Lent 3rd Week: March 24-29:
March 24 Monday: Lk 4:24-29:
The context: Today’s Gospel presents Jesus reacting with prophetic courage to the skepticism 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 that told 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 reminded 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 later revived her son from death. Then Jesus pointed out that Naaman, the pagan military general of Syria, was healed of leprosy by Elisha the prophet (2 Kgs 5:1-19), while other lepers in Israel were not. 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 unbelief. 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 reject God in our lives, as the people in Jesus’ hometown did. 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 25 Tuesday: The Annunciation of the Lord)
The Solemnity of the Annunciation is celebrated nine months before the Nativity of the Lord, a feast which came about earlier historically. The Annunciation recalls the day when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary and revealed God’s will that she become the Mother of the Son of God, and she accepted. At that moment, the “Word became Flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1: 14). It is called “Little Christmas” because it commemorates the great day when God entered our world through the Incarnation. This is a joyful Annunciation because it is aimed towards our salvation. Venerable Fulton J. Sheen in his book Life of Christ says,“Divinity is always where one least expects to find it” (Life of Christ: page 27). It was mother Mary’s humility and sincere heart that made her worthy to be the mother of the creator. Every day, similar annunciations happen. Usually, doctors make the announcement of pregnancy to mothers-to-be, and they announce this good news to their husbands and other relatives. Usually, it is a moment of joy and excitement.
Historical note: The Eastern Church started celebrating the feast of Annunciation in the 5th century, probably about the time of the Council of Ephesus in AD 431. It is mentioned between AD 530 and 533 by Abraham of Ephesus. In the Western Church the first authentic reference is found in the 7th century, fixing i on March 25th, exactly nine months before Christmas.
Today’s readings explain how God began to keep the promises He had made first to Adam and Eve (Gn 3-15) (that He would send a redeemer who would crush the head of the serpent Satan), second, to King David through prophet Nathan (II Sam 7: 12-16) about his descendant ruling the world in an everlasting kingdom, and third, to King Ahaz through prophet Isaiah –today’s First reading: Is 7:10-14, 8:10 — about a virgin bearing a son whose name would be Emmanuel. The second reading (Heb 10:4-10) explains the purpose of the Incarnation as doing the will of God in the most perfect way by Christ’s perfect obedience to God his Father’s will, leading to his death by crucifixion, and to his glory by his resurrection. The Gospelshows us the Annunciation scene and Mary’s obedient “yes” to the will of God.
Life messages: 1) We need to be faithful doers of God’s will as Mary was: This feast is a reminder to us of the importance of following God’s will. It is His will which should prevail more than anyone else’s will. God knows what is best for us. Just as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph followed God’s will in every circumstance and in detail, so we should do always. St. Augustine, reflecting on the Annunciation event reminds us, “God created us without us, but He did not will to save us without us.” (St. Augustine, Sermo 169, 11, 13. CCC# 1847; note 116). 2) We need to be grateful to God as Mary was, for His love and Mercy: We were each created in the image and likeness of God, and further, by our Baptism, we have becomeHis adopted children through Jesus Christ. These privileges were freely given to us by God our Father. Let us then, in humble wonder and gratitude, thank Him for these great privileges, and faithfully live like the children of God. 3) We need to be humble instruments in the hands of God, allowing Jesus to be reborn in us and radiating him all around us as agape love, We will do so by saying a generous and courageous “yes” to God in our everyday choices, and by appreciating God’s plan for us in every event of our life.(L/25)
March 26 Wednesday: Mt 5:17-19:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage, taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, presents Jesus as giving the highest compliments to the Mosaic Law. These words of Jesus, which 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 and obeyed because they are, for the most part, specific, Divine-positive promulgations of the natural law. But Christians 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, others’ good name, the legal system, another’s property , another’s 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 identify 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.
March 27 Thursday: Lk 11:14-23:
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 counter-arguments. 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, …..
4) Finally, Jesus delivers 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. 2) 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. 3) 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 failing to guard our five senses properly. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 28 Friday: Mk 12:28-34:
The context: A scribe who believed in both the written Law and the oral tradition was pleased to see how Jesus had defeated the Sadducee who had tried to humiliate him with the hypothetical case of a woman who had married and been widowed by seven husbands in succession. Out of admiration, the scribe challenged Jesus to summarize the most important of the Mosaic Laws in one sentence. In the Judaism of Jesus’ day, there was a double tendency: to expand the Mosaic Law into hundreds of rules and regulations and to condense the 613 precepts of the Torah into a single sentence or few sentences.
Jesus’ novel contribution: Jesus gave a straightforward answer, quoting directly from the Law itself and startling all with his profound simplicity and mastery of the Law of God and its purpose. He combined the first sentence of the Jewish Shemaprayer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel, The Lord your God is Lord Alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” with its complementary law from Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Thus, Jesus proclaims that true religion is to love God both directly and as living in our neighbor. Jesus underlines the principle that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves because both of us bear God’s image. For, to honor God’s image is to honor both Him Who made it and Him Whom it resembles. Besides, our neighbors, too, are the children of God our Father, redeemed by the Blood of Jesus. Love for our neighbor is a matter, not of feelings, but of deeds by which we share with others the unmerited love that God lavishes on us. This is the agape love for neighbor that God commands in His Law. Jesus then uses the parable of the Good Samaritan, as reported in Luke’s Gospel, to show them what God means by “neighbor.”
Life Messages:1) We need to love God whole-heartedly: Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, means that we should place God’s will ahead of our own, seek the Lord’s will in all things, and make it paramount in our lives. It also means that we must find time to adore Him, to present our needs before Him, and to ask His pardon and forgiveness for our sins. 2) God’s will is that we should love everyone, seeing Him in our neighbor. This means we have to help, support, encourage, forgive, and pray for everyone without regard to color, race, gender, age, wealth, social status, intelligence, education, or charm. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 29 Saturday: Lk 18:9-14:
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 daily, even hourly, 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/)
