Homily for the Mass of Sunday, November 16, 2025: “We are in the fight to choose good”

Sunday 16 November 2025
33^rd Sunday During the Year – Year C

Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

1^st Reading: Malachi 3:19-20a
Psaume : 97 (98),5-6,7-8,9
2^rd reading: 2 Thessalonians 3,7-12
Gospel: Luke 21,5:19-XNUMX

Since chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis, the world has been in a bad way. And since chapter 4, it has been in a very bad way, since Cain killed his brother Abel… Violence, murder, wars, jealousy, and dissension are nothing new. The situation must have been so dire in God's eyes that it required the death of the Beloved on the cross! What we witness is what Jesus said to Nicodemus: “God so loved the world — this world in which we live — that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God so loved the world…

We are witnessing this.

Since sin entered the world, our world has been the site of a formidable battle, a formidable struggle. The enemy, Satan—which means the adversary—the devil—which means the divider—the grappling hook, as the Holy Curé of Ars liked to call him, works relentlessly to snatch everything from God's grasp. We are in the midst of a formidable battle that transcends us, that sweeps through the world, through our society, through our very hearts. Witnesses of Christ, who died and rose again, we are called to choose to walk with Jesus, the Savior, and to work with Him in this formidable battle, to act through Him, with Him, and in Him, so that in this world He may, through us, with us, and in us, bring about the victory of the Kingdom. 

We witnessed his coming some 2000 years ago. We witness that he continues to make himself present to his Church, and we await his coming in glory—we will proclaim it again shortly in the CredoAnd what are we doing here this morning? Precisely, we are here because we await his coming in glory. I repeat to you this passage from the third Eucharistic Prayer, just after the consecration:

By thus remembering your Son, 
of His Passion which saves us, 
of his glorious resurrection
and of his ascension into Heaven
(remembering the whole Paschal mystery)
as we await his final advent,
We offer you, Lord, in thanksgiving,
this living and holy sacrifice.

We celebrate the Eucharist in anticipation of the coming in glory, which is called the Parousia, and at the same time, in celebrating the Eucharist, it is a mysterious coming of the Lord who makes himself present in our midst. 

Saint Thérèse, when she recalls her first communion, says that in receiving the Eucharist, all the joy of Heaven came into her heart, and she says it in a formula that is general:

Was not Heaven within my soul? 

Yes, through the celebration of the Eucharist, the whole Kingdom is already present. 

And while awaiting this coming, through faith, and not through clear vision, we seek to walk with Jesus. In what is called the embolism of the Lord's Prayer, that is, the unfolding, the development of the last phrase of the Lord's Prayer, "deliver us from evil," the new translation of the Missal says:

Deliver us from all evil, Lord,
and brings peace to our time:
sustained by your mercy,
we will be freed from all sin,
immune to all trials,
we who are waiting for it to happen
this blessed hope:
the coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

When? When we are in the Kingdom. This development of the last petition of the Lord's Prayer is also a reflection on the end times, on the coming of Christ in glory. We who await the fulfillment of this blessed hope: the advent of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We know that then we will be freed from all sin and safe from all trials. But until then, we are engaged in the struggle to choose goodness and love, and to renounce sin and hatred, through the grace of Christ. 

The Christian life is truly work, because nothing will be accomplished without our participation. At the same time, it is the Lord Jesus who wins the victory, but he does not want to win it without us. I regularly quote this letter from Thérèse to Céline, letter 135, where Thérèse says this astonishing thing:

Ah! It's because Jesus has such an incomprehensible love for us that He wants us to share with Him in the salvation of souls. He wants to do nothing without us. (LT 135 to Céline – August 15, 1892) Don't answer me as someone once did: "I don't understand"... because precisely, Thérèse says: such an "incomprehensible" love.

The Lord does not want us to be merely debtors of the Kingdom, merely recipients of undeserved grace. He also wants us to become active participants in it ourselves, through Him, with Him, and in Him. 

Our world is violent, our world is painful. We have just commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Bataclan attack, which was deeply impactful and traumatic. But we all have war zones on our minds right now. Newspapers talk a lot, of course, about Ukraine and the Middle East, but we should also talk about Nigeria, Mali, Sudan, Haiti, and so many other places. And we can't open the newspaper every day without learning that someone, often a young person, has died a violent death in the street. How can we stand in this painful world as witnesses to Christ the victor, and as witnesses to Christ's victory through love? It is not the intensity of Christ's suffering in his Passion that saves us, but his unfailing love for the Father and for us. It is his love that saves us, his full communion with the Father. And this love for sinners necessarily causes suffering. Sometimes it is very simple suffering. But when someone exasperates me and I remain gentle and patient, it's painful. When someone asks me for a favor when I'm tired, and I still go and do it for them, it's painful. Love causes pain. 

In Heaven, there will be nothing but joy, but on this earth, love causes suffering if I truly seek to love others and not myself in the feelings I experience, for love is expressed in actions; it manifests itself in the concrete service of our neighbor. This is what we are called to. This is what the Lord expects of us. 

Paul invites us to work: to work to earn our living, but we could also say to work for the Lord Jesus, to work with the Lord Jesus. We must understand that all his work is the salvation of this world, and that each of us, wherever we are, is called to be a witness to this salvation and an agent of it. How? Through charity, through love lived out concretely. Nothing else, brothers and sisters, will save the world. 

The Lord warns us: “Beware lest you be led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ or, ‘The time is very near.’” When we are in difficult times, we may be tempted to seek solutions that seem more affordable, that seem to offer salvation, at least in the short term. There is no Savior other than the Lord Jesus.“Under heaven, no other name [than that of Jesus] is given to men by which we can be saved.”. ” teaches Saint Peter in the Acts of the Apostles (4:12). 

So, in celebrating this Eucharist, let us renew our faith in the Lord Jesus, our love for the Lord Jesus. Let us remain devoted to him and ask him for the grace to truly serve him.

Thérèse kept her eyes fixed on Heaven throughout her life. She had the grace to be captivated very early in her life by the “beautiful Heaven,” by the “Homeland,” by the Kingdom toward which we journey. And she would have to endure the last 18 months of her life this trial of no longer seeing with her heart, of no longer seeing Heaven, but nevertheless remaining attached to the Lord Jesus. 

And shortly before her death, in April 1897, she wrote to Abbé Bellière:

When I began to learn French history, the story of Joan of Arc's exploits captivated me. I felt in my heart the desire and the courage to imitate her; it seemed to me that the Lord was also destining me for great things. I was not mistaken, but instead of a voice from Heaven calling me to battle, I heard deep within my soul a voice sweeter, even stronger—that of the Bridegroom of virgins, calling me to other exploits, to more glorious conquests. And in the solitude of Carmel, I understood that my mission was not to crown a mortal king, but to make the King of Heaven loved, to submit the kingdom of hearts to Him. (LT 224, April 25, 1897, to Father Bellière)

Well, may we, with Saint Thérèse, experience this same desire to make the King of Heaven loved and to help our brothers and sisters who have forgotten him or who do not know him, to help them discover him, to love him in turn, and to follow him to his Kingdom.

Amen