By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at Mass at Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Hialeah, FL. Oct. 14, 2025.
In today’s gospel, Jesus dines at the home of a Pharisee, but it didn’t end well. As we continue to read from the gospel according to St. Luke, the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes will continue to increase.
Rather than heed Jesus’ words as a call to conversion, the scribes (the scholars of the law) and Pharisees will react with hostility. They will continue to interrogate him trying to catch him in his speech so as to accuse him. For his part, Jesus will continue teaching his followers and the crowds the nature of true discipleship.
These controversies or arguments between Jesua and the Pharisees are a reminder that theological teaching at every level must not hinder but rather serve the Church’ mission of proclaiming the Kingdom of God so as to lead people to salvation.
Jesus wants all people to be saved. And the words Jesus addressed to the scribes and Pharisees could be applied to many in the Church today. You can see this in many of those self-appointed guardians of the faith that are harshly critical of the bishops and the Pope because they think that we are not as condemning of those they think we should condemn. They are like the guy that was seen once standing on a street corner with sign that said: Jesus is coming – and boy, he is mad.
Those “self-appointed” defenders of orthodoxy don’t help but hinder the Church’s mission to lead people to salvation. And often times we don’t help either. Too often I have heard about that proverbial parish receptionist whose first word to someone who walks into the rectory office is “Are you registered?” instead of “How can I help you?” We will not communicate the power of the Gospel if we are joyless or sourpusses as Pope Francis said in “The Joy of the Gospel”.
Of course, it is true that he Christ that is found in the Gospels — is much different from the image of Christ that prevails in our culture today. The “popular” image of Jesus today is of a Jesus who demands nothing, who never scolds, who accepts everyone and everything — a Jesus who no longer does anything but affirm us.
Pope Benedict, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, said: “The Jesus that makes everything okay for everybody is a phantom, a dream, and not a real figure.” The Jesus we meet in the Gospel — who is the same yesterday, today and forever — is demanding and bold. And therefore, he is not always convenient for us in his boldness and in his demands as those scribes and Pharisees discovered. In the first reading, Paul boldly proclaims: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes for Jew first, and then Greek.”
And the Church, if she is to be the effective presence of Christ in the world today, cannot be ashamed or afraid of the very real demands of discipleship that Jesus boldly makes on those who would be his followers.
Yet, the Church is, as Pope Francis has said, a “field hospital” tending to those wounded in the battlefields of life with the healing balm of God's grace and mercy. The “medicine” of the Gospel is denied to no one.
To be sure, the core of the gospel is a call to “metanoia”, to the conversion of our minds and hearts.
And faith without the cross is not the faith of Jesus Christ, a faith without the cross is not a faith that can save. Of course, the Christ of the gospel is the answer to the longings of the human heart — the Christ that can save.
Again, we preach Christ crucified. If we present Jesus Christ as he truly is — the power of God and the wisdom of God — our people can experience him as an answer that is convincing and they can accept his message, even when it is demanding and bears the mark of the Cross.
When all is said and done, it is joy that will attract people to the gospel especially those who believe -wrongly – that our religion is a bunch of “noes”, that the Gospel — especially in its hard sayings — as something against them; and not for them.
But to be a Christian is not a burden but a gift, having encountered him is the best thing that has happened to us, and to share him with others by our gifts of our time, talent and treasure, even at the cost of our very selves, is a joy.
