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Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

Reading I Hosea 6:1-6
“Come, let us return to the LORD,
    it is he who has rent, but he will heal us;
    he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds.
He will revive us after two days;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    to live in his presence.
Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD;
    as certain as the dawn is his coming,
    and his judgment shines forth like the light of day!
He will come to us like the rain,
    like spring rain that waters the earth.”
What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your piety is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that early passes away.
For this reason I smote them through the prophets,
    I slew them by the words of my mouth;
For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice,
    and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Responsorial PsalmPsalm 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab

R.    (see Hosea 6:6)  It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
    in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
    and of my sin cleanse me.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
    should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
    a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Be bountiful, O LORD, to Zion in your kindness
    by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem;
Then shall you be pleased with due sacrifices,
    burnt offerings and holocausts.


Gospel Luke 18:9-14
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —  greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Third Sunday of Lent -C
 
Reading 1 Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15
(Vs 1-6) Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,  the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.”

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely,  God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” God said, “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet,  for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers,” he continued,  “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

But the LORD said, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt  and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers,  so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land,  a land flowing with milk and honey.”

(Vs 13-15) Moses said to God, “But when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” God replied, “I am who am.”

Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites:  I AM sent me to you.”

God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites:  The LORD, the God of your fathers,  the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,  has sent me to you.  “This is my name forever; thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11
R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.

He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills,
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.

The LORD secures justice
and the rights of all the oppressed.
He has made known his ways to Moses,
and his deeds to the children of Israel.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.

 
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,  that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food,  and all drank the same spiritual drink,  for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them,  and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them,  for they were struck down in the desert.

These things happened as examples for us,  so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer. These things happened to them as an example,  and they have been written down as a warning to us,  upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.
 
Gospel Lk 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
 
Jesus said to them in reply,  “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way  they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means!
 
But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!
 
Or those eighteen people who were killed  when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty  than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”

And he told them this parable:  “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree  but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also,  and I shall  cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;  it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
 
"No excuses" If I were to gives today's gospel a title I would call it: "no excuses." According to Jesus there are no excuses not to hear his call to reform and repentance.
 
One of the primary themes in the preaching of Jesus was the call to repentance.  We can clearly hear this in Mk 1: 14-15: AThis is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand. Reform you lives and believe in the good news.@
 
For hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus the Jewish people had been waiting for the coming of the Kingdom of God which had been announced by all the prophets. In the gospel Jesus announces the good news that the advent of the Kingdom is here. God will be coming soon to save his people. This announcement of the nearness of the Kingdom is the good news.
 
In response to this proclamation Jesus invited people to repent of their sins and return to God. Repentance is conversion. It is change. It is becoming the person that God wants us to be  and living according to his way. To be he person that God wants us to be and live the way that God wants us to live requires change. It means to turn away from sin and return to God.
 
In today=s gospel there were some people listening to Jesus who did not think that this call to repentance applied to them. They had found an excuse not to accept the invitation of Jesus to repentance. This invitation applies to others, but not to them. 
 
The foundation of their excuse not to repent was an ancient belief still seen today  that we can judge how we are doing in the eyes of God by how well our life is going. To put it in a catch phrase: "Good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people."
 
Based upon this ancient belief about bad things happening to bad people, this call to repentance    applies to those 18 people near the pool of Siloam who were killed by a falling tower but not to them. They must have been very bad people if this happened to them. They need to repent. This invitation to repentance applies to them, but not to us who were not killed by the tower.
 
Or this call to repentance applies to those Galileans who had gone to the temple to offer sacrifice but were killed by the soldiers of Pilate while the animals were being killed for the sacrifice.  They must have been very bad people if this happened to them. They need to repent. This invitation to repentance applies to them, but not to us who were not killed by the tower.
 
For Jesus the excuse that these people have not to hear his call to reform and repentance is meaningless. According to him  there is no connection between an accidental death and sin. An accident that causes our death can happen to anyone at any time. This is why it is called an accident.  We never know the time or the place when death can enter our life, thus the wise person is always prepared to stand before the judgement seat of Christ.
 
Such constant preparation  requires that we accept the invitation of Jesus to conversion and repentance. There are no excuses to ignore his call to repentance. We must always be repentant. We must always be prepared.
 
Jesus illustrates this message about the urgency of repentance with the parable of the fig tree that produces no fruit. The owner has waited three years for the tree to give figs, and so he tells the gardener “For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. [So] cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?” The gardener said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
 
The parable is best to be understood in terms of the delay in the second coming of Christ.  The first Christians believed that the second coming of Christ was imminent. By the time Luke wrote his gospel fifty years after the death of Jesus some Christians were beginning to doubt if Christ was ever to return. The message of Luke is that the return of Christ is delayed,  but he will return. With this delay in the second coming we are given more time to produce the fruit of repentance just as in the parable the fig tree is given one more year to produce fruit. But God’s patience is not an excuse not to repent. It is an opportunity to repent. The second coming of Christ which will be a day of judgement will come as a thief in the night. There is an urgency to repent because no one know the day or the hour in which he will come.
 
The message of this parable is similar to the message of 2 Peter 3:9–10:
 
9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief

Such constant preparation requires that we accept the invitation of Jesus to conversion and repentance. There are no excuses to ignore his call to repentance. We must always be repentant. We must always be prepared.
 
In what area of our life do we need to experience reform and repentance? Do we pray as we should? Is there a person who has hurt us that we need to forgive? Is there a person in our life that we hate?  In what areas of our life is Jesus calling us to reform and repentance, and have we heard that call?
 
Today=s gospel points to an important truth in the spiritual life that it is easy to have an excuse not to hear the call of Jesus to change and repentance?
 
The excuse of the people in today=s gospel is that they had no need to reform and repent because God must be pleased with them if their life is going so well. What excuses do we have not to listen to the invitation of Jesus to reform and repentance?
 
Is it the excuse of the people in today=s gospel that we have no need to reform and repent because God must be happy with us if our life is going so well?
 
Perhaps our excuse is that we will reform tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes because one tomorrow leads to another tomorrow.
 
Perhaps our excuse is that it is too difficult to repent and reform. It is easier to live as I have been living without change
 
Whatever the excuse may be the Lenten season is a time to put away the excuses and to listen to the invitation of Jesus to reform and repentance. Jesus is calling us to a deeper relationship with God and also calling us to the peace and joy that we find in such a relationship. Accept the invitation.



Monday of The Fourth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Is 65, 17-21
Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying;  No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime; He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.  They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.
 
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 30, 2. 4. 5-6. 11-13
R.(2) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

I will extol you, O Lord, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O Lord, you brought me up from the nether world;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.

Sing praise to the Lord, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.

Hear, O Lord, and have pity on me;
O Lord, be my helper.
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O Lord, my God, forever will I give you thanks.

 
Gospel Jn 4, 43-54
Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee. (He himself had testified that no one esteems a prophet in his own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him. They themselves had been at the feast and had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem on that occasion. He went to Cana in Galilee once more, where he had made the water wine. At Capernaum there happened to be a royal official whose son was ill. When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and restore health to his son, who was near death. Jesus replied, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you do not believe." "Sir," the royal official pleaded with him, "come down before my child dies." Jesus told him, "Return home. Your son will live." The man put his trust in the word Jesus spoke to him, and started for home. He was on his way there when his servants met him with the news that his boy was going to live. When he asked them at what time the boy had shown improvement, they told him, "The fever left him yesterday afternoon about one." It was at that very hour, the father realized, that Jesus had told him, "Your son is going to live." He and his whole household thereupon became believers. This was the second sign that Jesus performed on returning from Judea to Galilee.

Commentary on John 4:43-54

This week we begin a semi-continuous reading of John’s Gospel. Today, Jesus brings the promise of new life, now and in the future. Today’s Gospel follows immediately on the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. Jesus now goes back to Galilee from Samaria. In spite of what Jesus had said earlier about prophets not being welcomed in their own place, he was received well, because they had seen what Jesus had done in Jerusalem during his recent visit there.

He returns to Cana, where he had performed his first sign, changing water into wine. A high official comes to ask Jesus to cure his son who is dying. Jesus’ first reaction is negative. He complains of people just looking for miracles, signs and wonders. The man ignores Jesus’ remarks and repeats his request for Jesus to come and heal his son before he dies. This, in itself, indicates the level of the man’s faith in Jesus. Having faith is always the basic requirement for healing to take place.

In the Synoptic Gospels, it is the centurion who tells Jesus it is not necessary to go to his house. That was because he was a Gentile and knew that Jesus should not go there (it is not clear as to whether John’s account today is another version of that story, or a different healing event). Here Jesus simply says:

Go your son will live.

And in response:

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.

On his way home, the official’s servants meet him to tell him that his son is alive and well. On further enquiries, the father learns that the fever subsided just at the moment when Jesus promised that the boy would live. It was also the moment when the man, trusting in Jesus’ word, began his journey home.

John tells us that this is the second of the seven “signs” that Jesus performed. Its clear message is that Jesus brings life, eternal life that begins now. In John, eternal life begins as soon as we attach ourselves in total trust to Jesus and to his Way.

Lent is a good time for us to renew our pledge to walk along his Way and to ask for a deep level of faith to do so.

The seven signs in John’s Gospel are:

    The changing of water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana (2:1-11)
    The healing of the royal official’s son (4:46-54 – today’s reading)
    The healing of a man who is crippled at the pool by the Sheep Gate (5:1-18)
    Feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-15)
    Jesus walking on the water (6:16-21)
    Healing of the man born blind (9:1-41)
    The raising of Lazarus (11:1-44) 


Tuesday of The Fourth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Ez 47, 1-9. 12
The angel brought me back to the entrance of the temple of the Lord, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the facade of the temple was toward the east; the water flowed down from the southern side of the temple, south of the altar. He led me outside by the north gate, and around to the outer gate facing the east, where I saw water trickling from the southern side. Then when he had walked off to the east with a measuring cord in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and had me wade through the water, which was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand and once more had me wade through the water, which was now knee-deep. Again he measured off a thousand and had me wade; the water was up to my waist. Once more he measured off a thousand, but there was now a river through which I could not wade; for the water had risen so high it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming. He asked me, "Have you seen this, son of man?" Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit. Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides. He said to me, "This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah, and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 46, 2-3. 5-6. 8-9
R.(8) The mighty Lord is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.

