Lent 2nd Week: Feb 26- March 2:
Feb 26 Monday:
The context: In today’s passage, taken from the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs his followers to be merciful,
non-judgmental, forgiving, and generous. He condemns our careless, malicious,
and rash judgments about another person’s behavior, feelings, motives, or actions.
St. Augustine explains it thus: “What do you want from the Lord? Mercy? Give
it, and it shall be given to you. What do you want from the Lord? Forgiveness?
“Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
Reasons why we should not judge others: 1) No
one except God is good enough to judge others because only God sees the whole
truth, and only He can read the human heart; hence, only He has the right and
authority to judge us.
2) We are often prejudiced in our judgment of
others, and total fairness cannot be expected from us.
3) We do not see all the facts, the
circumstances, and the power of the temptation which have led a person to do
something evil.
4) We have no right to judge others because we
have the same fault as, and often to a more serious degree than, the one we are
judging (remember Jesus’ funny example of a man with a wooden beam in his eye
trying to remove the dust particle from another’s eye?) St. Philip Neri
commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard: “There goes Philip but for
the grace of God.”
Life message: 1) We should leave all judgment to
God and practice mercy and forgiveness, remembering the advice of saints: “When
you point one finger of accusation at another, three of your fingers point at
you.” Let us pay attention to the Jewish rabbi’s advice: “He who judges others
favorably will be judged favorably by God.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 27 Tuesday: [Saint Gregory of Narek, Abbot and
Doctor of the Church]
The context: For Jesus, it was the third day of
the very first “Holy Week” in Jerusalem, a day of controversy and personal
attacks. Jesus, under fire from the religious leaders of Israel who reject Him
as the Messiah, faced them in the public forum and, in agape love, turned the
Light of Truth on their behavior. He showed them, in detail, where and how they
were failing themselves and their vocation and so the Lord God. Then He laid
out the consequences of their mistaken choices, pronouncing eight woes against
them, and clearly identifying their behavior as hypocritical because they were
more concerned about self-promotion than serving others. These home truths,
spoken publicly, were intended to humble them, in order to cause them to see
themselves as God saw them, and, horrified, to reform.
Three sins of the Scribes and Pharisees: Jesus raises three
objections to the Pharisees: (1) “They do not practice what they teach” (v. 3).
They lack integrity of life and fail to practice what they preach, namely,
justice, mercy and charity. (2) They overburden the ordinary people (v. 4). The
scribes and the Pharisees, in their excessive zeal for God’s laws, split the
613 laws of the Torah into thousands of rules and regulations affecting every
movement of the people, thus making God’s laws a heavy burden. (3) “They do all
their deeds to be seen by others” (v. 5). Jesus accuses the scribes and
Pharisees of seeking the glory that rightly belongs to God. They express their
love of honor in several ways, thereby converting Judaism into a religion of
ostentation: (a) “They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long”
(v. 5). b) They “love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats
in the synagogues” (v 6). (c) They “love to be greeted with respect in the
marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi” (v 7).
Life messages: 1) We need servant-leaders in a
serving community: The Church is a servant-community in which those who hunger,
and thirst are to be satisfied; the ignorant are to be taught; the homeless are
to receive shelter; the sick are to be cared for; the distressed are to be
consoled; and the oppressed are to be set free. Hence, leaders should have a
spirit of humble service in thought, word and deed. 2) We need to live the
Faith we profess. Our Faith tells us that we are all brothers and sisters,
children of the same Heavenly Father. Hence, we should always pray for each
other. Instead of judging the poor, we should be serving them both directly and
through our efforts on behalf of economic justice. Instead of criticizing those
of other races, we should be serving them both directly and through our efforts
on behalf of racial justice. Instead of ignoring the homeless, we should be
serving them through efforts to supply them with adequate housing. 3) We need
to accept the responsibilities which go with our titles. Titles and polite
forms exist to remind each of us of our specific responsibilities in society.
Hence, let us use everything we are and have in a way that brings glory to God,
by serving His children.
