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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 17 September 2023 Note: Homilies & Angelus / Regina Caeli of Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis I had been compiled for you after the Mass Readings below. Happy Reading! Liturgical Colour: Green.
Mass Readings from USCCB, ETWN. 1st Reading: Sirach 27:30 - 28:7; Responsorial: Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4. 9-10, 11-12; 2nd Reading: Romans 14:7-9; Gospel Reading: Matthew 18:21-35, Gospel Video, Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
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Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli
1. In many countries the month of September coincides with the beginning of school activities after the holiday months. I cordially wish the students, their teachers and the whole scholastic world a peaceful return to their work.
And as a new academic year begins, I would like to call your attention again to the Encyclical Fides et ratio, which I had the joy of signing last year on 14 September. This document deals with the relationship between faith and reason, a crucial theme for culture and for life itself, since faith and reason represent two different, but complementary, ways to reach God.
2. The way of reason leads, so to speak, from the world to God the Creator: it proceeds from investigation into the reality of the world to the search for its ultimate foundation. From a perception of the contingent nature of everything earthly, reason rises to the mystery of the One who is the origin and foundation of all things.
In the knowledge of faith, on the other hand, the process is from God to the world: God wished to reveal himself in history, with a language and message that go well beyond that of creation. This Revelation, by means of intrinsically connected words and deeds, is the event by which God reaches out to human beings and speaks to them, "in order to invite and receive them into his own company" (Dei Verbum, n. 2). It is an encounter which culminates in Christ, "the fullness of all Revelation" (ibid.).
The "obedience of faith" must be given to God who reveals himself (ibid., n. 5). It is a commitment offered in complete freedom, that is, secure not only from external constraint but also from that blind fideism which feeds on emotions and is subject to every change of sentiment. Reason plays an important role in avoiding fideism, for it is called to discern the signs by which God made his Revelation credible, so that man can accept it and fully adhere to it.
3. May Blessed Mary, whose Holy Name we devoutly honour today, help those who are most directly involved in the field of education and in scientific research, so that they will not give up in the face of difficulties but will successfully complete their journey by discovering the intrinsic convergence and complementarity of reason and faith. Both lead to God, the goal and fulfilment of human beings. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 12 September 1999)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-488. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-488. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-489. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-490. 8-)
Extracts: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60). The reaction of the disciples – many of whom abandoned Jesus – to his discourse on the Bread of Life in the Synagogue of Capernaum is not very different from our own resistance to the total gift he makes of himself. For truly accepting this gift means losing oneself, letting oneself be involved and transformed, as the Apostle Paul reminded us in the Second Reading: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's” (Romans 14:8).
“This is a hard saying”; it is hard because we often confuse freedom with the absence of bonds, in the conviction that we can manage by ourselves, without God who is seen as a restriction of freedom. This is an illusion that does not take long to become a delusion, giving rise to anxiety and fear and, paradoxically, leading to nostalgia for the bonds of the past: “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt…”, the Jews in the wilderness said, as we heard (Exodus 16:3). In fact, only in openness to God, in receiving his gift, do we become truly free, free from the slavery of sin that disfigures man’s face, and capable of serving the true good of our brethren.
“This is a hard saying”; it is hard because man often succumbs to the illusion that he can “make stones become bread”. After setting God aside, or after having tolerated him as a private choice that must not interfere with public life, some ideologies have aimed to organize society with the force of power and of the economy. History shows us, dramatically, that the objective of guaranteeing everyone development, material well-being and peace, by leaving out God and his revelation, has been resolved by giving people stones instead of bread.
Bread, dear brothers and sisters, is “a fruit of the work of human hands”, and this truth contains the full responsibility entrusted to our hands and to our ingenuity; but bread is also and before that: “a fruit of the earth”, which receives the sun and the rain from on high: it is a gift to ask for that takes away all our pride and enables us to invoke with the trust of the humble: “Our Father… give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
The human being is incapable of giving life to himself, he understands himself only by starting from God: it is the relationship with him that gives our humanity consistence and makes our life good and just. In the “Our Father” we ask that his name be hallowed, that his kingdom come, that his will be done. It is first and foremost God’s primacy that we must recover in our world and in our life, because it is this primacy that enables us to discover the truth of what we are, and it is in knowing and following God’s will that we find our own good; giving time and space to God, so that he may be the vital centre of our existence.
Where should we start from, from what source, in order to recover and to reaffirm the primacy of God? From the Eucharist; here God makes himself so close that he makes himself our food, here he makes himself energy on the often difficult journey, here he makes himself a friendly presence that transforms. The Law given through Moses was already considered as “bread from Heaven”, thanks to which Israel became the People of God, but in Jesus the ultimate and definitive word of God becomes flesh, comes to meet us as a Person. He, the eternal Word, is the true manna, the Bread of Life (cf. John 6:32-35) and doing the works of God is believing in him (cf. John 6:28-29).
