Lent 3rd Week: March 21-26
March 21 Monday:
The context: Today’s Gospel presents Jesus reacting with prophetic courage to the scepticism and criticism with which the people of Nazareth, his hometown, responded to his “Inaugural Address” in their synagogue that Sabbath.
Jesus’ reaction to his people’s scepticism: Jesus reacted to
the negative attitude of the Nazarenes with the comment, “No prophet is
accepted in his native place.” Next, he referred to the Biblical stories of
how God had blessed two Gentiles, while rejecting the many Jews in similar
situations, precisely because those Gentiles had been more open to the prophets
than the Jewish people were. First, Jesus told them of the Gentile widow of
Zarephath, in Lebanon (1 Kgs 17:7-24). The Prophet Elijah stayed with her and
her son during the three-and-a-half-year drought, fed them miraculously and
revived her son from death. Then Jesus described how Naaman, the pagan military
general of Syria, was healed of leprosy by Elisha the prophet (2 Kgs 5:1-19).
Jesus’ words implied that, like the people of his hometown, the Israelites of
those former days had been unable to receive miracles because of their disbelief.
Jesus’ reference to the unbelief of the Jews and to the stronger Faith of the
Gentiles infuriated his listeners at Nazareth. They rushed to seize Jesus and
throw him over the edge of the cliff on which their town was built. But Jesus
escaped because “His hour had not yet come.”
Life messages: 1) We need to face rejection with
prophetic courage and optimism especially when we experience the pain of
rejection, betrayal, abandonment, violated trust, neglect, or abuse from our
friends, families, or childhood companions.
2) Let us not, as the people in Jesus’ hometown did, reject
God in our lives. Are we unwilling to be helped by God, or by others? Does our
pride prevent us from recognizing God’s direction, help, and support in our
lives, coming to us through His words in the Bible, through the teachings of
the Church and through the advice and example of others?
3) We must have the prophetic courage of our
convictions. The passage challenges us to have the courage of our Christian
convictions in our day-to-day lives in our communities, when we face hatred and
rejection because of our Christian Faith. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 22 Tuesday:
The lessons taught by the parable: (1) We must
forgive so that we may be forgiven. Jesus explains this truth after teaching
the prayer, “Our Father.” He warns us, “For if you forgive men their
trespasses, your Heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt
6:14-15). As James states it later, “For judgment is without mercy to
the one who has shown no mercy” (Jas 2:13). Clearly, Divine and human
forgiveness work together.
(2) We represent the greater debtor in the parable; that is,
we owe God the ten thousand talents of the parable. We commit sins every day
and, hence, we need God’s forgiveness every day. The sum total of all the
offenses which our brothers and sisters commit against us is equivalent to the
small debt of the second debtor in the parable, namely 100 denarii. Yet,
shockingly and sadly, we are merciless towards our fellow human beings. The
moral of Jesus’ story is that, as members of a community, we must treat one
another as God has treated each of us. Here is a Divine call to throw away the
calculator when it comes to forgiveness. We must choose the more honorable path
and forgive one another “from the heart.” We have been forgiven a debt beyond
all human paying – the sin of man which God forgave through the willing,
sacrificial death of His own Son. Since that is so, we must forgive others as
God has forgiven us. Otherwise, we cannot hope to receive any mercy ourselves.
Life messages: 1) We need to forgive: Having
experienced forgiveness at the hands of God and God’s people, we are then
called to make it possible for others to experience the same forgiveness. Let
us forgive the person who has wronged us before hatred eats away at our ability
to forgive.
2) Forgiveness will not be easy, but God is there to help
us. We can call on God’s help by offering that individual to God, not by
sitting in judgment, but simply by saying, “Help so-and-so and mend our
relationship.” We may never forget the hurt we have experienced, but we can
choose to forgive.
3) We need to remind ourselves that with God’s grace we have
already forgiven the one that hurt us. As life goes on we may remember the
incident or occasion that was hurtful. Then let us offer the offender to
God’s mercy and pray for God’s blessings on him or her. (Fr.
Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 23 Wednesday:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage, taken fromJ
esus’ Sermon on the Mount, presents Jesus as giving the highest compliments to
the Mosaic Law. These words of Jesus that Matthew reports touched the
communities of converted Jews, helping them to overcome the criticism of the
brothers of their own race who accused them saying, “You are unfaithful to the
Law of Moses.” Ironically, Jesus himself would be falsely condemned and
crucified as a Lawbreaker. Jesus says that the Old Testament, as the word of
God, has Divine authority and deserves total respect. The Mosaic Law was
ultimately intended to help people honor God by practicing love. Its moral
precepts are to be respected because they are, for the most part, specific,
Divine-positive promulgations of the natural law. ButChristians are not obliged
to observe the legal and liturgical precepts of Old Testament because they were
laid down by God for a specific stage in Salvation History.