There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.

The Lord of hosts is with us;
our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Come! behold the deeds of the Lord,
the astounding things he has wrought on earth.

 
Gospel Jn 5, 1-3. 5-16
On the occasion of a Jewish feast, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Pool there is a place with the Hebrew name Bethesda. Its five porticoes were crowded with sick people lying there blind, lame or disabled [waiting for the movement of the waters]. There was one man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus, who knew he had been sick a long time, said when he saw him lying there, "Do you want to be healed?" "Sir," the sick man answered, "I don't have anyone to plunge me into the pool once the water has been stirred up. By the time I get there, someone else has gone in ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk!" The man was immediately cured; he picked up his mat and began to walk. The day was a sabbath. Consequently, some of the Jews began telling the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath, and you are not allowed to carry that mat around." He explained: "It was the man who cured me who told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" "This person who told you to pick it up and walk," they asked, "who is he?" The man who had been restored to health had no idea who it was. The crowd in that place was so great that Jesus had been able to slip away. Later on, Jesus found him in the temple precincts and said to him: "Remember, now, you have been cured. Give up your sins so that something worse may not overtake you." The man went off and informed the Jews that Jesus was the one who had cured him. It was because Jesus did things such as this on the sabbath that they began to persecute him.
 
Commentary on John 5:1-3,5-16

Today we see Jesus back in Jerusalem for an unnamed festival. He goes to the pool near the Sheep Gate. John says it had five porticoes, and indeed, the ruins of such a pool have been excavated in recent times. Around the pool are large numbers of people – blind, lame and paralysed. These are the ailments that we Christians often suffer from:
blindness – we cannot see where Jesus is leading us or where we should go in life;
lameness and paralysis – we can see, but have difficulty walking or even moving along Christ’s Way.

During this Lenten season, let us hear Jesus asking us the question he puts to the man:

Do you want to be made well?

Unable to walk for 38 years, the man has been trying to get into the water when it is “disturbed”, but someone else always gets in before him. It seems that a spring in the pool bubbled up from time to time, and it was believed to have curative qualities. Some older versions of the New Testament at this point included the line:

For [from time to time] an angel of the Lord used to come down into the pool; and the water was stirred up, so the first one to get in [after the stirring of the water] was healed of whatever disease afflicted him.

While some may may have seen this earlier version of the text, its genuineness has more recently been called into doubt, and it is now omitted.

Jesus wastes no time. He says:

Stand up, take your mat and walk.

The man is immediately cured and walks away. Again we have in the words of Jesus the intimation of resurrection to new life of which Jesus is the Source:

I am the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25)

It is at this point that the legalists step in. After leaving, the man is challenged for carrying his sleeping mat on a sabbath day. How petty one can get! Here is a man who has been unable to walk for 38 years, and who is now taken to task for carrying his sleeping mat on a sabbath. Of course, the wonder is that he can do it at all!

It is like those people who get upset because the vestments the celebrant at Mass is wearing are not the right colour for the day, or because they think someone is dressed inappropriately for church. Or people who worry that they have not been fasting for a full hour before receiving Communion – as if there can be any comparison between sharing the Body of the Lord in the Eucharist, and observing a minor man-made regulation.

It is so easy to lose our sense of proportion. For some, a rubrically correct but deadly boring Mass is more important than one where there is a real spirit of celebration and community, and a coming together in Christ, even if the rules are not being followed to the letter.

In the Gospel story, the man answers that the one who cured him told him to carry his mat, but he did not know who that person was, as Jesus had disappeared into the crowds. Later, Jesus and the man meet in the Temple. The man is told to complete his experience of healing by abandoning a life of sin, bringing body and spirit into full harmony and wholeness. This is not to say that Jesus is implying that the man had been unable to walk because of his sin. Jesus did not teach that. But what he is saying is that physical wholeness needs to be matched by spiritual wholeness, the wholeness of the complete person.

This is the third of Jesus’ seven signs – again bringing life and wholeness. Let us ask him to do the same for us.

Wednesday of  The Fourth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Is 49, 8-15
Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I answer you,on the day of salvation I help you,To restore the land and allot the desolate heritages,  Saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pastures be.They shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them; For he who pities them leads them  and guides them beside springs of water. I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make my highways level. See, some shall come from afar, others from the north and the west, and some from the land of Syene.
 
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the Lord comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted.
 
But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145, 8-9. 13-14. 17-18
R.(8) The Lord is kind and merciful.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.
The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.
 
The Lord is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works.
The Lord lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
 
The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
 
 Gospel Jn 5, 17-30
Jesus said to the Jews: "My Father is at work until now,and I am at work as well."
 
The reason why the Jews were even more determined to kill him was that he not only was breaking the sabbath but, worse still, was speaking of God as his own Father, thereby making himself God's equal.
 
This was Jesus' answer: "I solemnly assure you, the Son cannot do anything by himself -- he can do only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does,  the Son does likewise.
For the Father loves the Son and everything the Father does he shows him.
 
Yes, to your great wonderment,  he will show him even greater works than these. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and grants life,
so the Son grants life to those to whom he wishes. The Father himself judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all men may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
 
He who refuses to honor the Son  refuses to honor the Father who sent him.  I solemnly assure you,  the man who hears my word and has faith in him who sent me possesses eternal life.
 
He does not come under condemnation, but has passed from death to life.
 
I solemnly assure you, an hour is coming, has indeed come, when the dead shall hear the voice of God's Son, and those who have heeded it shall live. Indeed, just as the Father possesses life in himself, so has he granted it to the Son to have life in himself. The Father has given over to him power to pass judgment because he is Son of Man; no need for you to be surprised at this,  for an hour is coming in which all those in the tombs shall hear his voice and come forth.
 
Those who have done right shall rise to live;  the evildoers shall rise to be damned.  I cannot do anything of myself. I judge as I hear,  and my judgment is honest because I am not seeking my own will but the will of him who sent me."
 
Commentary on John 5:17-30

Today’s Gospel follows immediately on yesterday’s story of the healing of the man who was unable to walk by the pool at the Sheep Gate. That passage had ended with the words:

Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. (John 5:16)

We might point out, as with some other sabbath healings, that there was absolutely no urgency to do the healing on a sabbath for someone who had waited 38 years. It is just another indication of the divine authority with which Jesus works.

Jesus’ reply is direct and unapologetic:

My Father is still working, and I also am working.

Because Genesis speaks of God resting on the seventh day (the origin of the Jewish sabbath), it was disputed whether God was in any way active on the sabbath. Some believed that the creating and conserving work of his creation went on, and others believe that he continued to pass judgement on that day. In any case, Jesus is claiming here the same authority to work on the sabbath as his Father and has the same powers over life and death.

The Jewish leaders are enraged that Jesus speaks of God as his own Father, and they want to kill him. They understand by his words that Jesus is making himself God’s equal. Jesus, far from denying the accusation, only confirms it.

Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.

This saying is taken from the model of an apprentice in a trade. The apprentice son does exactly what his father does. Jesus’ relation to his Father is similar:

The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.

And, we might add, whenever he wishes. Such giving of life is something that belongs only to God – as does the right to judge, which Jesus says has been delegated to him.

Jesus is the perfect mirror of the Father. The Father is acting in him and through him. He is the Word of God – God speaks and acts directly through him. God’s Word is a creative Word. Jesus, like the Father, is life-giving, a source of life.

The right to judge has been delegated by the Father to the Son. And to refuse to honour the Son is to refuse the same honour to the Father. In everything, Jesus acts only according to the will of his Father and does what his Father wants.

Jesus, then, is the Way – the Way through whom we go to God. For us, there is no other Way. He is God’s Word to us and for us.


Thursday of The Fourth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Ex 32, 7-14
The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, 'This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!' I see how stiff-necked this people is," continued the Lord to Moses. "Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation." But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, "Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth'? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'" So the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 106, 19-20. 21. 22. 23
R.(4) Lord, remember us, for the love you bear your people.
 
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating bullock.
 
They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,terrible things at the Red Sea.
 
Then he spoke of exterminating them, but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath.
 
 
Gospel Jn 5, 31-47
Jesus said to the Jews: "If I witness on my own behalf, you cannot verify my testimony; but there is another who is testifying on my behalf, and the testimony he renders me I know can be verified.  You have sent to John,  who has testified to the truth. (Not that I myself accept such human testimony --  I refer to these things only for your salvation.) He was the lamp, set aflame and burning bright, and for a while you exulted willingly in his light. Yet I have testimony greater than John's, namely, the works the Father has given me to accomplish. These very works which I perform  testify on my behalf  that the Father has sent me.  Moreover, the Father who sent me  has himself given testimony on my behalf.  His voice you have never heard,  his form you have never seen,  neither do you have his word abiding in your hearts because you do not believe  the one he has sent.  Search the Scriptures  in which you think you have eternal life --  they also testify on my behalf.  Yet you are unwilling to come to me  to possess that life.  "It is not that I accept human praise --  it is simply that I know you, and you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name,  yet you do not accept me.  But let someone come in his own name  and him you will accept. How can people like you believe,  when you accept praise from one another  yet do not seek the glory that comes from the One [God]? Do not imagine that I will be your accuser before the Father; the one to accuse you is Moses  on whom you have set your hopes.  If you believed Moses  you would then believe me,  for it was about me that he wrote.  But if you do not believe what he wrote,  how can you believe what I say?"
 
Commentary on John 5:31-47

Today we continue with yesterday’s words of Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders. In four ways, John’s Gospel reaffirms that God himself is the witness to the truth of all that Jesus says:

    The testimony of John the Baptist gives witness, although that was only human testimony (vv 33-34).
    The works of Jesus give clear testimony of the divine origin of all that Jesus does:

    The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.

    The leaders could not see this but the crowds often testified to it with enthusiasm (v36).
    The Father himself has given testimony, although that has not been seen directly by some of the Jews:

    And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form…

    Perhaps this is this a reference to Jesus’ baptism or to the Transfiguration (vv 37-38).
    A careful reading of the scriptures will show they give testimony to Jesus.