At the Last Supper Jesus summed up the whole of his life in an act that is inscribed in the great paschal blessing to God, an act that he lives as Son in thanksgiving to the Father for his immense love. Jesus broke the bread and shared it, but with a new depth, because he was giving himself. He took the cup and shared it so that all might drink from it, but with this gesture he was giving the “new covenant of his Blood”, he was giving himself.
Jesus anticipated the act of supreme love, obedience to the Father’s will: the sacrifice of the Cross. His life will be taken on the Cross, but he was already offering it himself. So it is that Christ’s death is not reduced to a violent execution but was transformed by him into a free act of love, of self-giving, which passed through death itself victoriously and reaffirmed the goodness of creation that came from God’s hands, that was humiliated by sin and redeemed at last. This immense gift is accessible to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. God gives himself to us, to open our life to him, to involve it in the mystery of love of the Cross, to make it share in the eternal mystery from which we come, and to anticipate the new condition of full life in God, of which we in live expectation.
Yet what does starting from the Eucharist in order to reaffirm God’s primacy entail for our daily life? Eucharistic communion, dear friends, wrenches us from our individualism, communicates to us the spirit of Christ dead and risen, and conforms us to him. It closely unites us with our brethren in that mystery of communion, which is the Church, where the one Bread makes many one body (1 Corinthians 10:17), fulfilling the prayer of the Christian community recorded in the Book of the Didaché: “As this broken bread was once scattered on the mountains and after it had been brought together became one, so may your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth unto your kingdom” (ix, 4).
The Eucharist sustains and transforms the whole of daily life. As I recalled in my first Encyclical: “Eucharistic communion includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn”, therefore, “A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented” (Deus Caritas Est, n. 14).
The 2,000-year-old history of the Church is spangled with saints whose existence is an eloquent sign of how in communion with the Lord and from the Eucharist a new and intense assumption of responsibility comes into being at all the levels of community life; thus a new positive social development is born which is centred on the person, especially when he or she is poor, sick or in need. Being nourished by Christ is the way not to be foreign or indifferent to the fate of the brethren, but rather to enter into the same logic of love and of the gift of the sacrifice of the Cross; anyone who can kneel before the Eucharist, who receives the Body of the Lord, cannot but be attentive in the ordinary daily routine to situations unworthy of the human being; anyone who can bend over the needy in the first person, who can break his own bread with the hungry and share water with the thirsty, who can clothe the naked and visit the sick person and the prisoner (cf. Matthew 25:34-36).
This person will be able to see in every individual that same Lord who did not hesitate to give the whole of himself for us and for our salvation. A Eucharistic spirituality, then, is the true antidote to the individualism and selfishness that often mark daily life. It leads to the rediscovery of giving freely, to the centrality of relationships, starting with the family, and pays special attention to alleviating the wounds of broken families.
A Eucharistic spirituality is the soul of an ecclesial community which surmounts divisions and antagonism and appreciates the diversity of charisms and ministries, putting them at the service of the Church, of her vitality and mission. A Eucharistic spirituality is the way to restore dignity to the days of human beings, hence to their work, in the quest for its reconciliation with the times of celebration and of the family, and in the commitment to overcome the uncertainty of precarious situations and the problem of unemployment.
A Eucharistic spirituality will also help us to approach the different forms of human frailty, aware that they do not dim the value of a person but require closeness, acceptance and help. A renewed educational ability will draw strength from the Bread of Life, attentive to witnessing to the fundamental values of existence, of knowledge of the spiritual and cultural heritage; its vitality will enable us to dwell in the human city with the readiness to expend ourselves on the horizon of the common good in order to build a fairer and more brotherly society.
Dear friends, let us start out from the Marches with the power of the Eucharist in a constant osmosis between the mystery we are celebrating and the contexts of our daily life. There is nothing authentically human that does not find in the Eucharist the form it needs to be lived to the full: may daily life therefore become a place of spiritual worship, in order to live in all circumstances the primacy of God, as part of a relationship with Christ and as an offering to the Father (cf. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, n. 71). Yes, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4): we live by obedience to these words, which are living bread, until, like Peter, we consign ourselves with the understanding of love: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).