Jesus’ teaching: In Jesus’ time, the Law was
understood differently by different groups of the Jews to be 1) The Ten
Commandments, 2) The Pentateuch, 3) The Law and the Prophets, or 4) The oral
(Scribal) and the written Law. Jesus, and later Paul, considered the oral Law as
a heavy burden on the people and criticized it, while honoring the Mosaic Law
and the teachings of the prophets. At the time of Jesus, the Jews believed that
the Torah (Law given to Moses), was the eternal, unchangeable, Self-Revelation
of God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that he did not come to destroy the Torah
but to bring it to perfection by bringing out its inner meaning because He
IS the ultimate self-Revelation of God, the Lawgiver. That is why the
Council of Trent declared that Jesus was given to us, “not only as a Redeemer,
in whom we are to trust, but also as a Lawgiver whom we are to obey” (“De
Iustificatione,” can. 21). Jesus honored the two basic principles on which
the Ten Commandments were based, namely the principle of reverence and the principle
of respect. In the first four commandments, we are asked to reverence God,
reverence His holy Name, reverence His holy day and reverence our father and
mother. The next set of commandments instructs us to respect life, the marriage
bond, one’s personal integrity and others’ good name, the legal system,
another’s property and spouse, and one’s own spouse. Jesus declares that he has
come to fulfill all Divine laws based on these principles. By “fulfilling the
law,” Jesus means fulfilling the purpose for which the Law was
given: that is, justice, or “righteousness,” as the Scriptures call it – a word
that includes a just relationship with God).
Life messages: 1) In obeying God’s laws and Church
laws, let us remember these basic principles of respect and reverence.
2) Our obedience to the laws needs to be prompted by love of
God and gratitude to God for His blessings. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 24 Thursday:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives the
crushing reply of Jesus to the Scribes’ slanderous explanation of Jesus’
miracle, namely, that Jesus expelled devils by using the assistance of the
leader of devils, Beelzebul.
Jesus refutes the false allegation raised by the Scribes
against him with four counterarguments. 1) A house divided against itself will
perish, and a country engaged in civil war will be ruined. Hence, Satan will
not fight against Satan by helping Jesus to expel his coworkers. 2) If Jesus is
collaborating with Satan to exorcise minor demons, one must admit that the
Jewish exorcists are doing the same.
3) Jesus claims that he is using the power of his Heavenly
Father to evict devils, just as “when a strong man, fully armed, [the
devil] guards his own palace, his goods are in peace,” he[the
devil] can be routed when “one stronger than he [Jesus, using the
power of God] assails him [the devil] and overcomes
him [the devil], he [Jesus] takes away
his [the devil’s] armor in which he [the devil] trusted,
and divides his [the devil’s] spoil.”
4) Finally, Jesus gives a crushing blow to his accusers as
described in Mark’s Gospel (Mk 3:22-30), warning them that by telling blatant
lies they are blaspheming against the Holy Spirit; their sins are unforgivable
because they will not repent and ask for forgiveness.
Life messages: 1) We can be influenced by the
evil spirit if we listen to him and follow him. Hence, we have to keep our
souls daily cleansed and filled with the Spirit of God, leaving no space for
the evil spirit to enter our souls.
If we disregard and disobey God’s word, we open the door to
the power of sin and to Satan’s deception and control by not properly guarding
our five senses (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/22
March 25 Friday: (The Annunciation of the Lord):
The context: Today’s Gospel tells us the story of the
Annunciation, explaining how God began to keep the promise He had made, first
to Adam and Eve that He would send a redeemer from among their descendants, who
would crush the head of the serpent, the evil one who had tempted them to sin
(Gn 3:15), and next to King David through the prophet Nathan, that David’s descendant
would rule the world in an everlasting Kingdom (II Sm 7:12-16). Venerable Bede
remarks: “Today’s reading of the Gospel calls to mind the beginning of our
redemption, for the passage tells us how God sent an angel from Heaven to a
virgin to proclaim the new birth, the Incarnation of God’s Son, Who would take
away our age-old guilt; through Him it would be possible for us to be made new
and numbered among the children of God.”
Confronting his lack of trust in the Lord, the prophet
Isaiah declares to King Ahaz in the first reading (Is 7:10-14;
8:10): “The Lord Himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” The
annunciation to Mary is the fulfillment of all three of these prophecies.
The second reading (Heb 10:4-10) explains
the reason for God’s Incarnation, i.e., the Son of God became man
to do God’s will (“Behold I come to do your will) so that he might
replace animal sacrifices and pay the price of our redemption by his death and
resurrection.
