Friday in the Third Week of Lent, March 13, 2026

Mark 12, 28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” 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.” The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

“Which is the first of all the commandments?”  We might think that the scribe’s question has an obvious answer and so we would wonder why he asked it.  After all, what he expect Jesus to answer?  But the obviousness may point to a drama we would otherwise not see.  It could well be that the scribe believed in Jesus and wanted to show the others the purity of the Lord’s teachings.  Or, he may have wanted to make a point, through the words of this teacher whom the crowds believed in, to the scribes and Pharisees about their own teachings: that they had gotten away from teaching the love of God and neighbor, which should have been the bedrock of their beliefs, and not the precise carrying out of dubious rituals, as though for its own sake.

“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.”. How wonderful and moving it would have been to hear the Lord Jesus, unimaginably in love with the Father, speaking these words!  

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  This might not have been the choice of all the Pharisees.  They might have preferred the commandment about not worshipping false gods, or about keeping the Sabbath holy.  But it makes sense as the second of the two greatest commandments because the God whom we are so to love created the human person in his own image and likeness: the love of self and of neighbor thus is a way of loving God as well.

“Well said, teacher.”  The scribe had expected this answer, and his commendation of the Lord’s answer seems like a challenge to the attitude of the other scribes and Pharisees.  He even goes further, as though adding to the Lord’s answer: “And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  This scribe certainly shows independence of mind and depths of intellect possessed by few of his fellows.  The burnt offerings and sacrifices, so dear to the hearts of the Pharisees, did not forgive sins.  They could not.  They were but signs of The Sacrifice, The Holocaust, that, offered to the Father, would take away the sins of the world. 

The scribe would not then have understood about a Sacrifice that had not yet been offered, but he was on his way to doing so.  For this reason the Lord said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”  This declaration stunned everyone within earshot, and, overwhelmed, “no one dared to ask him any more questions.”  

You and I are even nearer to the Kingdom of God than that scribe, who stood only feet away from the Son of God.  Let us pray that we may entry it.

Thursday in the Third Week of Lent, March 12, 2026

Luke 11:14-23

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed. Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. 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.”

“The crowds were amazed.”  The Greek word translated as “amazed” also shows up in verses such as Matthew 27, 14, which describes Pilate’s reaction to the Lord’s silence at the charges leveled against him.  In that case the word is more often translated as “wondered exceedingly”.  Nowadays we use words like “amazed” so often that they lose something of their force.  The crowd in this passage from St. Luke’s Gospel gasps and shouts as they see the Lord casting out the demon afflicting this man.  Undoubtedly, the man had lived among these people for a long time and they had known him as the mute, taking it for granted that he would never speak again.  It is not clear where this exorcism occurred or how the Lord met this man, whether he was brought by others or if the man accosted the Lord and his Apostles as they approached a city.  Of the two possibilities, the first is more likely since there is a crowd present.  The Lord would have cast out the demon quickly, based on the other accounts of his exorcisms which the Evangelists tell us, and then the man seems to have gone his way, for we hear no more about him.

“By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.”  Luke tells us that “some said” this. It is not certain whether “some said” this in response to this particular exorcism or if this very silly accusation came at another time but Luke fits in in here as a convenient spot for it.  The Lord shows its illogic by pointing out that if the devil is at work in his exorcisms, he is fighting against himself and he will fall; or, if the Lord does this by his own power, “the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”  Either way, it is good news, though those who made the accusation meant to attack him.  It is so ridiculous even on its face, and so perverse, that we ought to wonder if the people making it were themselves possessed.  Coming after an exorcism, this would be ironic.

“When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe.”  These next few verses seem unrelated to what the Lord has just said.  St. John Chrysostom, however, wrote that the “strong man” was the devil and the “stronger man” was Christ.  The strong man’s “palace” or “dominion”, as the word has also been translated, is his reign over sinners.  Thus, when the stronger man “attacks and overcomes him”, he breaks his dominion and carries off his goods, sinners.  The stronger man “takes away the armor on which he relied”, that is, again, sinners, through whom the devil works in this world to bolster his kingdom. The stronger man then “distributes the spoils.”  Sinners freed from the devil’s grasp are “distributed” to the care of saints and angels for their guidance and assistance in attaining heaven.