    You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

    This is clearly shown later on by Jesus when explaining the scriptures to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (vv 39-40).

Although Jesus clearly comes in the name of his Father, he is not accepted or believed in.

Yet some individual will come in his own name, and they will accept him. Further, they keep looking to their own traditions, rather than looking further to someone who clearly comes from God.

Jesus will not accuse them before his Father. Moses, in whom they claim to believe, will be their accuser.

If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?

By “Moses” is meant the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch. Their authorship is attributed to Moses, although we know now by the dating of the various parts that this could not be possible. It was common in ancient times to attribute the authorship of a work to a well-known personality.

How much of all this applies to us? Where do we ultimately put our faith – in the Christ of the New Testament, or in a Jesus we have tailored to our own wants? How familiar are we with the Word of God in the New (and Old) Testament? Where do we clearly see the Risen Jesus bringing God into our lives every single day?


Friday of The Fourth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Wis 2, 1. 12-22
The wicked said among themselves, thinking not aright: "Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the Lord. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, Because his life is not like other men's, and different are his ways. He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father. Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him.  For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.  With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him." These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, And they knew not the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls' reward. 
  
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34, 17-18. 19-20. 21. 23
R.(19) The Lord is near to broken hearts.

The Lord confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the Lord delivers him.

He watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
The Lord redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.

 
Gospel Jn 7, 1-2. 10. 25-30
Jesus moved about within Galilee. He had decided not to travel in Judea because some of the Jews were looking for a chance to kill him. The Jewish feast of Booths drew near. Once his brothers had gone up to the festival he too went up, but as if in secret and not for all to see. Some of the people of Jerusalem remarked, "Is this not the one they want to kill? Here he is speaking in public and they don't say a word to him! Perhaps even the authorities have decided that this is the Messiah. Still, we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, no one is supposed to know his origins." At this, Jesus, who was teaching in the temple area, cried out: "So you know me,  and you know my origins? The truth is, I have not come of myself. I was sent by One who has the right to send, and him you do not know. I know him because it is from him I come:  he sent me." At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a finger on him because his hour had not yet come.

Commentary on John 7:1-2,10,25-30

In today’s Gospel we move to the 7th chapter of John, skipping chapter 6 on the Bread of Life which will be read at another time in the liturgical cycle.

We are told that Jesus was confining his activities to Galilee. He did not want to go to Judea and the vicinity of Jerusalem because there were people there who wanted to kill him. Jesus does not expose himself unnecessarily to danger. He knows that a time is coming when the final conflict will be inevitable, but that time is not yet.

It is the time of the Feast of Tabernacles and (though not contained in today’s reading) his family are urging him to go up to Jerusalem for the feast, and show himself to the world. He tells them the time is not ripe for him to do this, but later on, after his family have left for the city, he goes privately and unbeknown to others. However, in Jerusalem, Jesus goes to the Temple area and begins to teach openly to the amazement of his listeners:

How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught? (John 5:15)

A marvelous example of Johannine irony…the Word does not need to study the Word!

Jesus is a source of some confusion in the minds of many people. On the one hand, the people are aware that Jesus has become a target of their religious leaders, and yet he goes about openly and speaking freely and without fear.

Jesus would not be Jesus if he were to keep his message to himself. The Word of God cannot remain silent. On the other hand, they are also confused about the identity of Jesus. Is he allowed to speak freely because the leaders now believe he really is the Messiah-Christ? But everyone knows where Jesus comes from (Nazareth in Galilee). How, then, can he be the Messiah?

Jesus then tells them:

You know me, and you know where I am from.

That is only partially true; rather, they think they know.

I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true…I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.

And, if they do not know the Father, how can they know the Son? And vice versa.

This only angers his listeners who know what he is implying, but they cannot arrest him there and then because “his hour had not yet come”. The time of his arrest will only be in accordance with God’s plan.

Do we really know who Jesus is? There are many conflicting opinions out there. We can only know the real Jesus by reading the Scriptures under wise and perceptive guides who can penetrate the deeper meaning beneath the literal text. We can also learn a lot by prayer and contemplation. Lent is an excellent time for us to do both and, better still, to begin making it a practice that goes far beyond Lent.

Saturday of the Fourth Week of LentReading 1Jeremiah 11:18-20I knew their plot because the LORD informed me;
at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.

Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
"Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more."

But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12R. (2a) O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
O LORD, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion's prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

Gospel John 7:40-53Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
"This is truly the Prophet."
Others said, "This is the Christ."
But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"
The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."
So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
"Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?"
They answered and said to him,
"You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

Then each went to his own house.



Monday of The Fifth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Dn 13, 1-9. 15-17.
           
In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim, who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah; her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses. Joakim was very rich; he had a garden near his house, and the Jews had recourse to him often because he was the most respected of them all.
 
That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges, of whom the Lord said, "Wickedness has come out of Babylon: from the elders who were to govern the people as judges." These men, to whom all brought their cases, frequented the house of Joakim. When the people left at noon, Susanna used to enter her husband's garden for a walk. When the old men saw her enter every day for her walk, they began to lust for her. They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments.
 
One day, while they were waiting for the right moment, she entered the garden as usual, with two maids only. She decided to bathe, for the weather was warm. Nobody else was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her. "Bring me oil and soap," she said to the maids, "and shut the garden doors while I bathe."
 
As soon as the maids had left, the two old men got up and hurried to her. "Look," they said, "the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us; give in to our desire, and lie with us. If you refuse, we will testify against you that you dismissed your maids because a young man was here with you."
 
"I am completely trapped," Susanna groaned. "If I yield, it will be my death; if I refuse, I cannot escape your power. Yet it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord." Then Susanna shrieked, and the old men also shouted at her, as one of them ran to open the garden doors. When the people in the house heard the cries from the garden, they rushed in by the side gate to see what had happened to her. At the accusations by the old men, the servants felt very much ashamed, for never had any such thing been said about Susanna.
 
When the people came to her husband Joakim the next day, the two wicked elders also came, fully determined to put Susanna to death. Before all the people they ordered: "Send for Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah, the wife of Joakim." When she was sent for, she came with her parents, children and all her relatives. All her relatives and the onlookers were weeping.
 
In the midst of the people the two elders rose up and laid their hands on her head. Through her tears she looked up to heaven, for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly. The elders made this accusation: "As we were walking in the garden alone, this woman entered with two girls and shut the doors of the garden, dismissing the girls. A young man, who was hidden there, came and lay with her. When we, in a corner of the garden, saw this crime, we ran toward them. We saw them lying together, but the man we could not hold, because he was stronger than we; he opened the doors and ran off. Then we seized this one and asked who the young man was, but she refused to tell us. We testify to this." The assembly believed them, since they were elders and judges of the people, and they condemned her to death.
 
But Susanna cried aloud: "O eternal God, you know what is hidden and are aware of all things before they come to be: you know that they have testified falsely against me. Here I am about to die, though I have done none of the things with which these wicked men have charged me."
 
The Lord heard her prayer. As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud: "I will have no part in the death of this woman." All the people turned and asked him, "What is this you are saying?" He stood in their midst and continued, "Are you such fools, O Israelites! To condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence? Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her."
 
Then all the people returned in haste. To Daniel the elders said, "Come, sit with us and inform us, since God has given you the prestige of old age." But he replied, "Separate these two far from one another that I may examine them."
 
After they were separated one from the other, he called one of them and said: "How you have grown evil with age! Now have your past sins come to term: passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty, although the Lord says, 'The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.' Now, then, if you were a witness, tell me under what tree you saw them together." "Under a mastic tree," he answered. "Your fine lie has cost you your head," said Daniel; "for the angel of God shall receive the sentence from him and split you in two." Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought. "Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah," Daniel said to him, "beauty has seduced you, lust has subverted your conscience. This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel, and in their fear they yielded to you; but a daughter of Judah did not tolerate your wickedness. Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together." "Under an oak," he said. "Your fine lie has cost you also your head," said Daniel; "for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two so as to make an end of you both."
 
The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God who saves those that hope in him. They rose up against the two elders, for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of perjury. According to the law of Moses, they inflicted on them the penalty they had plotted to impose on their neighbor: they put them to death. Thus was innocent blood spared that day.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23, 1-3. 3-4. 5. 6
R.(4) Though I walk in the valley of darkness,  I fear no evil, for you are with me.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose.
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.

He guides me in right paths
for his namés sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Only goodness and kindness
follow me all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
for years to come.

Gospel: Jn 8: 1-11
Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he reappeared in the temple area; and when the people started coming to him, he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees led a woman forward who had been caught in adultery. They made her stand there in front of everyone. "Teacher," they said to him, "this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses ordered such women to be stoned. What do you have to say about the case?" (They were posing this question to trap him, so that they could have something to accuse him of.) Jesus simply bent down and started tracing on the ground with his finger. When they persisted in their questioning, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the man among you who has no sin be the first to cast a stone at her." A second time he bent down and wrote on the ground. Then the audience drifted away one by one, beginning with the elders. This left him alone with the woman, who continued to stand there before him. Jesus finally straightened up again and said to her, "Woman, where did they all disappear to? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she answered. Jesus said, "Nor do I condemn you. You may go. But from now on, avoid this sin."
 
Commentary on Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62 or 13:41-62

The last two chapters of the Book of Daniel are not part of the Jewish canon of Scripture. The short stories in these two chapters may have originally been about some other Daniel or Daniels, different from the hero of the main part of the book. The texts exist now only in Greek, but probably were first composed in Hebrew or Aramaic. They do not appear in non-Catholic bibles, but the Catholic Church has always included them among the inspired writings.

They contain two famous stories, one of Susanna, who was falsely accused of adultery, and the other of the events which led to Daniel being thrown into the lions’ den.

A certain prudery has often led to the Susanna story being dropped or substituted by a more innocuous text (or worse, is dropped because of its length by those celebrants who think that that the only good liturgy is a short one!). But, as Cardinal Newman once said:

We cannot write a sinless literature about sinful man.

That applies very much to the Bible. It is only in the context of our sinful weakness that we can fully appreciate the greatness and the compassion of our God.

