Tag: Lent

“The one who humbles himself will be exalted.” | Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 18:9-14, today’s readings)

“But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus addresses a parable to people who believe themselves to be righteous and who despise others. They are the kind of people, Jesus says, who look at others as they pray, thinking: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.” Jesus speaks concretely about those who are in actuality greedy, dishonest, and adulterous, but he also speaks to every one of us as sinners, who at one time or another say as we look on others, “Thank God I am not like them.” The tax collector in the parable is certain to have said and done the same. His contrite plea for mercy sets him apart from the Pharisee. Humbling himself before God, he receives mercy as Hosea describes: “He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth.”

God, help me be thankful today for the gifts you give me and for the good gifts you give to every person you made in your image. Jesus speaks to the people “convinced of their own righteousness” and to ones who have “despised everyone else.” For the times when I have been that person, the psalmist offers this prayer: “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.” Give me the grace, Lord, to recognize a surge of righteousness and turn instead to you. From the Gospel acclamation: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“No other commandment greater than these.” | Friday of the Third Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would fill them. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 12:28-34, today’s readings)

Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

There was nothing new in Jesus’ response to the scribe’s question, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” In reciting part of the Shema, still a part of daily Jewish prayer, Jesus focuses on worship of the Lord alone and the command to love him. Alongside this, Jesus brings the love of the first commandment into the second: love of neighbor as oneself. The two go together, extending God’s love of his people and making it central as the foundation of all human relationships. Jesus makes clear that willing the good of the other comes through knowledge of the Father’s love for us—he loved us first—which allows us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

God, let me take in and live out the very same words Jesus spoke to the scribe. To love you with all my heart and soul and mind and strength seems an unattainable commandment, even more so to love others as I love myself. Yet, let me see the wisdom in the scribe’s response. You alone are the Lord, and to follow these two commandments “is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices”; that is, worth more—infinitely more—than any other thing or person or ideal that I might make into an idol. Lord, you say through Hosea, to say no more to the work of my hands, “Our god.” Give me the grace to receive your gift of love and give it away for the sake of your glory. “I have humbled him,” you say, “but I will prosper him.” Feed me, Lord, in my shortcomings; feed me with the best of your gifts, and fill me.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Whoever is not with me is against me.” | Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 11:14-23, today’s readings)

“When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

God says to his people through Jeremiah: “They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” If they were not listening to God, who are they listening to? This is the same God who said: “Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people.” Satan guards his palace, the scattered realm where evil holds power and people subject themselves or listen to a legion of voices. But when Jesus comes, he attacks and overcomes Satan and takes away his power so that once again God’s own people can see his face and hear his voice. “Whoever is not with me is against me,” says the Lord, “and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” O Most Holy Trinity, undivided unity, bring about your kingdom!

God, whatever I have in my possession that I allow Satan to guard, let Jesus come and take away. I want to hear your voice and turn to you to see your face. The psalmist sings, “Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.” For this, there is reason to joyfully sing hymns, to listen to you, Lord, and respond with joy to you who made me. Throughout the day, help me take to heart and sing in my soul this simple refrain: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” | Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 5:17-19, today’s readings)

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.”

Jesus goes on to tell the disciples that to break the commandments is to step away from God’s love but to keep the commandments and teach others to keep them is to remain in his love. This same source of love came from God, when he gave the commandments to Moses for the sake of the Israelites “so that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy. . . . to [teach] your children and to your children’s children.” Jesus, the Word of God, points to God’s commandments and is the giver of all that is just and good.

God, broaden my understanding of who Jesus is in relation to the law, to the commandments. He did not come to overturn or destroy but to bring them to fulfillment. The commandments are your gift given to humanity and at the same time spoken into the hearts of each person you call by name. Give me the grace, Lord, to know in my heart that Jesus is the ultimate Word spoken and that he calls us to everlasting life with you. The Gospel acclamation is “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life.” Jesus, living Word of God, I trust in you!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“May it be done to me according to your word.” | Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

From the responsorial psalm: ““In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 1:26-38, today’s readings)

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

In the moments after God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, the salvation of all humanity hangs on Mary’s response. She asks how the Incarnation will take place, how God with us will come to be. Gabriel explains that “the power of the Most High will overshadow” and that his kingdom will have no end and that Elizabeth also will bear a child. Mary’s fiat echoes through the whole of salvation history. As Isaiah prophesied, Emmanuel takes the form of flesh, as Mary says yes to God’s will. No longer will the blood of bulls and goats be offered to take away sins but only the “offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all” through his obedience to the Father’s will. What takes place during the Annunciation is hard to grasp, but in pondering what it means, what it means for us today that Mary said yes, we offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

God, help me see Mary’s deep humility as she calls herself the handmaid of the Lord. I have a day ahead of me to offer an ear attentive to your will and a spirit to discern what you are asking me to do and how to do it. Give me the grace to recognize what you call me to—great or small—and strengthen my desire to hear you speak to me. “Here I am, Lord,” the psalmist sings, “I come to do your will.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“He passed through the midst of them and went away.” | Monday of the Third Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 13:1-9, today’s readings)

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 people in the synagogue filled with fury are from Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. He had just finished reading the scroll in the synagogue, proclaiming as the Messiah, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” At first incredulous and amazed, they say, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” But as Jesus tells them that no prophet is accepted in his own native place and that their stubbornness is like that of Naaman’s, God’s message will serve people other than Israelites. In the first reading, God healed Naaman, a gentile, of leprosy. Jesus teaches that unless one’s faith is like the faith of the servant girl in the first reading, receiving God’s mercy becomes all the more difficult as we try to grasp what God wants to freely give.

