Lent 1st Week: Feb 19-24:
Feb 19 Monday: Mt 25:31-46: “
The context: Today’s Gospel describes the Last
Judgment and its criterion using as an image the Palestinian shepherds’
practice of the nightly separation of the over-active, less docile goats from
the docile sheep. Jesus promises that he will come in all his glory as a Judge
(Christ’s Second Coming), to reward the good people and punish the bad people.
This will be the final, and the public, separation of the good people from the
evildoers.
The lessons: The parable teaches us that the
main criterion of the Last Judgment will be the works of Christian charity,
kindness, and mercy we have done, or not done, for others, in whom we have
actually served, or not served, Christ, knowingly or unknowingly. The parable
tells us that Christ, the Judge, is going to ask us six questions, and all of
them are based on how we have cooperated, or failed to cooperate, with God’s
grace to do acts of charity, kindness, and mercy for others because Jesus
actually dwells in them. The first set of questions: “I was hungry, thirsty,
homeless. Did you give me food, drink, accommodation?” The second set of
questions: ”I was naked, sick, imprisoned. Did you clothe me? Did you help me
by visiting me in my illness or in prison?” If the answers are yes, we will be
eternally rewarded because we have cooperated with God’s grace by practicing
charity. But if the answers are negative, we will be eternally punished. Mother
Teresa of Calcutta said, “If sometimes our poor people have had to die of
starvation, it is not because God didn’t care for them, but because you and I
didn’t give, were not instruments of love in the hands of God, to give them
that bread, to give them that clothing; because we did not recognize Christ,
when once more Christ came in distressing disguise.”
Life messages: 1) The Holy Bible, the Seven
Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and the precepts of the Church are all meant
to help us to practice corporal and spiritual works of charity (mercy), in this
life so that we may become able to receive God’s love, our eternal reward of
Heavenly bliss. 2) Sins of omission (in which, we fail to recognize those in
need as our brothers and sisters in Christ, and, so, fail to serve them in
love), are very serious matters leading us toward eternal punishment. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 20 Tuesday: Mt 6:7-15:7
The context: In today’s passage from the Sermon
on the Mount, Jesus instructs the crowd that they should not pray like the
Gentiles, repeating empty phrases. He means that true prayer is not so much a
matter of the number of words as of the frequency and the love with which one
turns towards God, raising one’s mind and heart to God. So, Jesus teaches
them a model prayer. Jesus’ prayer, “Our Father,” consists of two parts.
In the first part, we praise and worship God, addressing Him as our loving,
caring, and providing Heavenly Father and asking Him to help us to do His Holy
Will in our lives as obediently and lovingly as His Will is done in Heaven and,
thus, to remain remaining in His kingdom. In the second part, we present our
petitions before the Triune God. First,we ask God for our present needs, food
clothing and shelter, (“give us this day our daily bread”), then
for our past needs, especially for forgiveness of our sins (“forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”), and
finally, for our future needs, protection against the tempter and his
temptations (“and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”).
In this part, we also bring the Trinitarian God into our lives. We bring in: 1)
God the Father, the Provider, by asking for daily bread; 2) God the Son, our
Savior, by asking forgiveness for our sins; and 3) God the Holy Spirit, the
Paraclete, Who is our Guide, Advocate, Comforter, and Illuminator, by asking
for protection and deliverance from evil. Special stress on the spirit of
forgiveness:We are told to ask for forgiveness from others for our offenses
against them, and to offer unconditional forgiveness to others for their
offenses against us as a condition for receiving God’s forgiveness. Jesus
clarifies, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your
Heavenly Father will also forgive you. “But if you do not forgive men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt 6:14-15).
“For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, now and
forever. Amen.”The manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew do not contain this
phrase, nor do any of the Catholic translations. Martin Luther added this
doxology to the Our Father in his translation of Matthew’s Gospel, and
the King James editions of the Biblekeep it. The doxology is
actually taken from the Divine Liturgy or Catholic Mass. Known as the final
doxology, it takes up the first three petitions to our Father. By the final
“Amen,” which means, “So be it”, we ratify what is contained in the prayer that
God has taught us. Fr. Tony
Feb 21 Wednesday:
[Saint Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church] :
The context: Since there had been many false
prophets and false messiahs in the past, and since their pride and prejudice
did not permit them to see the Messiah in a
carpenter-from-Nazareth-turned-wandering-preacher, the Jewish religious leaders
demanded that Jesus should show some “Messianic” signs and miracles taken from
their list. They would not accept that Jesus’ numerous miraculous healings were
the Messianic signs foretold by the prophets.