Susanna’s situation needs a little explanation since the first part of the story is not in our reading. It is about two lecherous men and an innocent married woman (Susanna) who is led into a clever trap from which there seems no escape. However, the woman defends her integrity at the risk of being falsely accused of being unfaithful to her husband, and in a society that was even less forgiving in these matters than our own. In fact, the whole community, after hearing the evidence from the two men, was ready to stone her for her adultery and indicated this by laying their hands on the woman’s head.

She would certainly have been executed by stoning if the “young boy Daniel” had not come on the scene. The rest of the story is a description of his integrity, his sense of justice and insight. Through his clever and separate examination of the woman’s accusers, he proves them liars and the sharp contrast between the two trees mentioned – one being quite small and the other very tall and majestic – only made clearer the inconsistency of the two men’s evidence. According to the law, they end up receiving the punishment originally intended for the woman.

The focus of this long and dramatic story is really on Daniel, on his perception and wisdom, and on him as a champion of justice. But, in today’s liturgy, it leads by way of contrast to another and very different case of adultery. A situation where the woman is clearly guilty, and yet wins Jesus’ total forgiveness.

On reading both stories, we might reflect on how often we stand in judgement of others, especially in the area of sexuality. Adultery is a very common theme that runs through many stories in the Bible, as well as the fatal punishment meted out. We might do well, however, to remember that one does not commit adultery alone, and this should not be overlooked.

March 19: Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary   

Reading 1 2 Sm 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16 
The LORD spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.’”  

Responsorial Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29
R.    (37)  The son of David will live for ever.

The promises of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness,
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”;
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”

“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.’
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.”

Reading 2 Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22 
Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith. For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us, as it is written, I have made you father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist. He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was said, Thus shall your descendants be. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.    

Gospel Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a 
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.  Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.  


Reflection taken from web site from the Dominican Friars of England, Wales, and Scotland
Written by Fr. Tony Lee
Click Here for Site
 
Today’s solemnity might be thought of as the original feminist feast day: for today we celebrate the Solemnity of St Joseph, but we do so by reference to his being ‘the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary’. In fact, St Joseph’s whole life is defined by his relation to others. He is the earthly father of Jesus, and the husband of Mary, and we celebrate him today for his fidelity and courage in fulfilling his obligations to each of them. He is a great counter-witness to modern obsessions with autonomy. He did not realise himself in being free from obligations to others, but in lovingly fulfilling them.

We do not have a single word of St Joseph’s recorded in the Scriptures; he is the archetypal strong silent type and a great example to us in an increasingly noisy world. Where some broadcast their virtue from the rooftops – or via facebook – St Joseph is more of a Nike man: he just does it. For this reason he has been described as an icon of our faith: ‘. . . words would be a distraction. His love of Our Lady, care for Jesus, obedience, faith, purity, simplicity, courage and hope speak loudly from the home he built in Nazareth . . . [and] we best know St Joseph through Jesus’s words and deeds.’ This is what icons do; they ‘speak to us of the presence of God among us in the material world.’

St Joseph is the quiet man of action and his actions are oriented to, and obedient to, the will of God. Whatever vision he may have had of his life was radically altered that night when the angel appeared to him in a dream and said: ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ After this vision we are told simply that: ‘When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do’ (Matt 1:20-22, 24). Having contemplated a life without Mary, he now sees that being Mary’s husband and raising a child, not biologically his own, will be his future. It’s for this setting aside of his own inclinations for something greater that we quite rightly celebrate his example today.

Jesus will come to be recognised as the Son of God, and the Second Person of the Trinity; Mary will be known as the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church; and Joseph will be remembered in relation to them. Joseph’s greatness is to be found in his willingness to let Mary and Jesus be who they should be. Like John the Baptist, he decreases so that they may increase.

In that perennial Christian paradox, Joseph finds himself the moment he starts to lose himself in God’s will. One day the child he raises will tell us that our prayer to the Father should always be, ‘Thy will be done’: for true human flourishing consists in the convergence of God’s will and ours. As Joseph heeds the words of the angel he becomes the living example of St Paul’s exhortation to husbands: ‘Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’ (Ephesians 5:25):

At the dawn of Christianity, married life and love are given new ‘breadth and length and height and depth’ (Ephesians 3:18). Joseph and Mary, as husband and wife, become an icon of Christian marriage, which ‘in its turn’ will be ‘an efficacious sign, the sacrament of Christ and the Church’ (CCC, 1617). They are the incarnate expression of human communion, which expresses the very life of God. They are wedded not simply to provide a fitting home for the child; they are wedded so that men and women can know what it means to be wedded to God. 

On today’s Solemnity we don’t remember Joseph for his wise words or for his dramatic actions, we remember him for simply doing the Father’s will, for giving himself up for others. This is the calling for many of us in our Christian lives, and our example may not be widely celebrated by the Church, but it just might affect those around us.

If we live as we ought to, like St Joseph, we may become icons of the living Lord, and that would be a life well lived.

1 Fr Gary Caster, Joseph: the Man who raised Jesus. (Servant Books: Cincinnati, 2013), p.xiii
2 Jeana Visel OSB, Icons in the Western Church. (Liturgical Press: Collegeville, 2016), p.xi
3 Caster, p

Tuesday of The Fifth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Nm 21, 4-9
From Mount Hor the Israelites set out on the Red Sea road, to by-pass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!" In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray the Lord to take the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 102, 2-3. 16-18. 19-21
R.(2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

O Lord, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.

The nations shall revere your name, O Lord,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the Lord has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.

 
 
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the Lord:
"The Lord looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."

 
Gospel Jn 8, 21. 30
Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am going away. You will look for me but you will die in your sins. Where I am going you cannot come." At this some of the Jews began to ask, "Does he mean he will kill himself when he claims, 'Where I am going you cannot comé? He went on: "You belong to what is below;  I belong to what is above. You belong to this world -- a world which cannot hold me. That is why I said you would die in your sins. You will surely die in your sins unless you come to believe that I AM." "Who are you, then?" they asked him. Jesus answered: "What I have been telling you from the beginning. I could say much about you in condemnation, but no, I only tell the world  what I have heard from him,  the truthful One, who sent me." They did not grasp that he was speaking to them of the Father. Jesus continued: "When you lift up the Son of Man,  you will come to realize that I AM  and that I do nothing by myself.  I say only what the Father has taught me.  The One who sent me is with me.  He has not deserted me since I always do what pleases him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
 
 
Wednesday of The Fifth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Dn 3, 14-20. 91-92. 95
King Nebuchadnezzar said: "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up? Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I had made, whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments; otherwise, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace; and who is the God that can deliver you out of my hands?" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, "There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up." Nebuchadnezzar's face became livid with utter rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual and had some of the strongest men in his army bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the white-hot furnace. Nebuchadnezzar rose in haste and asked his nobles, "Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?" "Assuredly, O king," they answered. "But," he replied, "I see four men unfettered and unhurt, walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God." Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel to deliver the servants that trusted in him; they disobeyed the royal command and yielded their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own God."
 
Responsorial Psalm Dn 3, 52. 53. 54. 55. 56
R.(52) Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
 
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
 
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
 
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
 
Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,
praiseworthy and glorious forever.
 
Gospel Jn 8, 31-42
Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him: "If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples;  then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." "We are descendants of Abraham," was their answer. "Never have we been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be freé?" Jesus answered them: "I give you my assurance,  everyone who lives in sin is the slave of sin. (No slave has a permanent place in the family, but the son has a place there forever.)  That is why, if the son frees you, you will really be free. I realize you are of Abraham's stock.  Nonetheless, you are trying to kill me  because my word finds no hearing among you. I tell what I have seen in the Father's presence; you do what you have heard from your father." They retorted, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus told them: "If you were Abraham's children,  you would be following Abraham's example. The fact is, you are trying to kill me,  a man who has told you the truth which I have heard from God.  Abraham did nothing like that.  Indeed you are doing your father's works!" They cried, "We are no illegitimate breed! We have but one father and that is God himself." Jesus answered: "Were God your father you would love me,  for I came forth from God, and am here. I did not come of my own will;  it was he who sent me."
 
Commentary on John 8:31-42

Contentious dialogue between Jesus and the Jews continues in today’s Gospel reading. There are some sayings here which we would do well to reflect on deeply.

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

The Pharisees take umbrage at that statement. As descendants of Abraham, they were never slaves to anyone. But in fact, in the long history of their people, the Jews were almost continuously enslaved by invading powers. However, the slavery Jesus speaks about is the slavery of sin.

In responding to Jesus’ words, how many of us who want to be disciples of Christ have truly made his word our ‘home’? How many of us have to admit that we are not really very familiar with Jesus’ word in the New Testament? Yet we cannot truly follow him unless we are steeped in that word.

As well, how many of us really believe that the truth about life, communicated to us through Jesus, makes us genuinely free? How many of us experience our commitment to Christianity as a liberation? How many have left the Church because they felt suffocated and wanted to be free?

What freedom were they looking for? For many, being a Christian is sacrificing freedom in exchange for a promise of a future existence of pure happiness. We can say with confidence that, if we do not find being a Christian a liberating experience here and now, we do not really understand the true nature of our Christian faith. Jesus said:

If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.

To know Jesus, to love Jesus and to follow Jesus is the way to God, and it is in God, and only in God, that we will find true happiness, freedom and peace. But the only way to know the truth of that statement is to experience it personally.​


Thursday of The Fifth Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Gn 17, 3-9
When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him: "My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you. I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God." God also said to Abraham: "On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages."
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 105, 4-5. 6-7. 8-9
R.(8) The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

Look to the Lord in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.

You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the Lord, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.

He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations --
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.

 
Gospel Jn 8, 51-59
Jesus said to the Jews: "I solemnly assure you,  if a man is true to my word  he shall never see death." "Now we are sure you are possessed," the Jews retorted. "Abraham is dead. The prophets are dead. Yet you claim, 'A man shall never know death if he keeps my word.' Surely you do not pretend to be greater than our father Abraham, who died! Or the prophets, who died! Whom do you make yourself out to be?" Jesus answered: "If I glorify myself, that glory comes to nothing. He who gives me glory is the Father,  the very one you claim for your God,  even though you do not know him.  But I know him. Were I to say I do not know him,  I would be no better than you -- a liar! Yes, I know him well,  and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced  that he might see my day.  He saw it and was glad." At this the Jews objected: "You are not yet fifty! How can you have seen Abraham?" Jesus answered them: "I solemnly declare it: before Abraham came to be, I AM."  At that they picked up rocks to throw at Jesus, but he hid himself and slipped out of the temple precincts.
 
