Humble Yourselves: Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the book of Genesis, God asks Adam, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). Now God, who is omnipresent, and omniscient, had no need to ask Adam where he was; He knew exactly where Adam was. He was, instead, asking Adam to introspect as to where he was in relationship to God.

Where was Adam? Even though not yet expelled from the Garden of Eden, Adam was now fallen from his relationship with God. And he fell, my dear brothers and sisters, because of his sin of pride, in other words, because of a lack of humility.

Today, inspired by these words from Genesis, and from the second reading, I too ask you, do you know where you are, when you come to Mass. In the second reading, St. Paul, tells us exactly where we are when we come to Mass.

you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

This is where we are dear brothers and sisters, we are in the heavenly Jerusalem, participating in the commemoration of the sacrifice of Our Lord, whose blood is on the altar. A sacrifice which is attended by countless angels, and the saints, all of us in the presence of God the Father, who receives the sacrifice of His Son, who mediates between us, imperfect sinners, and the perfection of the Father.

My dear brothers and sisters, St. John Marie Vianney is credited with saying that “If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die: not of fear, but of love.” My dear brothers and sisters, if we knew what the Mass was, we too would die.

We would die, not of fear, like Adam, not the spiritual death, like Adam, but we would die to ourselves. That is, we would die to pride and grow to new life in humility, grateful that we have been permitted to attend this divine gathering; this place where the ladder of Jacob has been set up, where the angels ascend and descend praising God; and we too, through the gift of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, can ascend to heaven. If we do not recognize the reality of the Mass, then it is because of the often undignified manner in which the Mass is celebrated.

The question posed to Adam, can also be posed to us in another way, in the context of the Mass. Do we know where we are in our relationship to God when we come to Mass? In His teaching in the Gospel today Our Lord counsels humility when we come to Mass. When he refers to the wedding banquet, He is referring to the Mass – the wedding banquet of the Lamb, where He is both priest, and sacrifice. At this banquet, he counsels us,

When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.

Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place

In other words, when we come to the banquet table, let us come with humility.

We can be sacramentally humble before God, and be worthily present for the divine banquet, by making a good confession before receiving communion, which is the bread of angels that we are privileged to receive. Accusing ourselves of our sins before God is to take the lowest place at the banquet to which we have been invited. It is the best way to grow in humility! Too often, my dear brothers and sisters, we invite censure on ourselves, by receiving communion unworthily. Remember, that we may not receive communion if we are not in a state of grace. Communion is not a prize for attendance at Sunday mass! Therefore, every time you go to Mass, take the lowest place, by recognizing before God – through the priest in the confessional – that you are a sinner.

It is on recognizing ourselves as sinners, on taking the lowest place at the banquet, that we create the opportunity for the host, our Master, to come up to us and say ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’

And then, as the Gospel says,

Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table (italicized emphasis added).

And who are these companions at the table? These companions, my dear brothers and sisters, are not just those physically present at the Mass, we, the spiritually, “poor, the [spiritually] crippled, the [spiritually] lame, the [spiritually] blind.”  As Saint Paul teaches us today, these companions are also those who are spiritually present, the angels and the holy ones, the saints, of God.

My dear brothers and sisters, the response to the psalm this Sunday is “God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.” Let us give thanks to God, for creating this home for us, and for creating this opportunity for recognize ourselves as poor, for as the words of the hymn go:

Let the weak say, “I am strong”

Let the poor say, “I am rich

Because of what the

Lord has done for us”

(This homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria at the anticipatory Mass on 30 Aug 2025.)

(Image reference: The Confession (detail), Giuseppe Molteni, 1838, Gallerie di Piazza Scala, Milan.)

Sing a New Song: Homily for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;

This excerpt from the Prophet Isaiah, contained the first reading which we hear today, should bring to our mind the episode of the tower of Babel from the book of Genesis (11). In the story of Babel, we see that all of humanity was united in a single language and understood one another. This unity allowed them to commence great projects together. As Genesis teaches us, they said to each other:

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” (Gen 11: 4).

In other words, rather than trust in the providence of God, they relied on their own strengths, and their own capacities. Not just this, they sought to rival God, Himself. And so, God sowed confusion among them, and caused different languages to be born, such that they could not understand each other, nor work with each other.

It is possible to read the episode of Genesis as if God were jealous of, or threatened by, the people of Babel. But listen to the words from the second reading, St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews:

"My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges."
Endure your trials as "discipline";

If it was for the sake of discipline that God sowed confusion among the people of Babel, and it was, then we must be sure that he would have also offered a remedy, for as we read in the book of Job (5:18):

For he wounds, but he binds up;
    he strikes, but his hands heal.

The healing, my dear brothers and sisters, that God offered to remedy the confusion that he created at Babel, was the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost, when all of the apostles:

were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. (Acts 2:4)

With this knowledge in mind, we can now revisit the words from the first reading:

I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.

My dear brothers and sisters, the uniformity that the Lord destroyed, He restored as unity by bringing nations of every language together to bear witness, not to their glory, which would have been detrimental to their interests, but to His glory. The Gospel is proclaimed to all nations, and in all languages, so that we may all be gathered as one, just as in the days of the tower of Babel, but now in trust, and obedience, to Him who is our father. He ensured this to make true the words of Our Saviour which we hear in the Gospel today:

And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.

