Saturday in the Second Week of Lent, March 7, 2026

Luke 15, 1-3; 11-32

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. “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’ So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

The complaint from the Pharisees and scribes that, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them”, prompts the parable often called that of The Prodigal Son from the Lord.  This parable has been interpreted in various ways over the centuries, but seldom in connection with the reason it was told: to teach the Pharisees about how they should act towards “sinners”.  In doing this, the Lord does not cover over the sins the wicked have committed.  In fact, he presents them in some detail: the “prodigal” son, representing sinners, disdains his father’s property and his heritage, wastes it on a life of “dissipation”.  To make matters worse, he shows his contempt for his religion by taking a job that involved living with swine.  

The Lord does not load the prodigal son with praise for his coming to his senses, either.  He plainly shows his imperfect contrition based only on his desire to save his life.  He also shows that the father is not interested in his prepared speech but simply does what a father consumed with unconditional love for his child would do: he welcomes him back with rejoicing.  The last we see of this son is his going into the house for the feast that will be thrown in his honor.  There is very little to recommend this son and the Lord does not defend him at all.  But this sinner and is return is not the point of the parable.  In fact, it is only now that it gets really interesting.

The older son comes along and finds out about his brother and the feast made for him, and he is outraged.  The Lord does not condemn him for this, but allows us to consider how the younger son has harmed his brother: the family property (thus, income) has been permanently diminished, shame has come upon the family name, and the older brother has had to work even harder during the absence of the younger one.  The older brother also sees his father seeming to play favorites with him, giving a feast for the sinner while the righteous son received nothing of the kind.

The question at the end of the parable is whether the older son will reconcile with the younger.  The father wants this but will not force it.  Reconciliation must be freely offered for it to mean anything.  And the father does not try to convince the older son that the other deserves forgiveness and reconciliation.  He does plead with him to do this for his sake, though: If you love me, love those whom I love.  And this is where we lose sight of the Pharisees and of the older brother.  We do not know how the Pharisees responded any more than we know how the older son responded to his father, but the way and the motivation for the Pharisees to act towards the sinners at the feast is shown them.  

The father makes it clear to the older son that since the younger has received his inheritance and spent it, he no longer has an inheritance to look forward to.  Everything the father owns will go to the older son when he dies.  The life of the younger son is in the older’s hands.  Will he continue to let this man who has done such harm to his family live with him, or will he send him away?  He will have the right to do either.  Relating this to the Pharisees, we can understand that the Lord is telling them that they can have an important role in the salvation of the sinners whom they now disdained.  They can fulfill this role through teaching them the Law and the Prophets, the necessity of prayer, and bringing the, back to the synagogue.  The prodigal son lowered himself to the level of a pig, than which no level could be lower for the Jews, and by extension these sinners fell to those depths.  But the Pharisees can help restore them to their destiny as sons and daughters of Abraham for the greater glory of God.

You and I can do this as well.  Our charitable actions may lead others to true contrition for their sins, and our prayers may help them to be restored to the life of grace.  We will not know until the final judgment how many people we have helped with our prayers, fasts, and sacrifices, but as many as there are, they will be the first to welcome us into heaven, crying out their thanks to us.

Personal Note: The aftermath of yesterday’s retina laser surgery has left me quite debilitated, nauseas, and dizzy. I’m resting as much as I can. Please keep praying for me.

Friday in the Second Week of Lent, March 6, 2026

Matthew 21, 33-43; 45-46

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. 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?” They answered him, He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

“Hear another parable.”  Today’s Gospel Reading is taken from the section of St. Matthew’s Gospel in which the Lord has entered Jerusalem in triumph with a large crowd, cast the money changers out of the Temple grounds, and challenging the religious authorities in the city — the chief priests and the elders.  In this he prepares the people for the New Covenant in his Blood that will fulfill and supersede the old covenant, whose time has come to an end.  

“There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.”  The “vineyard” can be understood as Israel, while the “hedge” is the Law as the preserver of Israel as a people.  The “wine press” can be understood as the Law as the moral commandments.  The tower is the holy men and women of old whose lofty example encouraged the people to obey the Law.  “Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.“  The tenants are the priests and teachers of the people (later, the Pharisees).  The Land Owner is God who goes on a “journey” in that he did not directly intervene in the people’s history as he had in the days of Moses.  “When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.”  These servants are the Prophets who sought the “produce” of virtuous living from the people.  Through promises and warnings they strove to convert the people so that they might be prepared for the time in which God would descend to earth, the “vintage time”.  