Like the Virgin Mary, let us too become a “womb”, willing to offer Jesus to the people of our time, reawakening the deep desire for that salvation which comes only from him. I wish the whole Church which is in Italy a good journey with Christ, the Bread of Life! Amen. Pope Benedict XVI (Homily, 11 September 2011)
Before concluding this solemn Eucharistic celebration, the prayer of the Angelus invites us to reflect on Mary Most Holy to contemplate the abyss of love from which the sacrament of the Eucharist comes.
Thanks to the Virgin’s “fiat” the Word made flesh came to dwell among us. In meditating on the mystery of the Incarnation, let us all turn, with our minds and hearts, to the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, only a few kilometres from here. The region of the Marches is illuminated by Mary’s spiritual presence in her historical Shrine which makes these hills even more beautiful and delightful! At this moment I entrust to her the city of Ancona, the Diocese, the Marches and the whole of Italy, so that faith in the Eucharistic Mystery, which makes present the Risen Christ, a source of hope and comfort in daily life, especially at the most difficult moments, may always be alive in every town and in every village, from the Alps to Sicily.
Today our thoughts also turn to September 11th, 10 years ago. In remembering before the Lord of Life the victims of the attacks perpetrated on that day, as well as their families, I invite leaders of nations and people of good will always to reject violence as a solution to problems, to resist the temptation to hate and to work within society, drawing inspiration from the principles of solidarity, justice and peace.
Lastly, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, I pray that the Lord reward all those who have worked for the preparation and organization of this Eucharistic Congress and I cordially address my warmest greeting! Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 11 September 2011)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-490. 8-)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-490. 8-)
This Sunday’s Gospel passage (cf. Matthew 18:21-35) offers us a lesson on forgiveness which does not deny wrongdoing, but recognizes that human beings, created in God’s image, are always greater than the evil they commit. Saint Peter asks Jesus: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (v. 21). To Peter, forgiving the same person seven times already seemed the maximum possible. And perhaps to us it may already seem too much to do so twice. But Jesus answers, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven” (v. 22), meaning always. You must always forgive. And he confirms this by telling the parable of the merciful king and the wicked servant, in which he shows the inconsistency of the man who was first forgiven and then refused to forgive.
The king in the parable is a generous man who, spurred by compassion, forgives an enormous debt — “10,000 talents”: enormous — to a servant who beseeches him. That same servant, however, as soon as he meets another servant like himself who owes him 100 dinarii — which is much less — behaves in a ruthless way and has him thrown in prison. The servant’s inconsistent behaviour is the same as ours when we refuse to forgive our brothers and sisters. Whereas the king in the parable is the image of God who loves us with a love that is so rich in mercy as to welcome us, love us and forgive us continuously.
From the time of our Baptism, God has forgiven us, releasing us from an intractable debt: original sin. But that is the first time. Then, with boundless mercy, he forgives us all our faults as soon as we show even the least sign of repentance. This is how God is: merciful. When we are tempted to close our heart to those who have offended us and tell us they are sorry, let us remember our Heavenly Father’s words to the wicked servant: “I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (vv. 32-33). Anyone who has experienced the joy, peace and inner freedom which come from being forgiven should open him or herself up to the possibility of forgiving in turn.
Jesus wished to introduce the teaching of this parable into the Our Father. He linked the forgiveness which we ask from God with the forgiveness that we should accord our brothers and sisters: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). God’s forgiveness is the symbol of his “overflowing” love for each of us. It is the love that leaves us free to distance ourselves, like the prodigal son, but which awaits our return every day. It is the resourceful love of the shepherd for the lost sheep. It is the tenderness which welcomes each sinner who knocks at his door. The Heavenly Father — our Father — is filled, is full of love and he wants to offer it to us, but he cannot do so if we close our heart to love towards others.
May the Virgin Mary help us to become ever more aware of the gratuitousness and the greatness of the forgiveness received from God, to become merciful like him, Good Father, slow to anger and great in love. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 17 September 2017)
Important Note: We found these News record (on 19 April 2023). We prayed to God for direction on what to do next, we were instructed to stop updating the Homilies, Regina Caeli/ Angelus and the General Audiences from the Vatican (until the matters are resolved) as we lay persons are unable to discern quickly what is beneficial/detrimental to our souls and yours, and this work is supposed to be a Thanksgiving to Him who loves us and has blessed us. Thanks for following us.
Daily Blessings to You from Emmanuel Goh & Friends
Note: This webpage has many hyperlinks to the Vatican Webpage. The above extracts were compiled for your easy reading. This Publication is aimed to encourage all of Goodwill around the World. It is not for business or profit purposes but it is our way to thank our Creator for His continuous blessings!
Compiled on 7 September 2020, 8:00 SGT Last updated: 23 September 2020, 17:38 SGT
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