Jesus’ negative response: Calling them an apostate
generation who refused to believe in their own prophets and denied the hand of
God in the miracles he worked, Jesus warned these religious leaders that they
would be condemned on the Day of Judgment by the people of Nineveh and by the
Queen of Sheba from the South. (Sheba, or Saba,
was a southern kingdom centred on Yemen or Ethiopia, and
possibly including both. The distance from Yemen to Jerusalem is 2084 miles).
This is one of the instances in which Jesus held up Gentiles as models of Faith
and goodness (other examples: the Canaanite woman in Mt 15, the centurion in Lk
7, the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10; etc.). The pagan Ninevites heard the
voice of the Lord God in the prophet Jonah, repented, and were spared. The
Queen of Sheba recognized God’s Wisdom in King Solomon, and she traveled to
Israel to receive more of it. Nevertheless, Jesus gave the religious leaders
challenging him, “the sign of Jonah.” It was the undeniable Messianic sign of
his own Resurrection from the tomb on the third day after his death, just as
Jonah had spent three days in the belly of the giant fish before finally going
to Nineveh to accomplish the mission God had originally given him.
Life messages: We need to recognize God-given
signs in our lives: 1) Each Sacrament in the Church is an external sign
representing God’s grace. 2) On the altar we re-present Christ’s sacrifice on
the cross using liturgical signs and prayers. 3) Everyone living with us or
working with us is a sign of God’s living presence in our midst, inviting us to
love and honor him or her as God’s child and the living Temple of the Holy
Spirit. 4) All world events and all the events in our lives are signs of God’s
care and protection for us, His children. 5) The Holy Bible is a sign of God
communicating His message to us every day. So, let us learn from these
God-given signs instead of looking for signs in weeping Madonnas, bleeding
crucifixes, and daily messages of visionaries.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 22 Thursday: (The Chair of Saint Peter the
Apostle):
By celebrating the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter we honor
the mission of teacher and pastor conferred by Christ on Peter and continued in
an unbroken line down to the present Pope. We also celebrate today,
the unity of the Church, founded upon the Apostle Peter, and we use this
occasion to renew our submission to the Magisterium or teaching authority of
the Roman Pontiff, extended both to truths which are solemnly defined ex
cathedra, and to all the acts of the ordinary Magisterium. Like the
committee chair, this chair refers to the occupant, not the furniture. Its
first occupant stumbled a bit, denying Jesus three times and hesitating to
welcome Gentiles into the new Church. Some of its later occupants have also
stumbled a bit, sometimes even failed scandalously. So, the feast reminds us
that the Vicar of Christ needs the prayer support of all the Catholics. This
feast also gives us the occasion to give thanks to God for the mission He
entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his successors.
It is also is the feast of a relic long reputed to be St.
Peter’s actual throne or the Cathedra Petri. On the feast, 110
candles illuminate the reliquary that contains it. This relic has been
venerated by the faithful since the fourth century. Previously reserved in the
Baptismal Chapel of what is referred to as the Old St Peter’s Basilica, built
by the Emperor Constantine around 333AD, today it can be found encased in a
reliquary — the bronze throne built by Bernini and enshrined in the apse of St
Peter’s Basilica. The throne is supported by the statues of four Doctors of the
Church: two from the West, St Augustine and St Ambrose, and two from the East:
St John Chrysostom and St Athanasius, beneath the well-known stained-glass
image depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove. In medieval liturgical custom the
Pope was enthroned on the relic for part of his coronation ceremony and used it
as his liturgical throne in the Basilica on the feast. Ever since, Bernini’s
art work covering the Chair, is considered as the reliquary, with the wooden
Chair in side it as the relic. The last time the relic was exposed was in 1867
by Blessed Pius IX on the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of Ss. Peter
and Paul. Kings of old sat on thrones and ruled. Peter’s chair is a symbol of
his authority from Jesus to rule the Church. This feast reminds us that Jesus
bestowed on Peter a special place among the Apostles. He was one of the three
who were with Christ on special occasions, such as the raising of the daughter
of Jairus, the Transfiguration of Christ, and the Agony in the Garden of
Gethsemane. He was the only Apostle to whom Christ appeared individually on the
first day of the week, the day of the Resurrection. Peter, in turn, often spoke
on behalf of the Apostles. When Jesus asked the Apostles, “Who do men say
that the Son of Man is?” Simon replied, “Thou art Christ, the
Son of the Living God.” (Mt 16:16)
And Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona: because
flesh and blood have not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
And I say to you: That you are Peter [Cephas, a rock], and upon this rock
[Cephas] I will build my Church [ekklesia], and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of the
Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven (Mt 17-19) In
saying this, Jesus made St. Peter the head of the entire community of believers
and placed the spiritual guidance of the faithful in St. Peter’s hands. A
symbol of this authority is the “cathedra,” a bishop’s throne or chair in a
cathedral. Peter delivered the first public sermon after the Pentecost and won
a large number of converts. He also performed many miracles and defended the
freedom of the Apostles to preach the Gospels. He preached in Jerusalem,
Judaea, and as far north as Syria. He was arrested in Jerusalem under Herod
Agrippa I, but miraculously escaped execution. He left Jerusalem and eventually
went to Rome, where he preached during the last portion of his life. He was
crucified there, head downwards, as he had desired to suffer, saying that he
did not deserve to die as Christ had died. The date of St. Peter’s death is not
clear. Historians estimate he was executed between the years 64 and 68. His
remains now rest beneath the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 23 Friday: [Saint Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr] :
The context: For the Scribes and the Pharisees, the
external fulfillment of the precepts of the Mosaic Law was the guarantee of a
person’s salvation. In other words, a man saved himself through the external
works of the Law. Jesus rejects this view in today’s Gospel passage, taken from
the Sermon on the Mount. For Jesus, justification or sanctification is
a grace, a free, strengthening gift from God. Man’s role is one of cooperating
with that grace by being faithful to it, and using it as God means it
to be used. Jesus then outlines new moral standards for his disciples.