“But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.”  The religious authorities in whose care God had put his people did not wish to yield their imagined power over the people and so killed the Prophets sent to them.  “Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.”  Within the world of the parable, this may seem a foolish decision, but it shows that the Land Owner did not desire the death of the tenants but rather their conversion.  The Son is sent as a goodwill gesture, for if the Land Owner himself had come, this would have been seen as a terrible threat.  “They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.”  The tenants show themselves the true fools here, thinking that somehow the Land Owner will cease attempting to obtain his produce and not wish to avenge his Son.  They mistake patience for weakness.  “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”   The chief priests and the elders name their fate.  They are riled up by the terrible injustice that they recognize in the parable, perhaps thinking that the “tenants” are the Romans who occupy the vineyard of Israel and use it for their own profit.  They themselves would be the “other tenants” who will take good care of the people.  Through their arrogance they fail to see the possibility of themselves as the wicked tenants. 

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?”  The Lord abruptly quotes Psalm 118, 22, ripping from from the chief priests and the elders the idea that they are these “other tenants”.  They recognize themselves as “the builders” of Israel, in the continuing reconstruction of the Temple but also as the rulers of the people.  The Lord follows this with words that could not be misconstrued: “The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”  That is, to the Apostles who will govern the Church, but also to the Church as a whole.

“And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.”  They had no grounds for arresting him and they found themselves in much the same position as with John the Baptist: while they possessed a certain amount of institutional power, if the people opposed them they had no means for enforcing their will.  We should note how Matthew points out that they “feared” the people, that is, they did not fear God not seek to know his will in this case.  Matthew also tells us that the people regarded Jesus as “a prophet”, on the level of Isaiah and Jeremiah.  He was even greater, though, and surpassed Elijah and Elisha in his miracles.  The authorities of the time had persecuted and killed the Prophets who had come before.  The authorities in the days of the Lord knew this and knew that the people would fight to save this one from them.

The elders and the chief priests were quick to see the sin in the tenants in the parable that they themselves were committing.  It can be a useful tool for us as we examine our consciences every evening to see what sin we see in others and whether we see it because we are guilty of it too.

Persona Note: At the ophthalmologist appointment I was tested to to find out whether my eyesight had improved, and it has: I can see the line of letters below the lowest line I could see two weeks ago. The ophthalmologist then wanted to perform a laser operation on the retina in my left eye to seal it up against further tears — it had torn years ago and been repeated so either the repair was incomplete or a “holt” had developed in the time since then. It was a very difficult procedure to endure. They numbed the eye, but iit was still rather excruciating. But it’s done and hopefully nothing like it will need to be done again. I go back in two weeks for the next injection. Thank you very much for your prayers!

Thursday in the Second Week of Lent, March 5,  2026

Luke 16,19-31

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. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

It is significant that Jesus names the main character in this parable, for he otherwise does not name his characters.  St. Luke sets the parable in a series of teachings and parables to a mixed audience of disciples, ordinary Jews, and Pharisees.  It is therefore next to impossible to say near what city or town the Lord delivered this parable.  Still, the deliberate and uncustomary use of the poor man’s name raises the question as to whether Jesus was revealing the destiny of an actual person, along with that of an unnamed rich man.  Certainly, the external details of the case, as the Lord unveiled them, would have struck the people who knew of the situation to their hearts.  The name given here is “Lazarus”, a Greek rendering of the Hebrew Eleazar, meaning “God has helped”.  This name fits the poor man, who is brought to the bosom of Abraham after his death. 

“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.”  The rich man whose name is not remembered, in contrast to that of the poor man, lives to eat and has no time for any other activity.  And rather than save the purple garments for big occasions, he dresses in them every day.  The Jews in the crowd listening to the parable would have detested the man right away because if he dined sumptuously every day, he is not keeping the various fasts required by the Law, and does not follow the path of moderation urged by the Book of Proverbs.  “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.”  It seems that God has abandoned the man named “God has helped”.  Lazarus is starving in full sight of the rich man, his family and guests, and the rest of the city.  No one makes a move to help him.

