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Views from the Choir Loft

Homily: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Guest Author · August 17, 2014

HERE IS NO DENYING the fact that there is something very unique about how Jesus acted in today’s Gospel episode. It’s about the only time that Jesus seemed like he was going to deny someone’s fervent request. And then the rest of His remarks could almost be considered insulting. When you read different commentators you will find different explanations. Both you and I can possibly come up with an explanation for why Jesus said what He did. But when all is said and done, that is all we have: our own or someone else’s explanation.

Apparently the woman didn’t get angry or frustrated. She didn’t give up hope, but kept right in there. And in the end we can say that she won. In fact Jesus ends up by paying her a great compliment about her great faith. And more importantly she obtains what she originally had asked for, the cure of her daughter.

I will admit it is easy to say that this should be an example for us. I do believe that our prayer life, especially when we go to God with our needs and petitions can be a great test of our faith. The reason I say this is because it seems to happen so often that our prayers, yes our well intentioned prayers seem to go unanswered. I’m not referring to those prayers when we are praying for material things like money or jobs or even health. I’m referring to the times when we pray for the conversion of loved ones who have fallen away from the Church, who no longer practice their religion, who no longer believe. Why aren’t those prayers answered?

I’VE ENTITLED THE NEXT PART of my sermon “Don’t be so sure!” There are so many things about God that we don’t know or understand. One of these is what I will call “God’s timing.” Strictly speaking there is no time with God in the sense that we understand God. With God everything is an eternal “now.” We can’t understand that, so don’t even try. And God has His reasons for allowing things to happen when and where they are supposed to happen. And so when He doesn’t answer our prayers right now—like we would like to happen―He has His reasons. But remember Jesus told us Ask and you shall receive. I can assure you that He meant it. He never said ‘immediately’.

Jesus Himself gives us the reason why He answered this woman’s request: it was her great faith; her great confidence that Jesus would grant her request. I sometimes think that the more ‘educated’ that people become, the less their faith becomes. There is no denying the great technological advances of the last decade. Younger people can carry on conversations about I-pads, computers, etc., and I don’t know what they are talking about. Let something go wrong on my computer and I am completely helpless. Unfortunately too many in the modern world are losing their faith in God. How much faith and confidence do I have when I pray for the conversion of a loved one? Do I have as much faith as this woman who asked for the cure of her daughter? After all Jesus had told her that since she was not a Jew, he wasn’t really sent for her benefit.

In conclusion I will relate the following incident about my own mother since maybe some of you can relate it to your mothers if you are older, or your grandmothers. I had a brother who was married outside the Church and had stopped going to Church for about thirty years. An aunt of mine once asked my mother if she worried about him. Without hesitating my mother answered, “I don’t worry about him; I just pray for him.” What wisdom coming from someone who only went to the fifth or sixth grade! More importantly, what faith in prayer she had! How does your faith, how does my faith compare?


We hope you enjoyed this homily by Fr. Valentine Young, OFM.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Rev Fr Valentine Young OFM Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Chants closely related to the readings should, of course, be appropriately transferred for use with these readings. For pastoral reasons also there is an option regarding the chants for the Proper of Seasons: namely, as circumstances suggest, to replace the text proper to a day with another text belonging to the same season.”

— Ordo Cantus Missae (1971)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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