Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: Matthew 5: 20-26

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you,
unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother, Raqa,
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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The Church is widely known for making distinctions. For example, there’s a difference between an angel and an archangel., good versus evil, a sinner versus a saint, or a venial sin versus a mortal sin.

A venial sin might involve harboring a slight grudge in our heart towards someone who has hurt us; a mortal sin would involve intentionally acting on that anger – say to the point of murder.

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While we are most likely not guilty of any mortal sin, we can commit venial sins all the time. The temptation is to brush them off, as if they are really not that big of a deal. 

I’m angry at someone…. so what?

But the Gospel tells us that that grudge needs to be addressed, because no sin is permissible in heaven. “Whoever is angry with his brother,” Jesus says, “will be liable to judgment.”

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Given we are in the season of Lent, now is the perfect time for us to examine our conscience, to see where we may have failed to love – or where we can love others better.

For example, do I judge others? Do I gossip? Do I harbor anger or a grudge? 

Even if we don’t act on these feelings, Jesus still wants to remove them from our hearts, especially through the sacrament of confession, because we cannot enter the kingdom of God with our hearts weighed down by negativity.

That is the challenge of discipleship: to forgive without limits and to love to a ridiculous level, just as Christ has loved us. 

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Image credits: (1) Save Your City (2) Be Reconciled, In the Beginning, WordPress (3) QuoteAddicts.com

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Esther 12: 14-25

Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish,
had recourse to the LORD.
She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids, 
from morning until evening, and said:
“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you. 
Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,
for I am taking my life in my hand.
As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers
that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.
Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.

“And now, come to help me, an orphan.
Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion
and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy,
so that he and those who are in league with him may perish.
Save us from the hand of our enemies;
turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.”

The Word of the Lord.

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This is one of the few times we read about the heroic story of Queen Esther, who is frozen with fear in our first reading.

She’s a Jew, who’s married to a foreign king. But the king doesn’t know her real identity.

One day while in his court, Esther overhears a plan to exterminate the Jews, a theme that’s repeated itself throughout history.

If Esther reveals her Jewish identity, then she, too, may be killed. But if she remains silent, then thousands of her own people will be slaughtered.

What is she to do?

What would you do?

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In her darkest hour, she prays, “Help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O LORD, my God.”

“Help me.”

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By the end of the story, Esther finds the courage to reveal her identity, pleading with the king to save her people.

Amazingly, he relents, and the Jews are saved.

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In a sense, this is what Lent is all about: sharing our heart with God, who offers us the strength we need to do right, and sometimes difficult, things.

Hopefully, we’re not in a dark place like Ester. Maybe we just need the grace to change a habit, adjust an attitude, or tweak our perspective.

But she reminds us that prayer is powerful. It changes things.

As Jesus says in the Gospel, “Ask. Seek. Find. The door will be opened to you.”

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Image credits: (1) Voice of God Recordings (2) Adobe Stock Silver Queen Crown Images (3) A Welcome Grace

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Jonah 3: 1-10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
“”Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you.””
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’s bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
“”Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,””
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
“”Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish.””
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.

The Word of the Lord.

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Every morning our alarm clock goes off, I’m sure we’re tempted to hit “snooze.”

Maybe we did this morning.

I did.

Hitting snooze means you’re reluctant to get up; you’d rather stay in your warm and cozy bed than face the day.

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The prophet Jonah felt the same way, only he was hitting the “snooze” button on doing God’s will.

God asked him not once – but twice – to enter the city of Nineveh, encouraging the Ninevites to repent. 

But Jonah didn’t want to because the Ninevites were the sworn enemies of Israel. He’d rather watch their city burn to the ground than in a fiery blaze than see them repent and be saved.

Ironically enough, because of Jonah’s reluctance to do God’s will, he revealed himself to be no different than the Ninevites; both sides needed to repent and seek God’s forgiveness.

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How often are we like Jonah? We put off doing something that we know is right?

Whether that means picking up the phone and calling an old friend; accepting an apology from a co-worker; getting rid of a favorite sin; integrating more time into our day for prayer; or going to confession.

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“Stop hitting the snooze button,” the Lord says.

Lent is the perfect time to get up and do what is right.

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Image credits: (1) Katelyn Ohashi (2) Andrea Vaccaro, Jonah Preaches to the Nineties (3) StephaniElearning