Commentary on John 8:51-59

Jesus continues to challenge the Jews about his identity, and they continue to misunderstand the real meaning of what he says.

Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.

This they can only understand in a literal sense.

But they do see the implication of the words that Jesus is claiming to be more than Abraham or any of the prophets. And they ask:

Who do you claim to be?

This was the same question they asked of John the Baptist (John 1:22), who gave a very different answer.

Jesus makes it perfectly clear to them by talking of his “Father” and then saying that the Father is the one they call “our God”. But he continues by saying that they do not know the Father, although they may think they do. And they do not know the Father because they do not know Jesus. Jesus, however, knows him and keeps his word. Then comes the supreme provocation:

Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.

This could be a reference to the joy following the unexpected birth of Isaac, when the promise was made to Abraham that his seed would be:

…as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore… (Gen 22:17)

But this angered the Pharisees and they retorted:

You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?

Jesus then makes the ultimate claim:

Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.

Again we have Jesus using the term “I AM” of himself. He unequivocally identifies himself with Yahweh. The Pharisees are horrified by what they regard as terrible blasphemy. The verb “was” in the passage is,

Saturday of the Fifth Week of LentReading 1 Ezekiel 37:21-28Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will take the children of Israel from among the nations
to which they have come,
and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land.
I will make them one nation upon the land,
in the mountains of Israel,
and there shall be one prince for them all.
Never again shall they be two nations,
and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.
No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols,
their abominations, and all their transgressions.
I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy,
and cleanse them so that they may be my people
and I may be their God.
My servant David shall be prince over them,
and there shall be one shepherd for them all;
they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees.
They shall live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob,
the land where their fathers lived;
they shall live on it forever,
they, and their children, and their children’s children,
with my servant David their prince forever.
I will make with them a covenant of peace;
it shall be an everlasting covenant with them,
and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever.
My dwelling shall be with them;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD,
who make Israel holy,
when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.

Responsorial PsalmJeremiah 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13R.    (see 10d)  The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
R.    The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.
The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:
The grain, the wine, and the oil,
the sheep and the oxen.
R.    The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.
Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,
and young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
R.    The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.
.

Gospel John 11:45-56Many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees
convened the Sanhedrin and said,
“What are we going to do?
This man is performing many signs.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,
and the Romans will come
and take away both our land and our nation.”
But one of them, Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year, said to them,
“You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you
that one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish.”
He did not say this on his own,
but since he was high priest for that year,
he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
and not only for the nation,
but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.
So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews,
but he left for the region near the desert,
to a town called Ephraim,
and there he remained with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near,
and many went up from the country to Jerusalem
before Passover to purify themselves.
They looked for Jesus and said to one another
as they were in the temple area, “What do you think?
That he will not come to the feast?”




SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY 
 
READING 1 ISAIAH 58:9B-14
Thus says the LORD: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; ""Repairer of the breach,"" they shall call you, ""Restorer of ruined homesteads.""  If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; If you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD's holy day honorable; If you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice-- Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.   

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (11ab)  Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me,
for I am afflicted and poor.
Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
 
GOSPEL LUKE 5:27-32
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus said to them in reply, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."
 
COMMENTARY ON LUKE 5:27-32

Jesus certainly made strange choices in his prospective followers. In our time, when we look for ‘vocations’, we tend to search among committed and well-balanced Christians. But in today’s Gospel we see Jesus picking someone who was regarded as an immoral money-grabber and a religious outcast.

Tax collectors were despised on two counts. First, they were seen as venal collaborators with the hated colonial ruler, the Romans, for whom they were working. Second, they were corrupt and extorted far more money than was their due.

But Jesus knows his man. At the sound of the invitation, Levi drops everything—his whole business and the security it brings him. It is very similar to the fishermen leaving their boats and their nets. He then goes off after Jesus. Where? For what? He has no idea. Like Peter and Andrew, James and John before him, in a great act of trust and faith, he throws in his lot with Jesus, whatever it is going to mean, wherever it is going to bring him. In Luke’s Gospel particularly, the following of Jesus involves total commitment.
Then, as his last fling so to speak, he throws a party in his house for all his friends, who of course were social rejects like himself. The religious-minded scribes and Pharisees were shocked at Jesus’ behaviour.

They complained to the disciples: Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus answers for them:  Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Jesus’ words can be read in two ways. On the one hand, there is no need to preach to the converted—which is what we do a lot of in our Christian churches. What is needed is to reach out to those who are lost, whose lives are going in the wrong direction, who are leading a self-destructive existence.

And surely that is what the Church needs to be about today. There is a lot of the Pharisee among us still. We are still shocked if we see a priest or a ‘good’ Catholic in ‘bad’ company and often jump to hasty and unjustified conclusions, and think or say “A priest (or sister) should not be seen in such company.” As a result the Church is, in many cases, very much confined to the churchgoers in society.

Jesus’ words can also be taken in a sarcastic sense. His critics regarded themselves as among the well and virtuous. In fact, they totally lacked the love and compassion of God reflected in Jesus. Their ‘virtue’ did not need Jesus because they were closed to him anyway. We remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple. It was the one who acknowledged himself as a sinner and wanted God’s mercy who won God’s favour.

We too need to be careful of sitting in judgment on others, taking the high moral ground and claiming to be shocked at certain people’s behaviour. Without exception, we are all in need of healing.

Monday of The First Week of Lent

Reading I       Lv 19, 1-2. 11-18
The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. "You shall not steal. You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another. You shall not swear falsely by my name, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the Lord. "You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor. You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day laborer. You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. "You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake. I am the Lord. "You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord."
 
Responsorial Psalm  Ps 19, 8. 9. 10. 15
R.(Jn 6, 63) Your words, Lord, are spirit and life.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the Lord is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eye.

The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the Lord are true,
all of them just.

Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart
find favor before you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

 
Gospel Mt 25, 31-46
Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels of heaven, he will sit upon his royal throne and all the nations will be assembled before him. Then he will separate them into two groups, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep he will place on his right hand, the goats on his left. The king will say to those on his right: 'Come, you have my Father's blessing! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the just will ask him: 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you drink? When did we welcome you away from home or clothe you in your nakedness? When did we visit you when you were ill or in prison?' The king will answer them: 'I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.' "Then he will say to those on his left: 'Out of my sight, you condemned, into that everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was away from home and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing. I was ill and in prison and you did not come to comfort me.' Then they in turn will ask: 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or away from home or naked or ill or in prison and not attend you in your needs?' He will answer them: 'I assure you, as often as you neglected to do it to one of these least ones, you neglected to do it to me.' These will go off to eternal punishment and the just to eternal life."
 
Commentary on Matthew 25:31-46

Both of today’s readings deal with the way we ought to behave towards each other. The First Reading tells us the kinds of things we ought not to do, while the Gospel emphasises more what we should be doing.

The Gospel describes the great scene of the Last Judgment when all will face their Lord Jesus. We will be divided into sheep and goats – i.e. those who are with Jesus and those who are not. The criteria on which we will be judged are interesting. Nothing about the Ten Commandments (normally the matter of our confessions). Nothing about the things mentioned in the First Reading, which more or less reflect the contents of the Ten Commandments. There is nothing about what we normally call ‘religious obligations’ (e.g. being ‘at Mass’ on Sundays and holydays).

The test will be very simple. Did we love all our brothers and sisters or not? There is some discussion as to the identity of these ‘brothers and sisters’. Does it refer to all who are hungry, thirsty, in need of clothes, in need of medical care or in jail – or to a particular group? The passage may primarily be thinking of Christians, and especially Christian missionaries whose preaching brought them suffering and persecution. These missionaries were more likely, too, to end up in prison. To reject and abuse these people and their message is tantamount to rejecting Jesus himself.

However, we have traditionally extended the passage to include all who suffer in any way because of our neglect, and we recognise Jesus as being present in these people in a special way.

And the things we are supposed to do are so simple: give food to Jesus hungry and drink to Jesus thirsty; to clothe Jesus naked; to visit Jesus sick and Jesus in jail. And naturally people will ask:

Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?

And the Judge will answer:

Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

He says “to me”, not “for me”. Jesus identifies himself especially with the person in need. Every time we neglect to help a brother or sister in need, we neglect Jesus himself. Our worst sins, our most dangerous sins, will be our sins of omission. We can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly and still fail here.

The next time we examine our conscience, let us think about that. Whether we realise it or not, every time we spontaneously take care of a brother or sister in need, it is Jesus himself we are serving.

Tuesday of The First Week of Lent
                                                                                         
Reading I       Is 55, 10-11
For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the  earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34, 4-5. 6-7. 16-17. 18-19
R.(18) From all their afflictions God will deliver the just.

Glorify the Lord with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.

God will deliver the just.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.

The Lord has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The Lord confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.

When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

 
Gospel Mt 6, 7-15
Jesus said to his disciples: "In your prayer do not rattle on like the pagans. They think they will win a hearing by the sheer multiplication of words. Do not imitate them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray:
 
'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread,
and forgive us the wrong we have done
as we forgive those who wrong us.
Subject us not to the trial
but deliver us from the evil one.'

"If you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours.
If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you."

 


Commentary on Matthew 6:7-15

Jesus tells us here not to babble endless prayers as if somehow by so doing we can bring God round to our way of thinking (see also Elijah and the priests of Baal: 1 Kgs 18:25-29). Some religious groups, too, would keep calling their god by all his different names, hoping that by hitting on the right one he would listen. There is no need to do this because God knows our needs before we ask. Why then do we need to pray at all?

The praying is not for God’s sake, but for our own. It is important for us to become deeply aware of our needs, of our basic helplessness, and of our total dependence on God. We also need to discern just what God wants of us so that we can do what he wants.

And that is what the Lord’s Prayer is about. Strictly speaking, it is not a prayer to be recited. It is a way of praying; it is a list of the things we need to pray about. And it is less our telling God what we want him to do than making ourselves aware of the ways by which we can become more united with him. It is a very challenging prayer and, in a way, a very dangerous and daring prayer to make.

