Homily for 23d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
23d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 5, 2021
Eucharistic Prayer
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, New Rochelle, N.Y.
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx, N.Y.

“Do this in memory of me” (Eucharistic Prayer).

I have a cousin who’s very much into genealogy.  She used to sign off her emails, “We live as long as we are remembered.”  I don’t know why she stopped signing off that way about 2 years ago.

We, however, haven’t stopped breaking and sharing the Eucharist in memory of our Lord Jesus Christ, doing as he commanded, keeping his memory alive.

In the sacred Scriptures, in Jewish and Christian tradition, to remember is to keep some person or some event alive, to keep him or it ever present.  In God, as you know, there is no past and no future; he is eternally present, eternally now.  When we remember Jesus, he is present with us, and what he did once is effective now in us.  “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come again.”  His death is present.  His resurrection is present.  He is coming again.

In earthly terms, his death occurred almost 2,000 years ago, and so did his resurrection and ascension.  We still look toward his return.

But that’s just our limited perspective.  Since he is very much alive, he makes present to us the effects of his death, resurrection, and ascension.  We offer to his Father his own sacrifice, his own death on the Cross as he lived, and still lives, faithful to his Father’s will.  He, in turn, may make of us an eternal offering to his Father (EP III), taking us up in his once-and-for-all self-offering.

We remember our Lord Jesus Christ.  He, likewise, remembers us, keeps us present in his eternal love, eternally offers himself for us and to us.  All of God’s saving events are present to us, effective in us thru the liturgy:  the Passover from Egypt, the entrance to the Promised Land, the restoration of Israel to their land after exile, and the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord.  These are not confined to history but extend thruout time.  God always remembers who we are—his people—and what he’s done for us.

God forgets only one thing:  our sins, when we turn them over to him.  His blood of the new and eternal covenant has been poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins (EP).  His mercy is eternal, ever-present for those who will grasp it.  He remembers—remembers that we belong to him, that he offers himself for us.  So long as we preserve his memory in ourselves, doing as he commands, the body he gave for us and the blood he shed for us are effective, carrying us into the eternal now of his Father.