“When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.”  When a beggar like Lazarus died, his body was buried in the ground outside of the town.  Since no one attended him in life, he probably would not have received a funeral.  But the Lord tells us that the angels carried his soul to the “bosom of Abraham”, a place of refreshment which the Jews of the time believed to be for the souls of the just prior to the resurrection which was connected with the appearance of the Son of Man.  When we read of the angels bearing his soul away, we should think of the angels as the Jews did at that time, as powerful, white-robed men whose faces shone like lightning.  When the priest Zechariah saw the Angel Gabriel, he was “agitated” and “terror pressed upon him”, as though to put him to flight.  Multiple angels deliver the soul of Lazarus into the arms of Abraham, as though providing safe passage through the realms of death and the threat of hell.  “The rich man also died and was buried.”  The rich man’s body would have been laid in an above-ground vault, likely carved out of the stony hills of Galilee and Judea.  It would have been owned by a family.  The Lord’s Body was laid in one of these.  Flute players and professional mourners would have heightened the drama of his funeral, but all for nought: for he found himself, after his death, in hell.  The Lectionary translates the Greek word Hades as “the netherworld”, which is fine so far as it goes because the Greeks did not believe in a hell of punishment and so did not have a word for such a place.  But the Lord clearly means a hell of punishment which the wicked can never escape.  The Jews themselves, while believing in hell in the days of the Lord, never really developed a proper name for it.  They used words like “Gehenna”, a valley outside Jerusalem, or “the place of the wicked” or “of the devil”.  Over the centuries as the culture became Christianized, the Greek and Latin terms for the places of the dead were used to signify the hell of eternal punishment.

“Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.”  This is the first prayer the rich man has uttered in how many years?  But now it is too late.  “A great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”  We can think of this chasm as a wide space, as the Lord presents it to us, or as the “chasm” between love and hatred, faith and faithlessness, hope, and despair.

“They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them.”  Moses and the Prophets prepared the way for the Lord Jesus and those who followed them would be receptive to the Lord’s preaching when he himself came to the bosom of Abraham on Holy Saturday to lead the just who died before him to heaven.  “If someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.”  The man who lived without faith knows that he would not have repented if he had seen someone who had risen from the dead.  He does not believe his own words here, but only finds a bit of relief in talking to the blessed, even from a great distance.

Members of the crowd who had perhaps known Lazarus or someone like him but who had never bent to offer a crust of bread to him would have walked home thoughtfully that day.  Perhaps they would have been moved to repentance before it was too late for them.  We may not be able to feed the destitute directly, but we can help do so through donations to charities.  And, as Mother Teresa used to say often, sometimes we have a Lazarus among our friends and family members who needs a little attention and signs of love.

Personal Note: This afternoon I go in for my first retina appointment since the injection two weeks ago. It is remarkable how much better I see since then. Today’s appointment, as I understand it, is not will not feature another injection but will mostly check on the progress this far. I expect to receive three or four more injections, one every two weeks, from here on. Thank you for your prayers!

Wednesday in the Second Week of Lent, March 4, 2026

Matthew 20, 17-28

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”   Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes.”  The Lord announces to the Apostles their destination and what will happen when they get there.  The Apostles had every reason to expect him to say to them that he was leading them up to Jerusalem where the chief priests would welcome him, and in their presence he would declare that the Kingdom of Israel was restored.  All the miracles and the massive crowds of supporters led them to expect this.  The opposition of the Pharisees, they supposed, came about because they saw that their time was over and they had no place in the days of the Messiah.  But the Lord tells them that they are marching directly into a catastrophe.  St. Matthew does not report any reactions to this news.  He had spoken of this before, though not in such detail: “They will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified.”  Perhaps they remembered how the Lord had spoken sharply to Peter when Peter had remonstrated with him the first time the Lord had spoken of his coming Death.  Also, they must have wondered why, if he foresaw this end, he was walking towards it.  They must have considered his words as a sort of parable, especially since he kept adding that he would “rise again”, whatever that meant.  

“Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons.”  The Greek word translated here as “then” does not specify how much later another incident takes place, and so we can think that the mother of the sons of Zebedee does not come up to the Lord directly after he has spoken of his coming suffering and Death, but later on during the day, likely during a break in the journey.  That Matthew recalls these two incidents together helps us to know the mindset of the Apostles and of all his supporters at this time.  It also helps us to see how the destiny of the Apostles and of all those who follow him is bound up in his: “to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and . . . raised on the third day”.  This is the cup the Lord drinks and it is the cup that James and John will drink, and also the cup all of us who wish to reign with Christ must drink.  This does not mean we who drink it will all suffer martyrdom, for while it did for James, John died in peace after much persecution and suffering.  But it means that we will fight for Christ in subduing our passions, in working for conversions, and in enduring the hatred of the world.

The mother of the sons of Zebedee, Salome, may seem to us an almost comical figure for her pushing of her sons and for her naïveté, but she worked hard and gave up much to follow the Lord.  She was one of the women who provided for him and the Apostles out of their own resources.  She evidently followed him from the time the Lord left Capharnaum after he had moved there from Nazareth.  Her speaking up for her sons does not make her ridiculous but does show her to be ambitious for her young sons, and she had every reason to think that her request would be heard since they showed themselves so zealous in the Lord’s service that he nicknamed them “the sons of thunder”, and he took them and Peter as a separate group to various places such as Mount Tabor, where they saw him transfigured.  According to St. Mark’s Gospel, Salome accompanied Mary Magdalene to the Lord’s tomb after his Death in order to anoint his Body — a sign of her great faith.  The Roman Martyrology lists her feast day as on April 24, testifying to the Church’s honor for her.

“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  We share in the Lord’s chalice when we adopt his understanding of himself for ourselves, and when we give our lives for others through our unstinting prayers, our good works, and our patient answering of the questions of those who do not yet believe.

Tuesday in the second Week of Lent, March 3, 2026

Matthew 23, 1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.”  The Lord does not say, The scribes and the Pharisees have been appointed to the chair of Moses, but “have taken their seat” there.  That is, they usurped the “chair of Moses” with a galling presumption.  After the time of the Patriarchs, the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham through Issac and Jacob and his sons, were led by Moses, appointed by God, and after him, Joshua, whom Moses appointed.  With the settling of the Promised Land, the various tribes would go to a local leader whom God would raise up to defend his people and decide their problems.  These were known as the Judges.  In a time of great crisis, the people went to the Prophet Samuel to ask God to give them a king, and he anointed Saul, and later, David, to rule over them.  Leadership did not come from the priests even after they were established in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Their primary work was the offering of sacrifice.  A guild of prophets, more or less centered in Jerusalem, would answer questions put to them by the people as to personal or familial problems.  To provide spiritual leadership, which the kings did mot do, in contrast to what the Patriarchs, Moses, and Judges did,  God raised up a series of Prophets, of which we might say the first was Samuel, though he is also counted as a Judge.  Following him came figures such as Elijah and Elisha, and then Isaiah, Jeremiah, and a number of others.  These spoke tirelessly and without fear, calling the people to repentance from their many sins, especially that of idolatry.  These Prophets, appointed by God and recognized as such by the kings and the people of the time, did fill the “chair of Moses”.  After the death of the Prophet Malachi some four hundred years before the Birth of Christ. the Greeks came and forced many Jews to abandon the ways of their fathers and to adopt Greek cultural practices.  The sect of the Pharisees formed at this time and forced their way to the chair of Moses to act as Israel’s new teachers.  But they had not been appointed by God to do this.  They took it on themselves to announce their own interpretation of the Law as the only authentic teaching.  

The Lord clearly reveals their illegitimacy but says to the people, “Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you.”  That is, the people will not commit sin by obeying the teachings of the Pharisees, though they will not grow in holiness from doing so.  In time, the Lord will fully reveal the Law and its meaning, but until that time, the people should follow what the Pharisees taught.  At the same time, he cautioned them, “Do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.”  The sign of authentic teaching is that the teacher follows his own counsel in private and in public.  The teacher who does not only shows their own faithlessness.  They may know what leads to salvation and they may be able to explain it to others, but they will not profit by what they know for it means nothing to them.  It is only something they know.  But salvation is much more than words, and the best teaching of all consists not in words but in works, especially the Death of our Lord on the Cross, the consistent lives of those consecrated to his Name in Holy religion, and the deaths of the martyrs who suffer in and for their God.

“Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.”  The Lord here emphasizes that Christians have one Father, and those who act as their fathers on earth share in this divine Fatherhood by caring for their children as gifts entrusted to them for a time.  

“The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  The Lord came to serve, and so those who seek to serve him must lower themselves even more than the Lord did.  All service is for the sake of serving the Lord Jesus so that we seek the good of others, especially through prayer.  The greatest servants are those who are never seen, who stand in the background and do the hard work that is never seen or imagined though the results of the hard work are.  This what the work we do when we dedicate ourselves to prayer, without which no one is saved, and through which God is glorified.

Personal Note: I realized yesterday after Mass that I haven’t had trouble seeing straight lines since the injection in my eye a week and a half ago. What drove me to the ophthalmologist in the first place came about through my looking at straight lines and edges and seeing curves in them. I couldn’t see “straight”, so to speak. I still have trouble seeing and reading, but my eyesight is much better than before. I have another appointment with the retina specialist this Thursday. Than you for your prayers!

Monday in the Second Week of Lent, March 2, 2026

Luke 6, 36-38

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  Our Father in heaven abounds in mercy for us, but we do not benefit from it because of the hardness of our hearts.  It is the same case as during a drought when the ground dries up completely.  If the rain that finally comes is a hard one, the water will flow off the ground without sinking in.  The ground does not benefit from the rain and the aquifers do not refill due to its own hardness, not to any fault of the rain.  We ought not to pray that God temper his mercy so that we can receive it a little at a time, but that our hearts may be prepared properly for the deluge of his mercy.  Likewise, we ought to be merciful to others as well, even if they do not benefit from our forgiveness because of their own hard-heartedness.  And it is a fact that while knowledge of having been forgiven may change a person for the better, the giving of mercy always does this for us when we forgive.  And to the extent that we become merciful, to that extent we make ourselves capable of receiving mercy.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.”  The Greek verb translated here as “judging” has a wide range of meanings.  We often confuse the English word with having an opinion, but this is not what it means, and to give up having opinions would be dangerous even were it possible.  The Greek word has among its meanings, “to condemn” and “to accuse”.  The Fathers understood the Lord’s command here as concerning our usurping of his prerogative on the Last Day by condemning people to hell here and now.  That is, to consider another person, through the scarce evidence available to us in this passing world, as irrevocably lost.  We can think of this command as forbidding us to falsely accuse or condemn someone in our minds or in conversation with others.  We do this when we do not have all the facts as to a situation or a behavior and are motivated by malice.  This is different from, say, when St. Paul excommunicated a woman and her son living together as though married.  He confirmed that the pair were sinners who could not approach the altar for the sacraments in order to prevent scandal to others and to bring the man and woman to their senses.  He acts as a proper judge, appointed by God as an Apostle, dispensing justice.

“Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.”  God does this for us.  He gives us life and breath, faith, hope, and love.  His gifts so abound in our lives that we cannot count all of them.  As with mercy and forgiveness, the condition for receiving these gifts is for us to give.  That is, to give alms to the needy but also time and attention to those who are in need of these things.  A smile or a kind word can be a gift to someone who does not need money or food.  And we can always do great good by giving example of Christian life.  “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  If we love God without measure and serve him to the fullest of our ability, then we will receive life without measure in its extent and in its ecstasy.

The Second Sunday of Lent, March 1, 2026

Matthew 17, 1–9

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.  As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

“Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.”  

Mount Tabor, onto which the Lord led Peter, James, and John, is a Mount shaped hill less than two thousand feet high.  It is covered with trees and foliage, although clearings appear on it here and there.  It lies a dozen miles to the west of the Sea of Galilee.  Although not an enormous mountain in comparison with others, it dominates the country in which it is set and provides a wide, majestic view of the land.  It takes about an hour and a half to climb, from its base to its top.  