Our Father…
God is the source of all our life and all we have and are. We say ‘our’ and that ‘our’ includes every single person. And, if God is the Father/Mother of every single person, then each one of them, without even one exception, is my brother or sister.

May your name be revered as holy…may your kingdom come…may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…
The three petitions are all really saying the same thing. Obviously, in one sense we cannot make God’s name more holy than it is. But we do need to respect that awesome holiness, and that is more for our sake than God’s. The petition can also be a petition that God make his name holy by showing his glory, in this case by bringing about the Kingdom in its fullness.

We want God to be loved and respected and worshipped by all – not in some future life but here and now on earth. We want the loving and compassionate Reign of God to be fully accepted by people everywhere as part of their lives, individually and corporately. We want God’s will for this world to be also the will of people everywhere.

Clearly, all this has to begin with ourselves. The coming of the Kingdom is not just the work of God alone, it is the result of us cooperating with him in the work. What am I doing in my life now for the realisation of that Kingdom?

Give us today our daily bread…
A prayer that our needs be satisfied for today. A prayer that rules out excessive anxiety about the future. But how are those needs to be satisfied? Do we expect manna to drop from the skies? And what about that little word ‘our’ again? Does it just mean me, my family, our community, our town, our country – or much more? Is this not a prayer that we all work together to ensure that no one goes hungry? Yet we know that millions do go to bed hungry every night and even more suffer from an unhealthy diet. And most of it is the result of human behaviour and neglect. This prayer reminds us that changing that situation is the responsibility of all of us – it is another dangerous prayer.

Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us…
Yet again, a dangerous thing to pray for. I really should not say it unless I am ready to do it. And if I am not ready, I need to pray hard for a forgiving heart. This is the only petition which is spelled out more clearly at the end of this passage:

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you…
(see Matt 18:21-35, about the unforgiving servant)

And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one…
A final plea that we will not fail, but that God’s help will be with us all the way. It is an admission of our basic impotence to set things right in our own lives and in the world. Given the challenges of the rest of the prayer, we need all the help we can get.

If this prayer were to really enter our hearts and minds, we would become deeply transformed people. So let us stop babbling it as we often do and really pray it, phrase by phrase – and let us live it as well.

Wednesday of The First Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Jon 3, 1-10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you." So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord's bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed," when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: "Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish." When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 51, 3-4. 12-13. 18-19
R.(19) A broken, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your holy spirit take not from me.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a holocaust, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

 
Gospel Lk 11, 29-32
While the crowds pressed around Jesus, he began to speak to them in these words: "This is an evil age. It seeks a sign. But no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was a sign for the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be a sign for the present age. The queen of the south will rise at the judgment along with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. She came from the farthest corner of the world to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, but you have a greater than Solomon here. At the judgment, the citizens of Nineveh will rise along with the present generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah they reformed, but you have a greater than Jonah here."


Wednesday of Week 1 of Lent – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 11:29-32

Today’s readings are about doing penance for our sins and they are linked by the name of Jonah.

In Mark’s Gospel, the crowds are often shown as recognising God’s presence in Jesus better than the scribes and Pharisees do. In Luke, however, they are sometimes shown as people curious to see signs and wonders, but without any real commitment to following Jesus.

So today we are told that “the crowds were increasing” and Jesus spoke to them. But what he said was not very flattering:

This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

Jesus, like Jonah, is a call to repentance and radical conversion. And Jesus implies that many of his listeners are not ready or willing to hear that call. They don’t need any more signs – Jesus has been giving them an abundance of signs through his teaching and healing work.

On the judgment day, they, the chosen people of God, will be surprised to see:

The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed, something greater than Solomon is here!

As well:

The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed, something greater than Jonah is here!

Jesus is far superior to either Solomon or Jonah!

We, too, who claim to be God’s People, may be surprised to see who will be called to God’s side on judgment day because they heard and followed God’s word according to their capacity. The question is, where will we be on that day? Thomas à Kempis, writer of the famous medieval treatise The Imitation of Christ, asked that very same question. He was worried about whether he would persevere in serving Christ to the very end of his life. He said he was told in answer to his prayer:

Do now what you would like to have done then, and you will have nothing to worry about.

Where will I be on the Day of Judgement? The answer to that question can be decided by me this very day and every single day from now on.

Thursday of The First Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Esther 12. 14-16. 23-25
Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the Lord. She prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: "My Lord, our King, you alone are God. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, for I am taking my life in my hand. As a child I was wont to hear from the people of the land of my forefathers that you, O Lord, chose Israel from among all peoples, and our fathers from among all their ancestors, as a lasting heritage, and that you fulfilled all your promises to them.  "Be mindful of us, O Lord. Manifest yourself in the time of our distress and give me courage, King of gods and Ruler of every power. Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and those who are in league with him may perish. Save us by your power, and help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O Lord. You know all things."
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138, 1-2. 2-3. 7-8
R.(3) Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart,
[for you have heard the words of my mouth;]
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name,

Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.

Your right hand saves me.
The Lord will complete what he has done for me;
Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.

 
Gospel Mt 7, 7-12
Jesus said to his disciples: "Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks, receives. The one who seeks, finds. The one who knocks, enters. Would one of you hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf, or a poisonous snake when he asks for a fish? If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to anyone who asks him! "Treat others the way you would have them treat you: this sums up the law and the prophets."
.
Commentary on Matthew 7:7-12
Today’s readings are about prayer, and specifically, prayer of petition. The Gospel reading sounds marvellous:
Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find…

It seems all I have to do is pray for something and I will get what I ask for. And yet, we all know from experience, that is simply not true. I pray to win the lottery, but don’t even get one of the minor prizes. I pray for the recovery of a person with cancer, but the person dies. What is happening? Is Jesus telling lies? Are there some hidden conditions of which we are not aware?

I believe the answer lies in the second half of the passage. First, Jesus asks whether a father would offer a stone to his son asking for bread, or whether a snake would be offered instead of a fish.

If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

In other words, if we human beings, in spite of our shortcomings, care for the well-being of our children, then surely God, who is all good, will be infinitely more caring. The problem is not that God does not answer our prayers; the difficulty is that we tend to ask for the wrong things. We do not give a child a sharp knife to play with even though, when we refuse to do so, he throws a temper tantrum and gets angry with us. A good parent, of course, will try to give the child something else which satisfies the child’s real need at the moment.

Jesus is saying that God will give “good things” to those who ask. In fact, as Jesus says elsewhere (Matt 6:8), God already knows all our needs so it is not necessary to tell him. Then why pray at all? The purpose of prayer is for us to become more deeply aware of what our real needs are.

The things we ask for in prayer can be very revealing of our relationship with God and with others. It can be very revealing of our values and our wants (which are very different from our needs). The deepest prayer of petition will be to ask God to give us those things which most benefit our long-term well-being, those things which will bring us closer to him and help us to interact in truth and love with those around us. It is a prayer to be the kind of person we ought to be. It is difficult to see that prayer not being answered.

It may be useful for us to look at the prayer of petition of Jesus in the garden and how it was answered. Paul, in the second letter to the Corinthians also shares an experience of petitionary prayer which he made (2 Cor 12:7-10) and the surprising answer that he got.

Today’s Gospel passage ends with the so-called Golden Rule:

In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Note that it is expressed positively rather than negatively and that makes a considerable difference. The negative version can be observed by doing nothing at all—not so the positive version. Although it is a separate saying, it can be linked with what Jesus says about petitionary prayer. If we expect God to be kind and generous to us, surely we are expected to be equally kind and generous to those who come asking our help.

 
Friday of The First Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Ez 18, 21-28
If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced. Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? says the Lord God. Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?
And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does, can he do this and still live? None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this, he shall die. You say, "The Lord's way is not fair!" Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When a virtuous man turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if a wicked man, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins which he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 130, 1-2. 3-4. 4-6. 7-8
R.(3) If you, O Lord, laid bare our guilt who could endure it?

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.

If you, O Lord, mark iniquities,
Lord, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.

I trust in the Lord;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
Let Israel wait for the Lord.

For with the Lord is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.

 Gospel Mt 5, 20-26
Jesus said to his disciples: "Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of God. You have heard the commandment imposed on your forefathers, 'You shall not commit murder; every murderer shall be liable to judgment.' What I say to you is: everyone who grows angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment, any man who uses abusive language toward his brother shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and if he holds him in contempt he risks the fires of Gehenna. If you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift at the altar, go first to be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Lose no time; settle with your opponent while on your way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to the guard, who will throw you into prison. I warn you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."
 
Commentary on Matthew 5:20-26

Today’s readings are about repentance for the wrongs we have done and the guarantee of God’s mercy. The Gospel passage comes from the Sermon on the Mount, and is the first of six so-called “antitheses” where Jesus contrasts the demands of the Law with those of the Gospel.

Virtue, for the scribes and Pharisees, was largely measured by external observance of the law. For Jesus, that is not enough. For him, real virtue is in the heart. There was a commandment not to kill, but Jesus says that even hatred and anger, violence in the heart (often expressed by abusive language) must be avoided. Furthermore, we cannot have one set of relationships with God, and another set with people.

So, it is no use going to pray and make our offering to God if we have done hurt to a brother or sister. I must leave my gift at the altar, and first go and be reconciled with my brother or sister. Only then may I come to offer my gift.

I cannot say I love God if I hate a brother or sister:

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars… (1 John 4:20)

and

Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. (Matt 25:45)

Repentance has to be expressed both to God and the person I have hurt. It is not possible to be reconciled to one, and not to the other.

We have something like this in every celebration of the Eucharist, although in practice, it can be very superficially done. At the beginning of the Communion, we together recite the Lord’s Prayer in which we all say:

…forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us…

How often are we conscious of saying those words, and how often do we really mean them?

Just after that, we are invited to share a sign of peace with those around us. Again, this can be done in a very perfunctory way. But the meaning of this gesture is that we want to be totally in a spirit of union and reconciliation with each other before we approach the Lord’s Table to break together the Bread – which is the sign of our unity as members of his Body.


Saturday of the First Week of Lent

Reading 1 Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Moses spoke to the people, saying: "This day the LORD, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.
Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees,
and to hearken to his voice. And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised."