Control of anger: Anger is the rawest,
strongest, and most destructive of human emotions. Describing three stages of
anger and the punishment each deserves, Jesus advises his disciples not to get
angry in such a way that they sin.
1) Anger in the heart (“brief stage of insanity” Cicero): It
has two forms: a) a sudden, blazing flame of anger which dies suddenly. b) a
surge of anger which boils inside and lingers, so that the heart seeks revenge
and refuses to forgive or forget. Jesus prescribes trial and punishment by the
Village Court of Elders as its punishment.
2) Anger in speech: The use of words which are insulting (“raka“=“fool”),
or damaging to the reputation (“moros” = a person of loose morals).
Jesus says that such an angry (verbally abusive) person should be sent to the
Sanhedrin, the Jewish religion’s Supreme Court, for trial and punishment.
3) Anger in action: Sudden outbursts of uncontrollable
anger, which often result in physical assault or abuse. Jesus says that such
anger deserves hellfire as its punishment.
In short, Jesus teaches that long-lasting anger is bad,
contemptuous speech or destroying someone’s reputation is worse and harming
another physically is the worst.
Life messages: 1)Let us try to forgive, forget,
and move toward reconciliation as soon as possible. St. Paul advises us “Be
angry (righteous anger), but do not sin” (Eph 4:26).
2) When we keep anger in our mind, we are inviting physical illnesses like
hypertension, and mental illnesses like depression. 3) Let us relax and keep
silence when we are angry and pray for God’s strength for self-control , and
for the grace, first to desire to forgive, and then actually to forgive, those
who have injured us Fr. Tony
Feb 24 Saturday:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage is perhaps the
central and the most famous section of the Sermon on the Mount. It gives us the
Christian ethic of personal relationship: love one’s enemies, as well as one’s
neighbors, and show one’s love for one’s enemies by forgiving them and praying
for them. Above all, it tells us that what makes Christians different is the
grace with which we interact with others, treating them with loving kindness
and mercy, especially when those others seemingly don’t deserve it. The Old Law
never said to hate enemies, but that was the way some Jews understood it. Jesus
commands us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us in
order to demonstrate that we are children of a merciful
Heavenly Father. From the cross, Jesus, living what he preached, did as he
commands us to do, praying for Mercy to God His Father for all of those who
were responsible for the Crucifixion – which includes all fallen humankind, and
so ourselves — saying, ‘Father forgive them; they know not what they do.’”
(Lk 23:34). A Christian has no personal enemies. If we only love our
friends, we are no different from pagans or atheists.
We need to love our neighbors and our enemies, too: The
Greek word used for loving enemies is not storge (= affection
or natural love towards family members), or philia (= friendship, love
of close friends), or eros (= romance) (passionate love between a
young man and woman), but agápe (= unconditional
love) which is the invincible benevolence, or good will, for another’s
highest good. Since agápe, or unconditional love, is not natural,
so practicing it is possible only with God’s help. Agápe love
is a choice more than a feeling. We choose to love our enemies because Jesus
loved them enough to die for them, and they, too, are the children of our God.
We have in the Acts of the Apostles the example of St. Stephen, the first
Christian martyr, who, like Jesus on the cross, prayed for those who were
putting him to death.
Life Messages: We are to try to be perfect, to
be like God: 1) We become perfect when we fulfill God’s purpose in creating us:
with His help, to become God-like. 2) We become perfect when, with His ongoing
help, we try to love as God loves, to forgive as God forgives, and to show
unconditional good will and universal benevolence as God does. Perfection means
we are striving to live each and every moment doing God’s will, using or
cooperating with the grace of God. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
