Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C) August 31, 2025
The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.
Transcript:
“You have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God.” Words from our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our God is real.
The Bible is true.
The God who created the world has spoken to holy men and women throughout the ages – and revealed Himself to the world.
This same God revealed Himself most definitively in the person of Jesus Christ, who was and remains God in the flesh.
And this Jesus Christ saves us from the main problem that we find manifested in all the bad things that happen in the world, both to us and from us – the twofold problem of death and the wrongness we call sin.
Thus, along with the world, we were created with a purpose and a plan – we are not accidents.
And as baptized believers we have been given a mission – we are not useless.
From the baby in the cry room to homebound watching Mass on a TV or phone, we are all holy crusaders and conquistadors bringing forth the Kingdom of God.
And together we unite in a fight to push the demonic forces of evil back and back,
And we plant the flag of heavenly “city of the living God” in the ground of the lives the Lord has given us in the places where He has brought us.
And by living holy lives and preaching the Gospel in word and deed we re-conquer the world for Christ,
And take it by spiritual force from the devil who prowls about the world seeking the ruin of our souls.
This is not just some holy video game we like to act like we are in, but we are not really playing – because life is not a PlayStation.
This is 100% real, and this is the business of the Kingdom.
And as Catholics we are meant to stand on business from sun up to sun down
– till the sun don’t shine no more
– and the moon falls from heavens
– and the sky cracks,
– And Christ comes back to judge the living and the dead,
– And the Kingdom comes, world without end. Amen.
All of this is our supernatural vision for life.
But as you come to Mass each week and sit in the pew, what vision of life to do you live with?
Is it supernatural?
Is it like Sunday?
Or is life more like Monday?
Is your vision mundane?
Is life just living between punching time clocks instead of between one encounter with the living God and the next – these encounters we call the sacraments.
Is life just a routine reality?
Is life really only about what we can make out with our senses while we fill our pockets with dollars and cents?
Does our vision of life get obstructed with that of modern secularized society that lives with little to no reference to God and the supernatural as if these things don’t really exist and the material world is all there is?
Does our vision of life have us live our lives imbued with our Catholic faith as an indispensable part?
Or does our Catholic faith operate more like La Croix where the flavor we are looking for is only like “kinda there” but not really?
Well, a flavored water Catholicism doesn’t quite cut it when we have “the sprinkled blood” in the form of Wine “that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel” (And tastes better too).
And it is only with the truly supernatural vision that we find in our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews that we are able to see it.
Because – do you see it?
I see it as clear as day.
From our second reading I see two mountains:
– one has “a blazing fire” and a “gloomy darkness” that covers it.
– the other, much higher, that reaches above the clouds and has an entire heavenly city on top.
Do you hear it?
I hear as clear as you hear the sound of my voice the two sounds coming from these two mountains:
– from one I hear the booming of a storm with the peals of trumpet blasts coming alongside a mighty “voice speaking words” that terrify my ears,
– from the other I hear the gentle roar of the wings of countless angels flapping festively with singing voices that invite me to join in chanting: “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
And do know them?
I know two holy men from the true testimony of the Scriptures, and they are perched on these two mountains: the old Moses on one and the new David on the other.
Because the mountain of fire is Mt. Sinai of the old covenant where Moses received the 10 Commandments and began a covenant based on:
– the instructions of the Mosaic Law meant only for the Jews
– the temporary tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple
– And burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin that needed to be repeated.
And the mountain of the heavenly city is Mt. Zion, the Jerusalem in the sky where the new David received the 5 wounds to His Body and began a new covenant based on:
– the instructions of Wisdom meant for all nations as one gathered people, the Church
– the permanent Temple of the Son of God
– And the once for all Sacrifice of Thanksgiving that is not repeated but re-presented for every time and place until He comes again.
And if you don’t know by now, this new David is the Lord Jesus.
The second mountain is much higher because the first mountain is a stepping-stone to the second.
The new covenant is greater because it fulfills the old.
And the new David is more glorious than Moses because Jesus is the living LORD and Moses lived to serve the LORD.
And both these mountains carried messages:
– one meant primarily for the Israelites in its time
– the other meant for the whole world for all time.
But they both can be summed up in one notion:
That whether we are talking about Israel’s sins or the sins of the whole world,
The Lord is the true Light to follow, and no matter how deep the darkness may be it cannot ever overcome the Light.
All this is the supernatural vision, and we desperately need to hold on to it,
Because it is only with it that we can see the true Light.
And this Light is the light of the Kingdom that we have a responsibility to carry out into the world and shine even in the times when the darkness tries to aggressively kill the Light by:
– Barricading the doors of a church filled with children praying in Minneapolis.
– Shooting through stained glass windows at the People of God.
– And slaughtering two innocent ones in the face of the tabernacle with Jesus in it.
(AND HOW DARE ANY CREATURE OF GOD DISRESPECT THE CREATOR BY MURDERING INNOCENT BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THE SOUL THAT HAD THE GALL TO DO THIS.)
What we saw last week with the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church was pure evil.
It was the darkness still present in this world trying to invade the holy ground of the Kingdom and reclaim what was won by Christ.
It was the darkness trying to snuff out the only true Light humanity has, and if it did not succeed, it wanted to leave a stark reminder of its presence.
But the darkness, no matter what form it takes, cannot overcome the fact that:
OUR GOD IS REAL and HIS LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS AND THE DARKNESS CANNOT AND SHALL NOT OVERCOME IT.
It was Christ, the Light of the World, who,
with the sword of righteousness forged by the fires of the Love of God,
went into the pit of the darkness of all sin and death through the Cross,
and destroyed it from the inside out.
Thus, when we hear of evil we hear a mere whimper compared to mighty roar of the goodness of God shouting:
DEATH DOES NOT HAVE THE FINAL SAY. EVIL WILL NOT PREVAIL.
For the same angels of God who gather in festal gathering around Mt. Zion, shall come take the two precious souls of Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski to arms of the Father and make their just spirits perfect in Jesus, “the mediator of a new covenant”, which CANNOT and SHALL NOT DIE.
We shall carry the flag of the heavenly city for them and beat back the darkness of the devil with the fury of St. Michael.
And our seat in the pew, which he cannot longer fill, will be for Fletcher,
And the Eucharist we take, which she can no longer receive, shall be for Harper.
But through our supernatural vision we shall see and be with them both around the altar,
Until our seeing of the supernatural becomes natural.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Given at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Hendersonville, TN.