Responsorial Psalm Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
R. (1b)  Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.

You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!

I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.

Gospel Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Commentary on Matthew 5:43-48
Today’s passage, like yesterday’s, comes from the Sermon on the Mount. The two passages are related, as they both speak of dealing with people with whom we have difficulties.

Today’s is a passage which many find difficult, too idealistic, or just downright meaningless. The Mosaic Law said that one must love one’s neighbour. It does not actually say we should hate our enemies, but in practice such hatred was condoned. Jesus rejects that teaching outright for his followers. We are to love our enemies and pray for them. How can we possibly do that? It is important that we understand what ‘love’ here means.

In Greek, it is the word agape, a deep concern for the good of the other that reaches out, even if there is nothing in return. It is not sexual, physical love (eros), nor is it the mutual love of intimate friendship or that between marriage partners (philia).

“Enemy” here means those who do harm to us in some way. It does not include the people we turn into enemies because we don’t like them. The true Christian does not have this kind of enemy. The main reason Jesus gives for acting in a loving way is that this is what God himself does.

God has many friends and many who are opposed to him, yet he treats them all exactly the same. God’s agape-love reaches out to all indiscriminately, just as the welcome rain falls and the burning sun shines with equal impartiality on every single person.

Elsewhere we are told that God is love; it is his nature; he cannot do anything else. And that love is extended equally to every single person—to Our Lady, to St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa), to the murdering terrorist, the serial killer, the abusive husband, the paedophile—to everyone. The difference is not in God’s love for each of these people, but in their response to that love.

Jesus tells us that we must try to love people in the same way he does. It is important to note that he is not telling us to be in love with those who harm us, or even to like them, or to have them as our friends. That would be unrealistic and unreasonable to ask.

But if we just care for those who are nice to us, how are we different from others? Even people who murder, or have no religion or morals, may do the same. But we are called to imitate the God in whose image we have been made.
And is it so unreasonable to love, to care for, to have genuine concern for our enemies, and pray for them? One presumes, as we have said, they are enemies in the sense that they are hostile to us, even though we may not have provoked them in any way. True Christians, from their side, do not have enemies.

For someone to be my enemy, it means that person really hates me, and may wish to do harm to me or may already have harmed me in some way. What do I gain by hating that person back? Then there are two of us who hate. Why should I allow another person’s hate to influence my feelings towards them? A person who hates is a person who is suffering, a person who is doing more damage to himself or herself, rather than to the supposed enemy. As the Gospel says, another person can hurt my body but not my inner self.

And if he or she does harm me, they harm themselves as well—even if they get twisted pleasure in the short term. If I have a true Christian spirit, I will reach out in compassion to that person. I will want that person to be healed, healed of their hatred, healed of their anger, and to learn how to love. Surely it is much better, and makes more sense, to pray for that person than to hate them back—to bring about healing and reconciliation, rather than deepen the wound on both sides.
What Jesus is asking us to do is not something impossible or unnatural. It is the only thing that makes sense, and will bring peace to me and hopefully, in time, to the person who is hostile to me. We can literally disarm a hating person by acting towards them in a positive and loving way, and refusing to be controlled by their negative attitudes:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)

Jesus tells us today: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Obviously, this is an ideal that we can only reach for. But it is a call to do our utmost to imitate God in extending our goodwill impartially and unconditionally to every single person. This is not just a commandment. When we reflect on it, it is simply common sense and it is as much in our own interest as it benefits others.


Monday of The Second Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Dn 9, 4-10
 
"Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments! We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land. Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel, near and far, in all the countries to which you have scattered them because of their treachery toward you. O Lord, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you. But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness! Yet we rebelled against you and paid no heed to your command, O Lord, our God, to live by the law you gave us through your servants the prophets."
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 79, 8. 9. 11. 13
R.(Ps 103, 10) Lord, do not deal with us as our sins deserve.

Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.

Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your namés sake.

Let the prisoners' sighing come before you;
with your great power free those doomed to death.
Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
through all generations we will declare your praise.
 
Gospel Lk 6, 36-38
Jesus said to his disciples: "Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you shall be pardoned. Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will they pour into the fold of your garment. For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you."


Commentary on Luke 6:36-38

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

This is the last sentence in Luke’s version of Jesus’ teaching on the need to love our enemies. We saw the Matthaean version last Saturday. There the passage ends with:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

It is clear that in showing compassion for all, even those who wish us evil, we are to aim at imitating our heavenly Father.

God’s compassion is all-embracing. His love reaches out to all without any discrimination between saint and sinner. Like the rain and sun which fall equally on all, so God’s compassion and mercy are extended to all. We, too, are being called to follow the example of our God and of Jesus his Son. We remember the words of Jesus as he was being nailed to the cross:

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)

Here is the compassion of God being expressed in an extreme situation. These same words will be repeated by Stephen when he is being stoned to death.

In today’s Gospel, we are told to follow that compassion by not sitting in judgement on others. That in no way means that we are to be blind to the genuine faults of others. But we are not in a position to take the higher moral ground so that we can sit in judgement on the supposed wrongdoer.

If we are honest, we know we judge others a lot – often with very little evidence and even less compassion. Our media, too, are full of judgment. Our conversations, our gossip is full of judgment. We lack compassion for the weaknesses of our brothers and sisters.

At the same time, we do very little to help them correct their ways; in fact, they seldom hear the criticisms we make. It is most often done behind their backs. If they unexpectedly appear, we quickly change the subject. We seem to take pleasure in the backbiting. We might even be disappointed if they reformed!

…do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

In the Eucharist we will pray,

Forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others.

A dangerous prayer to make, yet it trips so easily off our tongues, the same tongues that can be so critical and judgemental.

The Gospel calls for great generosity in our relationship with others. Not just material generosity, but generosity in love, in understanding, in tolerance and acceptance, in compassion and forgiveness. The more generous we are with others the more we will receive in return. And so we pray:

Lord, teach me to be generous,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and to seek no reward
save that of knowing that I do your holy will.
Amen.


Tuesday of The Second Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Is 1, 10. 16-20
Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow.  Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow;  Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool. If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land;  But if you refuse and resist, the sword shall consume you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken!
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 50, 8-9. 16-17. 21. 23
R.(23) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
 
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your holocausts are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.
Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?
 
When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or think you that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.
 
Gospel Mt 23, 1-12
Jesus told the crowds and his disciples: "The scribes and the Pharisees have succeeded Moses as teachers; therefore, do everything and observe everything they tell you. But do not follow their example. Their words are bold but their deeds are few. They bind up heavy loads, hard to carry, to lay on other men's shoulders, while they themselves will not lift a finger to budge them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and wear huge tassels. They are fond of places of honor at banquets and the front seats in synagogues, of marks of respect in public and of being called 'Rabbi.' As to you, avoid the title 'Rabbi.' One among you is your teacher, the rest are learners. Do not call anyone on earth your father. Only one is your father, the One in heaven. Avoid being called teachers. Only one is your teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be the one who serves the rest. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted."

Commentary on Matthew 23:1-12

Today’s Gospel looks like an attack on the scribes and Pharisees, but we should really see it as directed towards members of the Christian community, especially its leaders. Jesus levels two criticisms against the Pharisees:

– they don’t practise what they preach, and
– they do what they do to attract the admiration of others.

In fact, the words of Jesus are a warning to all people in authority. Jesus was attacking the scribes and Pharisees, but his words can be applied to many positions in our own society. Executives, managers, doctors, lawyers, bishops, priests, civil servants, parents can all be included here. In so far as they have genuine authority, they should be listened to – the doctor about things medical, the lawyer about things legal, the priest about things spiritual, the parent about family matters…

The Pharisees tried to impress by wearing wider phylacteries and longer tassels. The phylacteries were small boxes containing verses of Scripture which were worn on the left forearm and the forehead. The tassels, worn on the corners of one’s garment, were prescribed by Mosaic law as a reminder to keep the commandments. By making each of these items larger, one drew attention to one’s superior piety and observance. It is not difficult to see parallels in our time.

Unfortunately, it would be wrong to follow the behaviour of such people especially when they become arrogant and domineering, when they use their authority to draw attention to themselves, to assert their supposedly superior status. When they impose burdens on those ‘below’ them, which they themselves do nothing to alleviate.

Authority is not for power, but for empowering and enabling. Real authority is a form of service, not a way of control or domination or a claim to special privileges. So Jesus has no time for people who insist on being addressed by their formal titles. Matthew’s attack on the scribes and Pharisees again points to similar weaknesses on the part of church leaders in his time. It is something that again we may be all too familiar with in our own time:

“Hi, Jack!”…”Mr Smith to you, if you don’t mind.”

“Hi, Father Jack!”…”Monsignor Jones to you.”

As Jesus says, ultimately we are all brothers and sisters. And elsewhere, he tells us that the greatest among us is the one who best serves the needs of those around him, rather than the one who has the most impressive titles, or the biggest desk, or eats in the executive dining room, or has his/her picture on the cover of a magazine. Unfortunately, we contribute a lot to this nonsense because some of us dream of being there ourselves someday.

All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

The perfect model is Jesus himself, who:

…though he existed in the form of God…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name… (Phil 2:6-9)


Wednesday of The Second Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Jer 18, 18-20
The men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem said, "Let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And so, let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word."  Heed me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 31, 5-6. 14. 15-16
R.(17) Save me, O Lord, in your steadfast love.
 
You will free me from the snare they set for me,
for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O Lord, O faithful God.
 
I hear the whispers of the crowd, that frighten me from every side,
as they consult together against me, plotting to take my life.
 
But my trust is in you, O Lord;
I say, "You are my God."                              
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.
 
Gospel Mt 20, 17-28
As Jesus was starting to go up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve aside on the road and said to them: "We are going up to Jerusalem now. There the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, who will condemn him to death. They will turn him over to the Gentiles, to be made sport of and flogged and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised up." The mother of Zebedeés sons came up to him accompanied by her sons, to do him homage and ask of him a favor. "What is it you want?" he said. She answered, "Promise me that these sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your kingdom." In reply Jesus said, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink of the cup I am to drink of?" "We can," they said. He told them, "From the cup I drink of you shall drink. Sitting at my right hand or my left is not mine to give. That is for those for whom it has been reserved by my Father." The other ten, on hearing this, became indignant at the two brothers. Jesus then called them together and said: "You know how those who exercise authority among the Gentiles lord it over them; their great ones make their importance felt. It cannot be like that with you. Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest, and whoever wants to rank first among you, must serve the needs of all. Such is the case with the Son of Man who has come, not to be served by others but to serve, to give his own life as a ransom for the many."

