Thursday, March 13, 2025

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

(Esther C:12.14-16.23-25; Matthew 7:7-12)

Esther was literally a beauty queen.  King Ahasuerus (Xerxes in Greek history) called for a contest to find the most beautiful woman to replace his wife who refused to heed his command.  Like young women today, it seems that Esther cared more about a sweet life than a righteous one.  In today’s reading she admits that as a child she heard of the power of prayer as if she hasn’t prayed recently.

Yet Esther gives herself completely to prayer when it becomes her only hope.  She prostrated herself an entire day beseeching God’s mercy for her people as well as for herself.  It is the same heartfelt prayer that Jesus recommends to his disciples in the today’s gospel.

We likewise should pray hard and often that we may be delivered from evil to do good.  God loves us and will provide our needs.  He wants us to pray so that our hearts might be expanded to have mercy on others.

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

(Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 11:29-32)

There is an intriguing development in the Passion narrative of St. Luke’s Gospel.  The crowd following Jesus from the Roman praetorium to Calvary changes its attitude.  In front of Pilate it was insistent that Jesus should be crucified.  However, the crowd leaves the scene of crucifixion beating their breasts in remorse.  The crowd’s repentance is like that of the Ninevites in today’s first reading.

In Ninevah the prophet’s moral preaching turned the hearts of the people.  On Calvary it was the nobility Jesus showed in dying praying for the forgiveness of his executioners and promising Paradise to the “good thief.”  In today’s gospel passage Jesus calls for such a response from all who hear him proclaimed.

Certainly, we want to make individual acts of penance during Lent.  We should also encourage others to recognize their sins and to make amends.  Lent is a time of communal penance when everyone is to renounce and make up for social as well as personal sins.

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

(Isaiah 55:10-11; Matthew 6:7-15)

Today’s famous passage from Second Isaiah assures that God’s word is efficacious.  It always achieves its purpose.  As God is altogether good, His word only brings about benefits.

In the gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to pray for forgiveness of their sins.  Being God with power to effect what he wills, Jesus is assuring them that their guilt will be abolished.  However, he makes one proviso.  Sins will be forgiven on request as long as the sinners involved willingly forgive their offenders.

We long to be forgiven for mistakes we have made and for full-blown sins that we have committed.  There is no need to fret.  All that is necessary is to ask for pardon and to show willingness to forgive others.  We still may not receive the desired forgiveness from other humans.  But God’s forgiveness, which counts the most, is guaranteed.

Monday, March 10, 2025

Monday of the First Week in Lent

(Leviticus 19:1-2.11-18; Matthew 25:31-46)

The Scripture readings today strike a balance between negative and positive actions.  Leviticus emphasizes the former with a list of “You shall not(s).”  The gospel, on the other hand, accentuates the positive.  It predicts Jesus reminding the nations at the end of time that they are being judged on what they did for the little people of the world.  If they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and visited the imprisoned, they will be judged worthy of salvation.

We might ask which is more important, to avoid doing what is wrong or to do what is right?  In medicine, at least, an answer to this question seems to emerge.  The Hippocratic Oath, which physicians have taken for centuries, clearly sides with the need to avoid evil.  After promising to offer dietetic measures to heal the sick, budding physicians swear not to do a series of evils: hasten death, induce abortion, and molest patients or householders whom they visit. 

It is fair to conclude that avoiding harm is essential but insufficient.  If love is the supreme virtue, it entails that we act positively toward others.  If we cannot do anything directly to support them, then we should at least pray that their needs be met.  During Lent we redouble efforts to examine our lives daily with two questions in mind.  We ask ourselves, “What evil have I done today?” and “What good have I failed to do?”

Sunday, March 9, 2025

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT, March 9, 2025

(Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13)

We began Lent last Wednesday with the reception of ashes, fasting, and abstaining from meat. But it seems to me that this week we begin it in earnest. Lent is more than a one-day performance to put us into the spirit of humility but an extended time to achieve it. The season proposes that we become more willing to love God with our whole heart.

The readings of each Mass during Lent usually focus on one aspect of the paschal mystery. Today they emphasize trust in God. Let's deal with the first reading quickly and give more attention to the gospel.  There we will observe not only Jesus' success over the distorted desires of the human heart but also his solidarity with humanity. Finally, we will see how the reading from the Letter to the Romans signals the accessibility of salvation to the entire world.

The first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy gives the striking phrase: “My father was a wandering Aramean…” It refers to Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, who left his homeland to seek refuge in Egypt. Without land to protect them from both hunger and enemies, Jacob’s descendants lived in precarious conditions for centuries. However, God blessed them so that they grew into a great nation. In time, God freed them from Pharaoh’s tyranny and established them in the land of Canaan.

As great as freedom and land are, God eventually gave Israel nation a far greater gift. He sent his only begotten Son to fulfill the nation’s destiny to be a “light to the nations,” the source of salvation for the world. In the gospel, Jesus arrives in the desert “filled with the Holy Spirit,” which he received through his baptism in the Jordan River. It was a gratuitous act of solidarity with humans since having never sinned, Jesus did not need baptism.

Again, like other human beings Jesus suffers temptations engineered by the devil. In preparation for his ministry, Jesus faces the great desires of the human heart. First, he must overcome sensual longings represented by the temptation to break his forty-day fast. Second, he must subdue the ambition for power and glory in the devil's offer of lordship over the kingdoms of the world. Finally, Jesus must master the human will to manipulate God for its own benefit. At each turn he dismisses temptation with a phrase from Scripture. Jesus proves himself consistent with his teaching throughout the gospel that humans are on earth to serve the Lord God, not to be served.

Jesus' solidarity with humans here at the beginning of the gospel will continue to its end. On the cross he will show its depth when he suffers death as the sacrifice of the sinless for sinners. Only such self-giving can redeem humans from their offenses of doing their own will rather than God's.  Having left behind all earthly ambition, Jesús can truly say, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.”

In the second reading, St. Paul assures us that being included among those redeemed by Jesus Christ is not reserved for a few. We have only to submit ourselves to Christ with an act of faith. We ask, “What about those who have never had the opportunity to know Christ?” Vatican II teaches that all who seek God’s will with a sincere heart will not be abandoned. God will not allow non-Christians who do His will to be lost. But they, like us, must humble themselves before Him.