But the words of scripture are not fulfilled merely in this polyglottal preaching for, as the words of the Prophet Isaiah assure us;

I will set a sign among them; (italicised emphasis added)

The sign, my dear brothers and sisters, is the Latin language. For over a thousand years, Latin was the language in which the Catholic Church offered praise and worship to God. So important is this language, that at the Second Vatican Council, the Fathers of the Council instructed that even as vernacular languages may be permitted during worship:

steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them (Sacrosanctum Concilium §54).

In other words, Latin is an essential part of Catholic worship. It is the sign of unity restored subsequent to Pentecost, where even as the Gospel is proclaimed in multiple languages, we worship in a single language, so that no matter where in the world one goes, one can participate fully, especially in those parts of the Mass that pertain to the people – which would be the parts that the people participate vocally in, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Creed, the Our Father, the Agnus Dei.

The human heart, however, my dear brothers and sisters, is fickle, and we long to travel by the broad path of our convenience, rather than the narrow gate of the disciple of the Lord. And so it is that today, most of us do not know the parts of the Mass in Latin, or the profound Latin hymns that were sung by generations of Catholics before us.

My dear brothers and sisters, I urge you to recover the use of Latin in our worship. And this does not mean abandoning the vernacular languages that have now become a part of our worship. On the contrary, these languages offer us the potential to recover the spirit of Pentecost.

The true spirit of Pentecost is when despite knowing our own language, we also understand the language of the other. Thus, at least in Goa, we must know basic prayers, and be able to sing hymns, in all four languages of Catholics here: Latin, Konkani, Portuguese and English. Additionally, regardless of the language in which the Mass is conducted in, we should sing in all, or any, of these four languages. When we do this, and pray in this manner, we will be able to make the words of the psalm we sing today our own:

Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful on anticipated Sunday mass on Saturday, 23 Aug 2025 at the Sé Catedral, Old Goa.)

(Image reference: Adoration of the Magi (detail), Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1488, Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence.)

The Saints and the Cloud of God’s Presence: Homily for the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

This past week I was arrested by the first few words from the second reading:

Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

St Paul is teaching here about the fact that we should have no need for fear, since we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, and must therefore

rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.

But it was the words “cloud of witnesses” that held me captive.

This phrase is normally used to describe the statutes of the saints that crown the two colonnaded arms that embrace the great piazza of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. And this usage is correct; when Saint Paul refers to the great cloud of witnesses, he is referring to the saints who must inspire us forward on the holy road of sanctity – the race that we are called to run after our baptism.

One of the reasons this word held me captive is because (once again!) I heard two (Catholic) priests disparage the Catholic practice of venerating the saints. Both priests suggested that the Church ought to be Cristo-centric, and that our devotion to the saints was distracting at best, and erroneous at worst. It is a pity when Catholic priests hold these opinions, since this only does damage to the faithful who look to them for teaching, and is in fact contrary to the teaching of our Holy Mother Church.

Examining the words of St. Paul, we can discover how deeply and powerfully they communicate the truths of God’s Kingdom to us.

The first significant reference we find to clouds in the Old Testament is in the Book of Exodus (13: 21), when God appears to the Israelites in the form of a cloud, and guides them out of Egypt. This cloud was, as we should know, the cloud of the glory of the Lord (Ex 16:10). This cloud would go on to do much more, however, for later in Exodus (19:9)

the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.”

The attentive Christian will see in the reference to the dense cloud of Exodus, the great cloud that Saint Paul refers to – I will develop this idea a little later. In any case, the attentive Christian should already see this verse from Exodus as a prefiguring of the way in which The Father would recognize the Son at His Transfiguration when we read that:

a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” (Lk 9: 34-35)

This overshadowing of the apostles, and their entering the cloud, is an echo of Moses entering the cloud where God was (Ex 24:18).

My dear brothers and sisters, after this breakneck consideration of scripture we are in a better position to reconsider St. Paul’s reference to the “great cloud of witnesses.” But, not before a word from St. Ambrose who teaches that

If anyone therefore desires to behold this image of God, he must love God so as to be loved by him, no longer as a servant but as a friend who observes his commandments, that he may enter the cloud where God is (emphasis provided).

In other words, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the words the cloud of witnesses refers not only to the saints, those who have given testament of their faith, whether through their lives or their deaths, but refers also to the communion of the saints. This is to say, these men and women, have, like Moses, and the apostles Peter, James and John, entered into the cloud that is God.

The density of the cloud of God is a density that refers not only to the intensity of the presence of God, but refers to God in all His glory. The same glory that was manifested so often over the Ark of the Covenant, and the Temple in Jerusalem. Listen to the words of Our Lord as regards His second coming:

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. (Mt 24:30)

In other words, when He comes in glory Our Lord will not be alone, not only will He be densely attended by His angels, who have been His for all time, but He will also be attended by these witnesses who have entered the cloud.

My dear brothers and sisters, we should tremble at the words “great cloud of witnesses”, because understood correctly, we can see a whole new meaning to this phrase.

We must not, therefore, hesitate to venerate the saints, because they are beloved of God, and live with Him, and will return with Him when Our Lord comes in glory. A right relationship with the saints – and I stress a right relationship – can, and always will, lead us to Our Lord and Saviour. To follow the saints is not the opposite of being Cristocentric, on the contrary, it is the well-trodden oath towards being Cristocentric. One can only be Cristocentric if one imitates the saints.

May the Saints intervene for us as we:

rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

(This homily was preached to the faithful gathered together at the altar of the Weeping Cross, Convent of Santa Monica, Old Goa on 16 Aug 2025.)

(Image reference: The Last Judgment Polyptych, Rogier van der Weyden, 1445–1450, Hôtel-Dieu of Beaune, Burgundy, France.)