Homily for 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 6, 2025
Collect
Is 66: 10-14
Ps 66: 1-7, 16, 20
Luke 6: 39-45
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Fill your faithful with holy joy” (Collect).

Jerusalem (Edward Lear)

Yes, today’s liturgy celebrates the joy that God desires for us and for which we pray.

Isaiah tells God’s people in Judea to “rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her” (66:10).  He has plans for the restoration of the holy city after the Jews’ years of defeat and exile:  “I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river.  As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” (66:12-13).  (How’s that for a feminine image of God!)

God’s plan for Jerusalem’s happiness is a foreshadowing of his plan for us; for we are meant to be the citizens of his New Jerusalem, the holy city on high where Christ reigns with the saints.  “The Lord’s power shall be known to his servants” (66:14).

We respond to God’s plan, “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy” (Responsorial Psalm).  God’s work, when we see it and correctly interpret it, gives joy to our hearts.  “Shout joyfully to God, all the earth.  Say to God, ‘How tremendous are your deeds!’” (Ps 66:1,3).  Israel witnessed his tremendous deeds at the Red Sea and in their crossing over the Jordan into the Promised Land:  “He has changed the sea into dry land; thru the river they passed on foot” (Ps 66:6).  But his saving work didn’t end there:  “Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare what he has done for me” (Ps 66:16).

The saving work of God our Father (and God our Mother, in Isaiah’s image) culminates in what Jesus Christ does for us.  72 of his disciples, after following his instructions, “returned rejoicing” because of what his power enabled them to do, most notably overcoming “even the demons” (Luke 10:17).  Christ defeats the power of hell as surely as God delivered Israel from the power of Egypt at the Red Sea.  His salvation is universal, and the reason for our joy is not that miracles are done (as in the 72 disciples’ ministry) but that “your names are written in heaven” (10:20).

Brothers and sisters, our names are written in heaven.  When we were baptized, our Lord Jesus stamped on our souls the mark of his possession.  We belong to him.  He has named us as his own.

That’s why we prayed in the collect for the gift of “holy joy.”  For God has “rescued [us] from slavery to sin” by the redemption Jesus wins for us, and on his holy ones, those who belong to Jesus, he “bestows eternal gladness.”

“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to [God], sing praise to [his] name!” (Ps 66:4).