God, help me understand how it is that Jesus passed through the midst of his own townspeople who wanted to hurl him off the brow of a hill. Among the crowd were people who knew Jesus as a child, an adolescent, and as the son of Joseph and Mary. To be a bearer of your message, Lord, sometimes means facing incredulity among acquaintances, neighbors, friends, and even family members. The faith of the little girl in the first reading gives powerful witness to your mercy, when she says “if only” Naaman would present himself to Elisha the prophet to be cured. Jesus passes through the crowd because you have other places for him to go, to people whose soul is “athirst for the living God.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Tile Mosaic of Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Baptismal Fount and Altar

“I have come in search of fruit.” | Third Sunday of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. The Lord is kind and merciful.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 13:1-9, today’s readings)

“‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down.'”

Jesus responds to people who tell him that Pontius Pilate had killed Galileans while they were offering sacrifices, mingling their blood with the sacrifices. Jesus challenges their belief that they died because of their sins, and he compares this incident to the people who died in Jerusalem when a tower fell on them. They were no more guilty than others, and Jesus says: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” In the parable, the owner orders that the fig tree finally be cut down. But the gardener pleads for one more year, promising to cultivate and fertilize the soil in hopes of future fruit. If it still yields nothing, then it will be cut down. Representing the gardener, Jesus calls for repentance and conversion, urging people to use the time they have to to turn away from sin and return to the Lord with their whole heart.

God, help me hear and take to heart the explicit commandment of Jesus: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.!” If I look at my life in relation to every good gift you have given me, like the tree in the parable, I have exhausted the soil and have little to show for it. Yet, the psalmist sings of your mercy (“so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him”), and the gardener asks for another year. For what purpose? “I shall cultivate the ground around it,” he says, “and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future.” Help me, Lord, live in your truth as your adopted son: in no other way do I stand secure but on the sacred ground of you whose name is I AM through the mercy of Jesus Christ your Son.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“My son, you are here with me always.” | Saturday of the Second Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion. The Lord is kind and merciful.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 15:1-3, 11-32, today’s readings)

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable.

The familiar parable Jesus addresses to them is the Prodigal Son. In demanding his inheritance, the son takes from the father what the father would generously give him. But as he squanders his inheritance and faces hunger and hardship, he decides to return home and work as a servant. His father sees him from a distance, is filled with compassion, and joyfully welcomes him back, celebrating his return with a feast. The older son is angry at what he perceives is the father’s injustice, but the father reassures him of his constant love for him and the need to celebrate his brother’s return. Jesus describes the same love of the father that we hear in Micah, one who delights in clemency and compassion, “treading underfoot our guilt.”

God, your mercy is constant. Contrition is a means of entering into reconciliation with you, of blessing you with all my being. Just as the psalmist praises you for the height and depth of your mercy, he names you as the one who heals ills and redeems life from destruction. Give me the grace to recognize that you alone are just, you alone see me from a long way off to reconcile me to yourself through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ your Son. Never let me forget the inherent dignity of free will you give to each of us in the choice to return to your love—your very being—and stay with you always. “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“This is the heir. Come, let us kill him.” | Friday of the Second Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 21:33-43, 45-46, today’s readings)

“Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”

Jesus tells the chief priests and elders a parable about a landowner who plants a vineyard, establishes it and then leases it to tenants. During the harvest, he sends his servants to collect the produce, but the tenants mistreat and kill them. When he sends his son, thinking they will respect him, they instead plot to kill him so they can seize his inheritance. Jesus then asks what the landowner will do to those tenants, and he reveals that they will face severe consequences for their actions: the vineyard will be given to others who will produce its fruits. The religious leaders realize Jesus is speaking about them and become angry, but they fear the crowd, who see Jesus as a prophet, so they do nothing to him. Jesus speaks to all of us in this parable, inviting us to respond to God’s call to be responsible stewards of his gifts.

God, help me see in the parable of the vineyard the prefiguring of the passion and death of Jesus. When the Pharisees are able to grasp what Jesus is saying to them, their hearts remain set on arresting him and by this obstructing your will toward the salvation of all people. The responsorial refrain is “Remember the marvels the Lord has done.” Give me the grace today to become aware of the way my words and actions nurture the fruit of the vineyard or prevent its growth and to recognize that I can choose to be its heir. Strengthen me with the Eucharist, Lord, to bring forth your kingdom and make me know the particular way you made me to produce its fruit.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“And lying at his door was a poor man.” | Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 16:19-31, today’s readings)

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.”

Jesus tells the familiar parable of a rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. The rich man lives in luxury while Lazarus suffers at his doorstep, longing for scraps of food. When they both die, Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham’s side, and the rich man finds himself in a place of torment. He begs for mercy and asks Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his tongue with water, but Abraham reminds him of the great chasm between them because of how they lived their lives. Again he pleads for Lazarus to be sent to warn his five brothers, but Abraham tells him that they have Moses and the Prophets to guide them, and if they do not listen to them, they will not listen to Lazarus. This parable illustrates the themes of justice, the reversal of fortunes after death, and the importance of heeding God’s word. Jeremiah tells us where to find our source of delight: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.”

God, help me take to heart the words you spoke through Jeremiah: “I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.” The torturous human heart as the rich man experiences it in the Gospel is the natural consequence of turning away from you, of trusting in the strength of worldly gifts and material wealth. Give me the grace to respond in mercy when I see the destitute at my doorstep—especially those who are spiritually impoverished—and trust in all the good gifts you give me, through Jesus Christ your Son, that are necessary for my salvation.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.