March 13 Monday:
The context: Today’s Gospel presents Jesus
reacting with prophetic courage to the scepticism 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 of
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 disbelief. 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 14 Tuesday:
The lessons taught by the parable: (1) We must
forgive so that we may be forgiven. Jesus explains this truth after teaching
the prayer, “Our Father.” He warns us, “For if you forgive men their
trespasses, your Heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive
men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt
6:14-15). As James states it later, “For judgment is without mercy to
the one who has shown no mercy” (Jas 2:13). Clearly, Divine and human
forgiveness work together.
(2) We represent the greater debtor in the parable; that is,
we owe God the ten thousand talents of the parable. We commit sins every day
and, hence, we need God’s forgiveness every day. The sum total of all the
offenses which our brothers and sisters commit against us is equivalent to the
small debt of the second debtor in the parable, namely 100 denarii. Yet,
shockingly and sadly, we are merciless towards our fellow human beings. The
moral of Jesus’ story is that, as members of a community, we must treat one another
as God has treated each of us. Here is a Divine call to throw away the
calculator when it comes to forgiveness. We must choose the more honorable path
and forgive one another “from the heart.” We have been forgiven a debt beyond
all human paying – the sin of man which God forgave through the willing,
sacrificial death of His own Son. Since that is so, we must forgive others as
God has forgiven us. Otherwise, we cannot hope to receive any mercy ourselves.
Life messages: 1) We need to forgive: Having experienced
forgiveness at the hands of God and God’s people, we are then called to make it
possible for others to experience the same forgiveness. Let us forgive the
person who has wronged us before hatred eats away our ability to forgive.
2) Forgiveness will not be easy, but God is there to help
us. We can call on God’s help by offering that individual to God, not by
sitting in judgment, but simply by saying, “Help so-and-so and mend our
relationship.” We may never forget the hurt we have experienced, but we can
choose to forgive.
3) We need to remind ourselves that with God’s grace we have
already forgiven the one that hurt us. As life goes on we may remember the
incident or occasion that was hurtful. Then let us offer the offender to God’s
mercy again, and pray for God’s blessings on him or her.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 15 Wednesday:
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 that 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 because they are, for the most part, specific, Divine-positive
promulgations of the natural law. ButChristians 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 and others’ good name, the legal system,
another’s property and 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 call 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.
Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 16 Thursday:
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 counterarguments. 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, [the devil] guards his own palace, his goods are in
peace,” he[the devil] can be routed when “one stronger than
he” [Jesus, using the power of God] assails him [the
devil] and overcomes him [the devil], he [Jesus] takes
away his [the devil’s] armor in which he [the devil] trusted,
and divides his [the devil’s] spoil.”
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 17 Friday: (St. Patrick, Bishop:
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 — either to expand the Mosaic Law into hundreds of rules and
regulations, or 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 Shema prayer from Dt
6:5: … 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 Lv 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 need to 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/) L/23
March 17 Friday: (St. Patrick, Bishop): St.
Patrick was born to Roman parents in Banwen in Wales. So, he called himself
both a Roman and a Briton. He was the son of a deacon named Calpornius and his
mother was named Conchessa. Patrick was taken captive by the Irish marauders at
about the age of 16. While in captivity for six years, he learned Irish
(Gaelic), which would be essential for his later mission in Ireland. Since his
master was a high priest of the Druids, Patrick had access to information about
this religion from him, which might have proved very useful to him in his later
mission, converting the Irish to Christianity. While Patrick was working as a
shepherd in Ireland, he underwent a conversion experience and became a man of
deep prayer. He managed to return to his native Wales and then went to France
for training as a missionary. A few years after his ordination, Fr. Patrick was
consecrated Bishop at the age of 43, and the ecclesiastical authorities sent
him to Ireland, probably in 432.
Before Patrick came to Ireland, there was a strong belief
there in all kinds of gods, including the sun. Patrick tapped into these pagan
beliefs and taught the people the true Faith about the true God. He understood
the Irish clan system. Hence, he knew that if the chieftains of the various
clans became Christian, the rest of the clans would also. Patrick used every
means possible to spread the word of God. The shamrock was the sacred plant of
the Druids, and a legend says Patrick used it to teach the people about the
Trinity. He worked night and day to bring the faith all over Ireland. He was a
charismatic person who preached with authority and acted with miracles. We have
two of Patrick’s writings, his Confessions
in which we see his humility and his Letter
to Coroticus in which we see the courage of his Christian
convictions.
Contrary to popular belief, it was not St. Patrick who
brought the Christian faith for the first time to Ireland. It was there already
before him in the south and east of Ireland, probably due to traders and
contacts with the continent. But it was St. Patrick who revitalized the faith
of the local minority of Christians and converted the whole country to the
Christian faith. First, he went to the west and north, where the faith had
never been preached. He managed to obtain the protection of local kings and
made numerous converts. He ordained many priests, divided the country into
dioceses, held Church councils and founded several monasteries. All this
groundwork done by St. Patrick later enabled the Church in Ireland to send out
missionaries whose efforts were greatly responsible for Christianizing Europe.
Patrick died on March 17th, 493(?) and was buried in Ulster in County Down. —
As we celebrate the feast of this great missionary saint, let us ask ourselves
whether we are grateful to God for the gift of Faith which has been passed down
to us. Do we, like Patrick, use every means to pass on this Faith and spread
it? St. Patrick’s life of solid spirituality and dependence on God should serve
as a model for us to correct our priorities.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
March 18 Saturday: (St. Cyril of Jerusalem):
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 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/)