Since the Lord often prayed on hills and mountains, in order to have solitude, it would not have surprised the Apostles for him to have decided to go up this particular mountain.  Taking Peter, James, and John with him, he would have given the other Apostles some work to do until he returned.  It might have been to teach the people who had been following along.  The three Apostles he chose to go with him had distinguished themselves from the rest by their zeal and energy.  In any group of volunteers there are those who are committed to the cause but prefer to listen and think through, and there are those who grasp or seem to grasp things more quickly and are more active.  Peter, James, and John would be of this type.  We have hints at the zeal of James and John through the nickname Jesus gives them, according to St. Mark, who had it from St. Peter: the Boanerges, “the sons of thunder” (Mark 3, 17).  We see several examples of Peter’s zeal or impulsiveness throughout the Gospels: his attempting to walk on the water; his speaking before the other Apostles in naming Jesus the Son of God; his rebuking of Jesus when the Lord spoke of his coming Passion and Death; his eagerness at the Last Supper to know who the traitor was; his attacking the high priest’s slave with his sword; his leaping up and running to the tomb when Mary Magdalene announced the Resurrection; his leaping into the sea when John told him that the unknown man on the shore was Jesus; and many others.  It is also Peter who preaches to the Jews on Pentecost.

“And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”  St. Matthew’s description of the transfigured Lord is not nearly as dramatic as St. Mark’s, but Mark received his information from Peter, who had been present.  His face “shone like the sun”.  We are not told if the Apostles were unable to look directly at his face as a result, or if they could, as this was not a physical brightness but his glorification by the Father, and so a spiritual brightness.  The transfiguration seems to have occurred instantly so that one moment Jesus and the Apostles are standing together, possibly catching their breaths after the climb, and the next it is all changed.  Or, perhaps the Lord had begun to pray a little distance away and the Apostles were looking on.

“Behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice.”  From the time of the Fathers, this cloud has been understood as the Holy Spirit, who conceals even as he reveals.  That is, he signifies that which we are not able to see in this present life.  With the audible words of the Father, we are presented with a display of the Most Holy Trinity.

“And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.”  It would seem that the conversation lasted some time.  The Apostles recognized Moses and Elijah in some way, perhaps through intuition or perhaps through the Lord’s telling them as they returned down the mountain.  And while St. Matthew reports that they heard these three conversing together, he does not quote them.  Indeed, he does not tell us even what they discussed, though Mark does in his Gospel: the Lord’s coming Passion and Death.

“When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.”  The Greek text gives a stronger picture: “They fell upon their faces and were exceedingly terrified.”  The Apostles had experienced Almighty God to the very limits of their capacity to do so.  The experience might have destroyed the Apostles down below who were less ready for it.  In heaven we shall see God face to face and know the full torment of his love for us, but at that time we shall be completely purified from sin and will have attained sanctity through the good works which grace enables us to perform.  Here and now, very few of us are ready, and we should be glad that God gives us time to repent, do penance, and progress in holiness.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  In the Hebrew, the verb “to listen” can also mean “to obey”, and this is what the Apostles heard the Father say.  This is what we need to understand him to say directly to us this moment.  

“Rise, and do not be afraid.”  We do not know how long the vision lasted.  It may have continued for an hour or more.  While the Apostles were certainly intended to witness it, it was not necessarily primarily for them.  The Lord Jesus, in his glory, spoke with Moses and Elijah, evidently informing them of what was to be.  He had summoned them from the limbo where they had waited for their Savior.  Adam and Eve were there.  So too were Cain, Abel, and Seth.  Abraham, Sarah, Lot, his wife, and the souls of those who died in Sodom and Gomorrah.  After his Death, the Savior would preach to them and those who delighted in his words would follow him to heaven and those who rejoiced only in their vile sins would fall into eternal hell.  Possibly the Lord Jesus is instructing Moses and Elijah to return to limbo and prepare the people for his preaching, so that when he came, they would understand who he was.

When the Apostles finally picked themselves up from the ground, they saw Jesus as they had always known him, but from that moment when they looked at him they knew that divinity hid within his mortal frame, out of sight so that he could be present to us on earth, yet clear in his miracles and his preaching to anyone with faith.  Let us be more and more aware of how near divinity is to us, whether under the thin surface of a host, in the words of the Gospels, and in our hearts through grace.