{"id":1692,"date":"2018-11-22T18:25:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T18:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/?p=1692"},"modified":"2018-11-22T18:25:18","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T18:25:18","slug":"homily-week-33-04-yr-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/22\/homily-week-33-04-yr-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"HOMILY WEEK 33 04 – Yr II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victorious in Christ \u2013 Memorial: St. Cecilia<\/em><\/p>\n

(Rev 5:1-10; Ps 149; Lk 19:41-44)<\/p>\n

******************************************<\/p>\n

Recall your experience of winning an event of any kind, the feelings involved of being on the winning side and the way those feelings return when we remember the event, like Canada winning Olympic gold. I remember the highway I was driving on when Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal for Olympic gold, and in my excitement, blowing the horn to no one in particular as I was all alone on the road, except for a few deer.<\/p>\n

The readings of today invite us to rejoice in the Lord, and live in his Kingdom as joyful, victorious servants.<\/p>\n

In the gospel, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem because despite all the prophecies, in their lack of faith, in their infidelity to the covenant, and their lust after possession, prestige and power, they failed to recognize Jesus, and did not accept him. They failed to be on the winning side, and lost big-time, with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. At supper here in Nazareth, the pilgrims with me at table were wondering how it was that, to this day, the Jewish people simply cannot believe in Jesus with so much evidence all around us (we visited the Primacy of Peter, Capernaum, Church of the Heptapegon(Taghba) where Jesus fed the Multitudes, and celebrated the Eucharist on a boat on the Sea of Galilee).<\/p>\n

The first reading from Revelations is just the opposite. In John\u2019s vision of heaven, Jesus is the Lion of Judah, the root of David, the New Israel. He is the Lamb who was slaughtered and by his blood has conquered death, darkness and evil. He alone can open the scroll of the future. He has ransomed us and made us priests to serve in his Kingdom that will have no end.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jesus Lion of Judah<\/p><\/div>\n

The result of this is we are on the winning side. We are victorious in him, and like the heavenly throng of angels, saints and spiritual beings, we can worship him and exult with joy. All we have to do is to put our total faith and trust in him, open ourselves up to receive him, and serve him with our whole being. Every day we have that opportunity to experience victory over sin, evil and darkness in our own lives by recognizing him and accepting him.<\/p>\n

The Church provides us with a fitting model today, St. Cecilia. She was a woman in Rome who came from a very rich family and was given in marriage to Valerian, whom she converted. As her husband and brother-in-law buried the dead, St. Cecilia spent her time preaching and in her lifetime was able to convert over four hundred people, most of whom were baptized by Pope Urban.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Eucharist is a foretaste of that heavenly banquet. It is like a victory celebration because we are victorious in Christ and on the winning side.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, remember, every day we are called to rejoice in the Lord, and live in his Kingdom as joyful servants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victorious in Christ \u2013 Memorial: St. Cecilia (Rev 5:1-10; Ps 149; Lk 19:41-44) ****************************************** Recall your experience of winning an event of any kind, the feelings involved of being on the winning side and the way those feelings return when we remember the event, like Canada winning Olympic gold. I remember the highway I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordinary-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}