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” The Lord speaks of “attacking” the strong man, the devil.  Those who are with the Lord join in the attack, fulfilling the Lord’s saying that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against [the Church]” (Matthew 16, 18).  But those who do not join in the attack are opposed to Christ and his Church.  The Lord does not propose any middle ground.  This brings to mind his speaking to the Christians in Laodicea: “You are neither cold nor hot. I would you were either cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3, 15–16).  The “hot” are fervent believers and the “cold” are those who are cold in their charity.  The “lukewarm” are indifferent to God’s will and so shall be expelled from God’s sight. 

Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent, March 11, 2026

Matthew 5, 17-19

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. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

“I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”  While the idea of “abolishing” something, such as the law and the prophets, is clear to us, less so is the meaning of “fulfilling” something.  It helps to know that the Greek word translated here as “ to fulfill” can also be translated as “to complete”.  It also helps to keep in mind that God had given the Law and the Prophets to the Israelites to govern them, but also as a sign that his Son would one day complete.  We can think of it this way: When we are watching a small child building some structure with his blocks, we might see this as a sign that he will grow up to be an engineer.  When the child does grow up and become an engineer, we can say that he has fulfilled or completed the sign we saw years before.  The Law and the Prophets in general showed the way for the New Covenant that the Lord Jesus would establish in his Blood. In doing this, the Lord sets out its terms, that is, his completion of the various laws found in the Law.  He does this, for instance, in his command for us to love our enemies as well as our friends and relatives.

The idea that the Lord was abolishing the Law and the Prophets came from the Pharisees.  In fact, he was abolishing or “overthrowing” (another meaning of the original Greek word) the false teaching of the Pharisees on the Law, and their false interpretation of the Prophets.  In their zeal for holiness, the Pharisees taught that the laws in Leviticus regarding the purification of the priests for offering sacrifice must apply to everyone.  While a regular part of the priest’s function, these laws were impractical for ordinary people.  The Pharisees made living the Law difficult for the people in other ways as well.  This is what the Lord overthrew.

“Not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”  The word translated here as “have taken place” is difficult to translate.  It has the overall meaning of “come into being” or “is born” and is often translated simply as the verb to-be. What the Lord refers to is his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and also the coming of the New Heavens and the New Earth at the end of time (cf. Isaiah 66, 22).  It should be noted that the Lord means that “not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass” from the fulfilled or completed Law, the New Law of the New Covenant.  It is for this reason that we are not bound to sacrifice sheep and cattle: this sacrifice was a sign of the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, which is continuously offered up at Holy Mass.

“Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”  We who are joined to the Lord Jesus through baptism and so with him are heirs to heaven, may attain the “greatest” place there through obeying and teaching his fulfilled Law to others.  We do this by our words and deeds, fostered by our prayers.  In the ranks of heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the most obedient of all and preeminent in her virtues, is accorded first place among the saints, and after her, those first teachers, the Apostles.  Third in order are the martyrs, who obeyed and taught the New Law through their sufferings and deaths, and still do so today through their example.  In fact, all the saints have obeyed and taught, and now exult and rejoice, basking in the love of God.  We too can have this is we join their company in obeying the teaching the Law of Jesus Christ.

Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent, March 10, 2026

Matthew 18, 21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

Much confusion surrounds forgiveness, so important an act for our salvation that our Lord says, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6, 37), as though our forgiveness of others amounts to a condition for our own forgiveness.  In the parable which the Church uses for today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord gives a graphic description of what forgiveness looks like, knowing that for us a picture helps more than a treatise. 

First of all, the Lord tells us, one person has committed an offense against another, and this is clear to everyone.  There is no hiding or excusing the fault.  This is a most necessary step.  We might want to look the other way, excuse, or try to forget an offense committed against us, but in order to forgive, we must recognize that something needs to be forgiven.  Otherwise we forego forgiveness, which is a path to peace, and we go on to live in pain.  Now, we should notice here that the offended party does not try to minimize the offense.  In fact, he makes a strict accounting of it.  This, too is necessary.  In this case, the Greek text tells us that the servant owes his master 10,000 talents, or more than $41,000,000 in today’s money.

