30th Sunday of Year B
CENTRAL IDEA
Faith which saves
By Kevin Aldrich
Overview of
Doctrinal Homily
Outlines
Kevin Aldrich
Written as an aid for homilists and a resource for the faithful, this doctrinal homily outline (1) provides insights into the Lectionary readings, (2) explicates a doctrine of Catholic Faith or morals from them, and (3) shows specific ways lay persons can live these truths.
Click on title to read everything from Kevin Aldrich. What follows are only excerpts of Catechism themes you will find on his blog.
First Reading
- God promises the joy of redemption to his children, who are now “poor banished children of Eve,” infirm, dependent, undefended, with a hard lot.
- This redemption of our bodies an essential part of God’s promise, which we cling to in faith.
Responsorial Psalm
- Suffering comes to us and we cannot well escape it. We ask to be delivered from it and we wait to be delivered.
Second Reading
- How we feel as we sow does not guarantee anything about the fruits of that sowing. As the psalmist tells us, “Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.” It could be just as true that those who sow in laughter shall reap sorrowing. Or those who sow in revelry will reap in misery.
Gospel
- He threw aside his cloak. Why would a blind man cast his cloak aside? It is out of character. A blind man would have learned early on how easy it would be to lose something…
DOCTRINE
Faith is a gift of God
- God offers us the gift of faith, and with his help we assent to what he proposes that we believe.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Faith in action
- God wants us to believe what he has revealed and entrusted to his Church…
- God wants us to put the faith into practice in our ordinary lives…
- God wants us to spread the faith…
30th Sunday of Year B
FRANCISCAN FRIARS (24:37) – Paragraphs 571-637 – Fr. Daniel J. Mahan, S.T.L., pastor of St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Bloomington, Indiana, and St. Jude the Apostle in Spencer covers the entire Catechism in 111 videos, giving an outline of the content along with clear easy to follow explanations. The series is based on the 2nd Edition of the Catechism.
This Week’s Catechism Themes
“The following paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church resonate with the biblical readings for this Sunday. They were chosen either because they cite or allude to the specific readings, or because they treat topics found in the readings.” —Homiletic Directory
CCC 547-550: Jesus performed messianic signs
CCC 1814-1816: faith, a gift of God
CCC 2734-2737: filial confidence in prayer
Filial Confidence in Prayer
Why do we complain of not being heard?
- Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him; for he desires to do something even greater for you, while you cling to him in prayer.29God wills that our desire should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what he is prepared to give.30
SOURCE: Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2nd ed. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2012.
30th Sunday of Year B

In good times and bad, Christians should always put faith into action
DIOCESE OF SPRINGFIELD ILLINOIS (5:42)
What is Faith?
ARCHDIOCESE OF MILWAUKEE (3:01) – Friends often encourage one another to “have faith” when times are tough. What exactly is faith? Bishop Don Hying helps us define this seemingly “ordinary’ word that packs extraordinary power. Based upon the Catechism of the Catholic Church (142).

Faith is Not Something You Can Lose
ASCENSION PRESENTS (10:07) – Sure, there are times when it’s just hard to believe what the Catholic Faith tells us, but when someone says “I’m losing my faith,” or “I lost my faith,” there’s something much more serious going on there. Fr. Mike examines this problem, but emphasizes that we actually can’t lose faith because it’s a gift from God. We can use that gift wrongly and put it into what Fr. Mike calls “God’s chief rivals” or, in other words, idols; but the faith is still there and we can still put it in God if we simply choose to. Maybe God is giving you the gift of faith right now, and maybe you just have to use it the way he intends.
30th Sunday of Year B
CATHOLIC KIDS MEDIA (1:59) – A fun Catholic reflection for kids based on the readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
RCL Benziger
The Common Priesthood of the Baptized
Catholics believe that the whole people of God is priestly. Members of the Church are given a share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ through the sacrament of baptism. The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through a life of faith, hope, and love manifested by the particular station in life discerned by each one, according to the Holy Spirit.
The ministerial, or ordained, priesthood of bishops and priests, while related to the common priesthood, is not the same. It is at the service of the common priesthood of all believers. Its purpose is to assist in the unfolding of baptismal grace of all Christians, by means of which Christ continues to build up and lead the Church. Given this distinct purpose, the ministerial priesthood is transmitted by its own sacrament, the sacrament of holy orders.
Christ, the one high priest who lovingly offered himself to God the Father, is the source and font of every ministry in the Church. He gives authority, mission, orientation, and goal to the Church.
SOURCE: RCL BENZIGER Classroom Sessions Year B (2017-2018)
Lesson Plans (PDF)
Lesson segments: Opening Prayer, Life Reflection, Listening to the Word of God, Scripture Discussion Starters, Scripture Background, Questions for Deeper Reflection, Doctrinal Discussion Starters, and the Gospel in Life
Primary Session
Intermediate Session
Junior High Session
SOURCE: RCL BENZIGER Classroom Sessions Year B (2017-2018)
Doctrinal Discussion Starters
Catholics believe that through the sacrament of baptism, all God’s people share in the common priesthood and every Christian is called to holiness. The waters of baptism offer God’s people new life in Christ. The faithful live out their baptismal call through a life of faith, hope and love. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the baptized discover and use their gifts to live as disciples and make God’s love a reality in the world.
The ordained priesthood of bishops and priests is not the same as the common priesthood. Rather, it is at the service of the common priesthood of all believers. Jesus Christ is the source of all ministries in the Church.
- Recall your baptism. How do you live out your baptismal call today?
- How do the ordained priests in your parish serve the faithful community?
- What does sharing in the common priesthood mean to you?
- How do young people today live out the call to holiness in their everyday lives?
Jesus Performed Messianic Signs
The signs of the kingdom of God
547 Jesus accompanies his words with many “mighty works and wonders and signs”, which manifest that the kingdom is present in him and attest that he was the promised Messiah.268
548 The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him.269 To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask.270 So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father’s works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God.271 But his miracles can also be occasions for “offense”;272 they are not intended to satisfy people’s curiosity or desire for magic. Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons.273
549 By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness and death,274 Jesus performed messianic signs. Nevertheless he did not come to abolish all evils here below,275 but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God’s sons and causes all forms of human bondage.276
550 The coming of God’s kingdom means the defeat of Satan’s: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”277 Jesus’ exorcisms free some individuals from the domination of demons. They anticipate Jesus’ great victory over “the ruler of this world”.278 The kingdom of God will be definitively established through Christ’s cross: “God reigned from the wood.”279
Faith, A Gift from God
814 From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God’s gifts and the diversity of those who receive them. Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and cultures is gathered together. Among the Church’s members, there are different gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life. “Holding a rightful place in the communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own traditions.”263 The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church’s unity. Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly threaten the gift of unity. And so the Apostle has to exhort Christians to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”264
815 What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity “binds everything together in perfect harmony.”265 But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by visible bonds of communion:
– profession of one faith received from the Apostles;
-common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments;
– apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the fraternal concord of God’s family.266
816 “The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it. . . . This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.”267