Commentary on Matthew 20:17-28

In the Gospel, Jesus takes his disciples aside to let them know what is going to happen to him. This is, in fact, the third time he has told them of this, and it is most detailed of the Passion predictions. For the first time, mention is made of being handed over to the Gentiles. The text follows Mark very closely, except where Mark says that Jesus will be killed, Matthew explicitly says ‘crucified’.

The reactions of the disciples are not recorded here, but we know that on previous occasions they were both shocked and saddened. They were also perplexed. How could people do this to the Messiah for whom they had waited so long? How could their own leaders do this to the Messiah? Even worse, how could they hand him over into the hands of the hated Romans? They did not yet understand that, or even how, Jesus would enter into his glory through rejection, suffering and death.

In fact, they have still a lot to learn, as what follows clearly indicates. The mother of James and John approaches Jesus with a request, a typical mother’s request. In Mark’s Gospel, it is the boys themselves who ask the favour. Why Matthew has the mother asking is not clear. There could be an allusion here to Bathsheba, wife of King David, seeking the kingdom for her son Solomon. Another possibility is that Matthew is more deferential to the disciples than Mark, who regularly shows up their failure to understand the meaning of Jesus’ teaching.

Jesus asks her:

What do you want?

If Jesus asked me that question right now, what answer would I give? The mother of James and John asks that her two sons be on Jesus’ right and left in the kingdom. ‘Kingdom’ here is to be taken in the sense in which Jesus normally uses it, that is, the Kingdom of God on earth rather than referring to Jesus in glory. The two disciples envision Jesus as Messiah, King of his people and with a court like every other earthly king.

The mother uses her contact with a person in authority to press for some short-cut privileges for her sons. Understandable indeed, but not the way that God or Jesus works.

Jesus then asks the two disciples:

Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?

“We are able” they say with confidence. They are ready to do anything to get the top spots with the Messiah. They have forgotten the words that, unless we carry our cross after Jesus, we cannot be his followers. And yes, they would “drink the cup” of pain and sorrow and suffering, but that is not what they are thinking about now.

In any case, the places at the right and left of Jesus are not privileges given to the first people who just ask. Jesus works by quite other standards. And besides, Jesus says:

…to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.

The other ten disciples are not much better. They are angry and indignant about the backdoor tactics of James and John. Obviously, their thinking is no different. So Jesus teaches them about real greatness.

In the secular world, leaders exert power, domination and manipulation. They control people for their own ends. In Jesus’ world, it is altogether different. To be great is to put one’s talents totally at the service of others, to empower – not to have power. Jesus himself is the perfect example. It is a lesson we do not find easy to learn or to follow.

And Jesus says in conclusion:

…whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

The word ‘ransom’ here is to be taken in the sense of ‘liberation, making free’. ‘Many’, as a Semitic expression, means ‘all’. Jesus put his whole life at our disposal so that every single person should experience liberation and fullness of life. We are called to take part in the same great enterprise.



Thursday of The Second Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Jer 17, 5-10
Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit. More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1, 1-2. 3. 4. 6
R.(Ps 40, 5) Happy are they who hope in the Lord.

Happy the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the Lord
and meditates on his law day and night.

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
[Whatever he does, prospers.]

Not so, the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the Lord watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.

 
Gospel Lk 16, 19-31
Jesus said to the Pharisees: "Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and linen and feasted splendidly every day. At his gate lay a beggar named Lazarus, who was covered with sores. Lazarus longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. The dogs even came and licked his sores. Eventually the beggar died. He was carried by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man likewise died and was buried. From the abode of the dead where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus resting in his bosom. "He called out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to refresh my tongue, for I am tortured in these flames.' 'My child,' replied Abraham, 'remember that you were well off in your lifetime, while Lazarus was in misery. Now he has found consolation here, but you have found torment. And that is not all. Between you and us there is fixed a great abyss, so that those who might wish to cross from here to you cannot do so, nor can anyone cross from your side to us.' "'Father, I ask you, then,' the rich man said, 'send him to my father's house where I have five brothers. Let him be a warning to them so that they may not end in this place of torment.' Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.' 'No, Father Abraham,' replied the rich man. 'But if someone would only go to them from the dead, then they would repent.' Abraham said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if one should rise from the dead.'"

 
Commentary on Luke 16:19-31

In today’s Gospel, we have illustrated in parable form, two of Luke’s beatitudes:

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

and

…woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

The linkage with the First Reading is obvious.

On the one hand, you have a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, both signs of great wealth. He also has a good table and enjoys the choicest of foods every day. While the rich man is sometimes called Dives, this is simply the Latin word for ‘rich’. In reality, the rich man is nameless. In spite of all his money, he is a nobody.

At the same time you have a poor man called Lazarus. He was hungry and longed, like the dogs, to pick up the scraps that might fall from the dining table. The dogs even licked his sores. Dogs were abhorrent to Jews, so this was a particularly degrading thing to happen.

What is striking about this scene is that nothing seems to be happening. The rich man is eating, the poor man is sitting and waiting. There are no words between them. The poor man is not abused or chased away, he is simply ignored – as if he did not exist.

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matt 25:40)

Then both men die. Lazarus is brought by angels to the bosom of Abraham. But the rich man is condemned to an existence of great suffering in Hades, the place of the dead. The rich man now begs for even the slightest relief from the man he ignored in his lifetime. But it is now too late.

The rich man had his chance and he blew it. He had his life of ‘good things’ and he now knows just how ‘good’ they really were. It is now Lazarus’ turn to have the really good thing, the companionship of his God.

The rich man begs on behalf of his brothers that they be warned. Abraham replies to him:

They have Moses and the prophets [i.e. the whole Jewish religious tradition]; they should listen to them.

The rich man responds:

…but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.

To which Abraham replies:

If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

Surely a reference to Jesus himself, and to the many Jews who refused to believe in him even after his resurrection. There are people today who want some special signs from God in order to believe. We have the Good News of the New Testament and the living, experienced presence of Jesus among us. We do not need any more. We have all the guidance we need to lead the kind of life which will ensure we spend our future existence in the company of Lazarus.

And that life is measured not by wealth, status or power, but in a life of caring and sharing relationships. In a world of extreme consumerism, hedonism and individualism, today’s readings have a very important message. Those who are truly rich are those who enrich the lives of others.

Friday of The Second Week of Lent
 
Reading I       Gn 37, 3-4. 12-13. 17-28
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic. When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him. One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem, Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem. Get ready; I will send you to them." So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan. They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another: "Here comes that master dreamer! Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams." When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: "We must not take his life. Instead of shedding blood," he continued, "just throw him into that cistern there in the desert; but don't kill him outright." His purpose was to rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came up to them, they stripped him of the long tunic he had on; then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry. They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm, and resin to be taken down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers: "What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.
 
Responsorial Psalm Ps 105, 16-17. 18-19. 20-21
R.(5) Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

When the Lord called down a famine on the land
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.

They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the Lord proved him true.

The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.

 
Gospel Mt 21, 33-43. 45-46
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people: "Listen to this parable. There was a property owner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug out a vat, and erected a tower. Then he leased it out to tenant farmers and went on a journey. When vintage time arrived he dispatched his slaves to the tenants to obtain his share of the grapes. The tenants responded by seizing the slaves. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. A second time he dispatched even more slaves than before, but they treated them the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' When they saw the son, the tenants said to one another, 'Here is the one who will inherit everything. Let us kill him and then we shall have his inheritance!' With that they seized him, dragged him outside the vineyard, and killed him. What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do to those tenants when he comes?" They replied, "He will bring that wicked crowd to a bad end and lease his vineyard out to others, who will see to it that he has grapes at vintage time." Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone of the structure. It was the Lord who did this and we find it marvelous to behold'?  For this reason, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will yield a rich harvest." When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these parables, they realized he was speaking about them. Although they sought to arrest him they had reason to fear the crowds who regarded him as a prophet.
 
Commentary on Matthew 21:33-43,45-46

We have here a parable spoken to the unbelieving chief priests and elders of the people.

It is the history of the Israelite people told in parable form. In fact, it is more of an allegory than a parable, as each of the persons and incidents described point to real people and real events. Some scholars feel that what we have here is really an early Church document rather than something directly from Jesus. What may be more likely is that a parable spoken by Jesus has been modified in the light of later events.

The owner of the vineyard is clearly God. The vineyard is the house of Israel, where God’s people are to be found. The tenants of the vineyard are the people of God.

Servants sent to collect the harvest are abused in various ways – beaten, killed or stoned. The servants represent the prophets and other spokespersons sent by God to his people, many of whom were rejected, not listened to and even abused.

Finally, the owner decides to send his son, saying:

They will respect my son.

On the contrary, the tenants rationalized that, if they got rid of the son, they could take over the whole vineyard for themselves. They could carry on without the owner.

So they seized the son, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. A clear reference to Jesus being crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem.

And what will the king do then? Jesus asks. The leaders condemn themselves by answering the question: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death”, just as happened when the city of Jerusalem was totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Instead, the vineyard is let out to new tenants – those Jews and Gentiles, the new people of God, who believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The stone rejected by the builders becomes the cornerstone. Jesus says:

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits.

This is one of only two instances where Matthew uses the term ‘Kingdom of God’ rather than ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. The Gentiles had for long been rejected as unbelievers and outsiders. Now, it is on them, together with those Jews who accepted Jesus, that the Kingdom will be built.

The Gospel ends by commenting that the unbelieving priests and elders understood his message perfectly, but because of Jesus’ popularity with the people, they could do nothing in retaliation for the moment.

Again and again it has happened in world history that fighters for truth and justice have been rejected, jailed and tortured, but eventually found themselves the saviours of their people. Let us make sure that we are listening to the right people – the people who have the message of truth, love and justice – and that we follow them. Jesus, our Saviour, still speaks through his followers.