“His master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.”  In this instance, the master is also the source of justice because he is the king.  In order to recoup a fraction of his losses he orders the offender and his family sold as slaves.  This action was customary practice in ancient times.  The offender knew this and still squandered his master’s money, thus adding to his offense through deliberately jeopardizing the members of his family.  The story could have ended now.  The servant defrauds his master, he gets caught, and justice is done.  But the servant begged for mercy, and “moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.”  That is, he let him off with no consequences.  The master does this not because he believes the servant will pay him back or that he will reform, but simply because of his heart, which felt compassion for the man.  We note that the king let him go: he did not necessarily retain him as a servant and certainly did not offer him friendship.  What he did amounts to this: he did not get back at the man for what he had done to him.  We consider again the amount of money the servant took from him and marvel at the king’s generosity.  This is forgiveness.  He even refused to enforce a penalty on him for the sake of justice, which goes over and beyond what forgiveness demands from us.

“He found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount.”  The parable could have ended here, too, but the Lord continues in order to show the role that justice can play in a situation in which an offense has been committed.  The servant who has been forgiven goes on to commit a second offense, which consists of seizing another servant, choking him, and threatening him to the extent that the others become greatly alarmed and appeal to the king on that servant’s behalf.  Since this offense was not directed against the king, the king is not in a position to forgive.  (It would be the prerogative of the injured servant to forgive).  He is solely the source of justice here.  As such, he “handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.”  This is actually a reduction of sentence compared to what the master had originally decreed for him.  At least the man’s family is not enslaved and can go back to her relatives.  But he will not leave prison alive.  The Lord also tells this part of the parable to console those who have suffered at the hands of a wicked “fellow servant” that they might still suffer from the offense even after they have forgiven their offender, but that one who continued his wickedness will eventually be punished through proper justice.  We do not need to think that we must take justice in our own hands.  It will come, and it will satisfy more than anything you and I could do.

“So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”  The Lord puts the moral of his parable in the form of a warning: if we do not forgive but hold a grudge and seek vengeance, we become no better than the person who offended us.  We may pray for justice, appeal for justice to the legitimate authorities here, and we may seek redress for the harm we suffer, but we must renounce vengeance and pray for our enemies and their conversion.

Monday in the Third Week of Lent, March 9, 2016

Luke 4, 24–30

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 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.

In this scene from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus stands in the synagogue of Nazareth, the town where he grew up. The people know him. They have seen him since childhood. They know his family, his trade, the ordinary details of his life. Yet this familiarity becomes the very obstacle that prevents them from recognizing who he truly is.

Jesus states a painful truth: “No prophet is accepted in his own native place.” This is not merely a comment about human psychology. It is a revelation of a deeper spiritual danger: when we believe we already know someone, we may stop listening to them. The people of Nazareth think they know Jesus. To them he is simply the carpenter’s son. Because of that assumption, they cannot receive the grace standing before them.

Jesus then reminds them of two episodes from the history of Israel. First, the Prophet Elijah was sent not to an Israelite widow during the famine, but to a widow in Zarephath in Sidon—a foreign land. Second, the Pophet Elisha cleansed not the many lepers of Israel but Naaman, a Syrian. The message is clear and unsettling: God’s mercy is not confined by the boundaries people expect.

The people of Nazareth assume that the blessings of God belong primarily to them. But Jesus reminds them that throughout Israel’s history God has sometimes acted outside those expected boundaries, blessing outsiders when insiders would not receive his word. This revelation touches a nerve. What began as curiosity about Jesus suddenly turns into anger.

The reaction of the crowd is swift and frightening. They drive him out of town. They lead him to the edge of the hill. They intend to throw him down.

What changed so quickly? Moments earlier they were listening in the synagogue. Now they are ready to kill him.

The reason is simple: truth often wounds pride. When Jesus exposes the limits of their understanding and the narrowness of their hearts, the people cannot bear it. Rather than change themselves, they try to eliminate the one who reveals the truth.

Yet the story ends in a striking way. “He passed through the midst of them and went away.” No struggle. No miracle described. Simply quiet authority.

Christ’s mission cannot be stopped by human anger. The hour of his Passion has not yet come. The crowd believes it has power over him, but in reality his life remains entirely in his Father’s hands.

