The Ambo: Homilies for the Faithful

Evangelical Catholicism George Weigel (from First things Magazine, March 2013) The deep reform of the Catholic Church has been underway since the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903), which marked a decisive break with the essentially defensive strategy Pope Pius IX and his immediate predecessors had adopted toward cultural and political modernity. Outlined in vitro in Leo’s extensive magisterium, this reform process was accelerated, not without difficulty, by the great movements of liturgical, biblical, philosophical, theological, and pastoral renewal in mid-twentieth-century Catholicism, and reached a moment of high ecclesiastical drama in the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). The authoritative interpretation of Vatican II by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI has focused this evolution through the prism of what these two men of the council have called the New Evangelization, which is now the grand strategy of the Catholic Church for the twenty-first century and beyond.  

First Sunday of Lent, 2013 Gospel Luke 4: 1-13 Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert  for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”  Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.  The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish.  All this will be yours, if you worship me.” 8 Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’” Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here