The angel’s salutation to Mary: “Hail, full of grace,”
reminds us of God’s words to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:12), and the
angel’s salutation to Gideon, (Jgs 6:12). Mary is described as “full of
grace,” filled with God’s favor and graciousness. She is the new Ark,
a tent (Tabernacle), and Temple. God is literally and physically in her, and,
thus, she is the greater House of God promised to David. Mary’s question, “How
can this be, since I am a virgin?” is natural. That is why the angel
reminds Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God.” The Lord God
will “empower” her (“the Spirit will come upon you“), and “protect” her
(“overshadow you“). In Luke’s narrative, Gabriel points out that the
Child would not only be a distant grandson of David — he would be God’s own
Son: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and
the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” Mary
does not require confirmation but responds in Faith. She agrees to carry out
the Word Gabriel has addressed to her. Since Mary is really a true hearer and
doer of the Word of God, she immediately makes a response with Faith and trust.
Mary thus became the virgin-mother who fulfills Is 7:14 in a way that Isaiah
could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of
God (Ps 40:8-9; Heb 10:7-9; Lk 1:38). The Annunciation touches both the Good
News that God has become one like us “in every respect tempted as we
are, yet without sinning” (Hb 4:15), so that we might become as God
is, and the greater news that God, in the person of Jesus, has “paid the price”
for achieving this end. When we pray the “Angelus” prayer three times a day, we
gratefully remember the great gift of God’s Incarnation. When we pray the
Rosary, we refer to the Incarnation fifty-three times — each time we pray the
“Hail Mary” — and the first of the “Joyful Mysteries” is the Annunciation, the
Incarnation of Our Lord.
Life message: 1) We need to be humble
instruments in the hand of God, trusting in His power and goodness, and Mary
shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances
of life. St. Augustine reminds us that God who created us without our
permission can not save us without our active cooperation. Hence, let us
cooperate in the fulfillment of God’s plan for us, by doing His will with
Mary’s trusting Faith and humility, through which she brought Jesus into the
world, giving him flesh and blood. Can we also bring Jesus to others in our
day-to-day lives? Like Mary who brought God to us as Jesus our Savior, it is
our duty to carry Jesus and bring him to the lives of others around us in love,
mercy, forgiveness, and service. “Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you to
magnify the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each one to exult in Christ.”
(attributed to St. Ambrose).
2) We need to say a courageous and generous “yes” to God in
our everyday chices: True obedience comes from a free choice made in the light
of what is true and good. Such a self-surrender often requires a great deal of
courage because it can involve going against the tide of social expectations.
True obedience also aims at putting oneself at the service of Someone/something
that is greater than oneself, accepting what God clearly wants us to do or what
He wants to do through us. It is by saying, with Jesus and Mary, a wholehearted
and totally unconditional “Yes” – “Fiat! May it be done in me,” to
Jesus that he will be re-born in each of us, or maybe even born in me for the
first time. By my saying “Yes,” Jesus will be born or re-born
in others, too.
3) We need to try to learn God’s plan for our lives: The
Good News in today’s Scripture message is not only that God is making provision
for the salvation of His people, but also that He has a plan for each
individual person. In many cases, our work for God seems rather ordinary, but
each ordinary task which we carry out fits into God’s plan in ways that we
cannot yet understand. God desires not only the skill of our hands and talents
but the love of our hearts. The Babe in the Manger reminds us of what God has
done and is still doing for us. What are we doing for Him in return? Let us
show our gratitude to God by living as true followers of Christ: “Behold, here
I am, Lord! I come to do Your will.” (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 26 Saturday:
The context: The main theme of today’s Gospel is
that true humility must be the hallmark of our prayers. However, the central
focus of today’s parable is not prayer, but rather pride, humility, and the
role of grace in our salvation. The parable was mainly intended to convict the
Pharisees who proudly claimed they obeyed all the rules and regulations of the
Jewish law, while they actually ignored the Mosaic precepts of mercy and
compassion. Through this parable of Jesus, Luke was reminding his Gentile
listeners that God values the prayer of any humble and contrite heart.
In the parable, Jesus tells us about two men who went to
pray, a Pharisee and a tax-collector. The Pharisee stood in the very front of
the Temple, distancing himself from his inferiors, and explained to God his
meticulous observance of the Mosaic Law, at the same time despising the
publican. But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his
eyes to Heaven but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a
sinner!” Jesus declared that only the humble tax-collector went home
justified in the eyes of God.
Life messages: 1) We need to evict the Pharisee
and revive the publican in each one of us. There is a big dose of the
Pharisee’s pride in us and a small dose of the tax-collector’s humility. Hence,
we have to make a pilgrimage from pride to humility, realizing the truth that
if we are not sensitive to other people, we are not sensitive to God.
2) Let us have the correct approach in our prayer life. For most of us, prayer means asking God for something when we are in need. We conveniently forget the more important aspects of prayer: adoration, praise, contrition, and thanksgiving. If we have forgotten God through our years of prosperity, how can we expect Him to take notice of us when something goes wrong? Yet, even there His mercy welcomes us. Our day’s work and our day’s recreation, if offered for the honor and glory of God, are prayers pleasing in His sight. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