This Gospel Reading invites us to ask an uncomfortable question: Are we sometimes like the people of Nazareth? It is possible to live very close to Christ — to hear His words often, to know the stories of the Gospel — and yet fail to recognize him when He challenges us. Familiarity can dull our attention. We may think: I already know this teaching. I have heard this Gospel reading before. I understand what Jesus is saying. But the Word of God always has more to reveal. If we approach it with humility, it continually opens new depths.

Personal Note: It is taking me longer than o expected to recover from the laser surgery. I am told that this is not too surprising, given what it all entailed, I am grateful to everyone for their prayers and ask you to continue to pray for me.

The Third Sunday in Lent, March 8, 2026

John 4, 5–42

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.  A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.  Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”  Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”  At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”  Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” 

We might wonder that the Lord entered the territory of the Samaritans because of the enmity between the Jews and the people of that country, but Jesus and other Jews needed to pass through it when they made their way between Galilee and Judea during the course of the year.  According to the Law, the Jews did not eat nor shelter with those who were not Jews, and the Jews did not regard the Samaritans as Jews, but the Law allowed them to buy food from them and the Gentiles.  Thus, we find the Apostles going to the town to buy food while the Lord rests.  We can only imagine how exhausted the Lord must have been that he stayed outside the town, for one thing the Gospels make clear, if nothing else, that the Lord was continuously on the move and seldom rested, often foregoing a night’s rest in order to spend the time in prayer with his Father.  His resting, though, served another purpose here.  He sat at the well outside of the town of Sychar (known in the Old Testament as Shechem).  John reports a tradition that Jacob had dug a well there, but this is not found in the relevant verses in Genesis.  It is clear, however, that Jacob did dwell there for some time.

“Give me a drink.”  Normally among the people of that place and time, men and women who were unrelated did not speak together in public.  The Lord puts himself in a position of need that allows him to speak to the Samaritan woman who comes to the well.  We might compare this strategy of getting her to a gate with him with how parents will persuade their small children to perform some action by making it seem that the child would be doing them a favor.  We should note here that though the Lord asks for water, he does not receive any from her during the whole time he is with her.  At the end of the conversation, the woman hurried back to the town, leaving her water jar behind.

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman at first speaks to Jesus out of a certain pride, as though she had found someone even worse off than herself.  We should note her speaking of Jacob as the father of the Samaritans, knowing how this would incite a Jew: “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”  The Lord does not react as she expected but instead turned the conversation around to show that he had water greater even than that of Jacob’s well.  He is speaking of supernatural grace for which water is a sign, as in the Sacrament of Baptism.  As a share in the very life of Almighty God, it does indeed become a spring — that is, as a source of life — which enables us to live in heaven with the angels and the saints.

“Go call your husband and come back.”  Several times St. John shows in his Gospel incidences of the Lord’s ability to know what was hidden.  He does this first with the calling of Nathanael, when the Lord revealed to the future Apostle that he saw him under a fig tree.  Nathanael’s response to this was to call Jesus the Son of God.  The final time he shows this is at the Last Supper when the Lord points out that Judas is the one who would betray him.  For John and the early Christians this sign of omniscience powerfully pointed to him as divine.  By drawing attention to her own moral situation, Jesus also recalls her to proper humility, thus dousing the pride she had originally shown as a supposed daughter of Jacob.

“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.”  The Lord eats only so that he may do the Father’s will, which is to call all people to repentance and to die for their sins so that they may have grace and be saved.  He makes himself food for us in Holy Communion so that this may be true for us as well: our food is to do the will of the one who created us, put us in the world, and has given us the gift of faith.

“Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified.”  A Christian community did exist in the town and its environs during the time of the Apostles.  It would have dispersed during the Jewish revolt against the Romans (66-70 A.D.), but it reconstituted itself and from its ranks arose St. Justin, one of the most important of the early Christian writers.   

“We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”  The woman’s word leads others to faith in the Lord Jesus.  Now, while the Lord did tell her to go and return with her husband, he did not tell her to go and evangelize the town.  And she need not have done this, but she did, and brought many to believe in him.   She prefigures Mary Magdalene, who went from the empty tomb to tell the Apostles that the Lord had risen.

The Lord placed himself at the well where he knew he would encounter the Samaritan woman and bring her to believe in him.  The Lord also places us where he knows we will encounter others so that we might bring the faith to them as well.  

Personal Note: I’m still recovering from the laser surgery. I have very little stamina, but this will improve with time. Thank you for your prayers!

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.