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.

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.