Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Dorothy Day was a social activist who became a Catholic after giving birth to her first child.
Holding her newborn tenderly against her chest, she realized there had to be Someone to thank for the gift of life.
But Day not only came to believe in God’s existence; she also conformed her life to that belief, deciding to live above a soup kitchen in New York City for the next several decades, serving the poorest of the poor.
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Most people wouldn’t jump at the chance to call a soup kitchen “home.”
But Day made it her mission to serve others, because she understood that the same God who created her child was the author of every life, making all humans equally deserving of love.
As she once wrote, “Christians are commanded to live in a way that doesn’t make sense … unless God exists.”
Like Day, how is the love of Christ enfleshed in me?
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This is how we fulfill the Law as Jesus proclaims it in today’s Gospel – by loving God with all of our heart and our neighbor, even the poorest among us, as ourselves.
You might say, by living in a way that doesn’t make sense…
Unless God exists.
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Image credits: (1) Dreaming Dreams Trilogy (2) FaithLife Ministries (3) Episcopal Relief and Development
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Today’s parable on forgiveness, unique to Saint Matthew, creates a fascinating blend between the fear of punishment and the experience of gratitude.
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Imagine Saint Peter cautiously approaching Jesus. The good news / bad news is that Peter has another question. He’s held onto it as long as he can. Afraid of how Jesus might answer – and rightly so – Peter swallows the lump in his throat and asks:
“Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter didn’t just pick a number; seven was considered the outward limit of generosity.
“I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times,” Jesus says. Meaning, without limit.
I’d imagine Peter looked down at the ground, shuffled his feet, slid his hands back into his pockets, and exhaled exasperated, thinking to himself, “Well, that’s simply impossible.”
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Peter has yet to learn the inner dynamics of forgiveness. So, Jesus tells him a parable about a king whose servants were subject to his authority. One of the king’s servants owed him an incredible amount of money – a debt so large the man could’ve never repaid it.
Because of his compassion, the king released the man from his debt. But when the man got home, he then choked someone else who owed him a much smaller debt – pennies on the dollar. When word got back to the king, he was enraged, and punished the man severely.
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Clearly in the parable, God is the king and we are his subjects. Because the Lord forgives us of our every trespass, he expects us to extend the same kindness towards others. But this begs the question, “Why is it so difficult for us to forgive others?”
While there may be a variety of reasons, perhaps one is this – we have not genuinely felt forgiven by God. Whether we fail to understand the weight of our sin, or feel encumbered by guilt or shame, God’s forgiveness can feel elusive. Too good to be true.
Only those who’ve experienced the inner freedom, this fruit of grace, can extend it to others. Do I often feel forgiven by God? Or does that feeling remain elusive to me?
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May we forgive from our heart, lest we forfeit God’s own forgiveness towards us.
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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According to Luke’s Gospel, Jesus inaugurates his public ministry by returning to his hometown of Nazareth, where he enters the local synagogue, sits down and reads from the prophet Isaiah.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free.”
Rolling up the scroll, Jesus then claims, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Initially, the crowds are filled with excitement and anticipation. But then the reality of what Jesus said begins sinking in. He is the one whom God has sent. “How could a lowly carpenter – someone whom they knew for years – be the Messiah?” they wonder.
Suddenly, praise morphs into rejection as they drive Jesus to the edge of a hill, hoping to push him off. Somehow, he escapes the madness.
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What happened at the beginning of his public ministry also happens at the end. Just as Jesus was rejected by the crowds in Nazareth, so they will turn on him in Jerusalem.
On Palm Sunday, they cheer Hosanna in the highest! But five days later, they change their tune to Crucify him!
The crowds remind us of the fragility of public opinion, how quick people can be to judge, to draw false conclusions, even to nearly push God off the brow of a hill.
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During this season of Lent, perhaps we can work on toning down the rhetoric – both nationally and in our own social circles. Make the effort to listen before we speak. To seek to understand. To think before we act.
Sometimes people are unfairly rejected or condemned as criminals.
Jesus was, too.
Sadly, the cycle can repeat itself when we fail to see Christ in distressing disguise.
