each and every one of these, we can pray within ourselves: "Lord, have mercy on him. Lord, have mercy on her. Lord, have mercy on them. Lord, pour your live into them; shine your light on them."
Even a thousand times a day, we can do this, and act as God's intercessors for other human beings; just as Jesus is constantly doing or each and every one of us!
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In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so please feel free to share with others these homilies and your own personal faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
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© 2006-2025 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2025 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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