Fr. Tony(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 28 Wednesday:
The context: We celebrate the feast of St. James
the apostle on July 25th. James was the son of Zebedee the fisherman and
Salome, Mary’s sister (Mt 27:56). John the apostle was his brother. The two,
with Simon Peter, made up Jesus’ inner circle of disciples who were given the
privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration, the raising to
life of the daughter of Jairus, and Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane. Jesus called
James and John “sons of thunder,” probably because of their
volatile character and high ambitions. Later, James was known as James the
Greater to distinguish him from James the Less who
wrote the epistles and led the Jerusalem Church community. James the Greater
was probably the first apostle martyred by Herod in an attempt to please the
Jews (Acts 12:1-3)
The Gospel episode: The incident in today’s Gospel describes
how ambitious, far-sighted, and power-crazy James and his brother John were in
their youth. They sought the help of their mother to recommend them to Jesus in
their desire to be chosen as the two cabinet ministers closest to Jesus when he
established his Messianic kingdom after ousting the Romans. But they picked the
most inappropriate moment to make this request because Jesus had just predicted
his passion and death for a third time.
Jesus’ response: Jesus told them that it was the spirit of
service which would make his disciples great because he himself had come, ”not to
be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Life message: 1: The leaders in Jesus’ Church
must be the servants of all as Mary was (“Behold the handmaid of the
Lord”). That is why the Pope is called “the servant of the servants of
God.” The priesthood of the ordained priests is called the ministerial
priesthood because the duty of ordained priests is to give spiritual
services to the people of God who share the royal priesthood of Christ by their
Baptism (Rv 1:6; cf. 1 Pt 2:5,9. Church leaders must be ready to serve others
sacrificially with agape love in all humility. In other words,
leaders among Christians must be humble, loving, selfless and “the servants of
all.”
Fr. Tony(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Feb 29 Thursday:
The context: The main theme of today’s Gospel is
the warning that the selfish and extravagant use of God’s blessings, including
personal wealth, without sharing them with the poor and the needy, is a serious
sin deserving eternal punishment. The rich man’s punishment was not for having
riches, but for neglecting the Scriptures and what they taught.
Objectives: Jesus told this parable to condemn the Pharisees
for their avarice (love of and greed for money), and for their lack of mercy
and compassion for the poor. He also used the parable to correct the Jewish
misconception that material prosperity in this life is God’s reward for moral
uprightness, while poverty and illness are God’s punishments for sin. The
parable further reminds us that we will be judged (private judgment) and
rewarded or punished immediately after our death. The parable finally offers an
invitation to each one of us to be conscious of the sufferings of those around
us and to share our blessings generously with the needy.
One-act play: The parable is presented as a one-act play
with two scenes. The opening scene presents the luxurious life of the rich man
in costly dress enjoying five-course meals every day, in contrast to the
miserable life of the poor, sick beggar living on the street by the rich man’s
front door, competing with stray dogs for the crumbs discarded from the rich
man’s dining table. As the curtain goes up on the second scene, the situation
is reversed. The beggar, Lazarus, is enjoying Heavenly bliss as a reward for
his fidelity to God in his poverty and suffering, while the rich man has been
thrown down into the excruciating suffering of Hell as punishment for ignoring
God in his prosperity and for not doing his duty of showing mercy to the poor
by sharing with the beggar at his door the mercies and blessings God had given
him.
Life messages: 1) We are all rich enough to share our
blessings with others. God has blessed each one of us with wealth or health or
special talents or social power or political influence or a combination of many
other blessings. The parable invites us to share with others, in various ways,
what we have been given –instead of using everything exclusively for selfish
gains. 2) We need to remember that sharing is the criterion of Last Judgment:
Matthew (25:31ff), tells us that all six questions Jesus will ask each of us when
he comes in glory as our judge are based on how we have shared our blessings
from him (food, drink, home, mercy and compassion), with others. Fr.
Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 1 Friday:
The context: Told by Jesus during Passover week, the
parable of the wicked tenants is actually an allegorical “parable of
judgment,” accusing the Pharisees of not producing the fruits of repentance
and renewal of life which God expected from them as leaders of His Chosen
people. “I expected my vineyard to yield good grapes. Why did it yield
sour ones instead?” The parable also explains the necessity of our
bearing fruit in the Christian life and the punishment for sterility and
wickedness. The meaning of the parable: As an allegory, this parable has
different meanings. Like the Jews, the second- and third-generation Christians
also understood God as the landlord. The servants sent by the land-owner
represented the prophets of the Old Testament. They were to see that God’s
chosen people produced fruits of justice, love, and righteousness. But the
people refused to listen to the prophets and produced the bitter grapes of
injustice, immorality, and idolatry. Further, they persecuted and killed the
prophets. As a final attempt, the landowner sent his son, (Jesus) to collect
the rent (fruits of righteousness) from the wicked tenants (the Jews). But they
crucified him and continued to lead lives of disloyalty and disobedience.
Hence, God’s vineyard was taken away from His Chosen People and was given to a
people (Gentile Christians and Jewish converts), who were expected to produce
the fruit of righteousness. The parable warns us that if we refuse to reform
our lives and become productive, we also could be replaced as the old Israel
was replaced by us, the “new” Israel.
Life messages: 1) We need to be good
fruit-producers in the vineyard of the Church. Jesus has given the Church
everything necessary to make Christians fruit-bearing. Having already received
the Gift of Life in Baptism, we find we also have the following: a) the Bible
to know the will of God; b) the priesthood to lead the people in God’s ways; c)
the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the remission of sins; d) the Holy
Eucharist as our spiritual food; e) the Sacrament of Confirmation for a dynamic
life of Faith; f) the Sacrament of Matrimony for the sharing of love in
families, the fundamental unit of the Church; g) the Sacrament of Anointing of
the Sick to heal us in spirit, and in body if God so wills, and to prepare us
for bodily death; and h), the Sacrament of Holy Orders by which the priesthood
of Jesus is continued on earth and will be continued until the end of the
world. We are expected make use of these gifts and to produce fruits for
God. 2) We need to be good fruit-producers in the vineyard of
our family. By our mutual sharing of blessings, by our sacrificing of our time
and talents for the welfare of all the members, by our humbly and lovingly
serving others in the family, by our recognizing and encouraging each other,
and by our honoring and gracefully obeying our parents, and by teaching and
caring for our children, we become producers of “good fruit” or good
vine-branches in our families. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 2 Saturday:
The context: Chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel has
been called “the Gospel within the Gospel,” because it is the distilled essence
of the Good News about our Heavenly Father. The whole chapter is essentially
one complete parable, the “Parable of the Lost and Found,” with three
illustrations: the story of the lost sheep, the story of the lost coin and the
story of the lost son. These parables remind us that we have a God Who welcomes
sinners and forgives their sins when they return to Him with genuine
contrition, resolved to reform. In addition, He is always in search of His lost
and straying children.
The lost son: This parable speaks about the deep effects of
sin, the self-destruction of hatred, and the infinite mercy of God. This is a
story of love, of conflict, of deep heartbreak, and of ecstatic joy. The scene
opens on a well-to-do Jewish family. With the immaturity of a spoiled brat, the
younger son impudently extracts his share of the coming inheritance from his
gracious father. He sells out his share and then squanders the money in a
faraway city. Then, bankrupt and starving, the prodigal son ends up feeding
pigs, a task that was forbidden to a Jew (Lv 11:7; 14:8). Finally, comng “to
his senses” (v. 17), he decides to return to his father, asking for forgiveness
and begging to be given the status of a hired servant. When he sees his son
returning, however, the father runs to him, embraces him, kisses him and gives
him a new robe, a ring and new shoes. The father also throws a great feast for
him, to celebrate his return, killing the “fatted calf’” reserved
for the Passover feast, so that all may rejoice with him at the wanderer’s
return.
Life messages: 1) We need to meet the challenge
for self-evaluation: If we have been in sin, God’s mercy is seeking us,
searching for our souls with a love that is wild beyond all imagining. God is
no less ready to receive and welcome us back than Jesus was to welcome sinners
in his time. 2) We should also ask God for the courage to extend this
forgiveness to others who have offended us. 3) Let us confess our sins and
regain peace and God’s friendship. The first condition for experiencing the joy
and relief of having our sins forgiven is to see them as they are and give them
up. We have to be humble enough to recognize that we need God’s forgiveness to
be whole.
Fr. Tony(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
