Monday in the Second Week of Lent, March 17, 2025

The Feast of St. Patrick

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.”

An interesting question came up after Mass on Sunday concerning whether St. Patrick was an actual person.  St. Patrick does tend to get lost in the celebrations here in the United States which emphasize Irish culture, heritage, and achievement.  The facts about him come from his own writings, mainly from a Declaration in which he gives a short account of his life as a Romanized Briton living in Britain who was seized by Irish pirates and sold as a slave.  In his early twenties he escaped to Britain, but later returned as a priest in order to convert the Irish, who at that time worshipped many gods.  He lived during the 400’s.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  No human can match the mercy of Almighty God who offers forgiveness as often as we plead for it, and sent his Son to die for our redemption, nor does Jesus intend this meaning.  Rather, he tells us to be merciful because our Father in heaven has been most merciful with us.  The Father’s mercy is the reason for our being merciful.  And keeping in mind his mercy toward us predisposes us to be merciful to others.  This mercy shows itself in forgiving those who injure us and in looking for ways to help others as they struggle in their lives.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.”  The Greek word translated here as “judging” has the sense of putting someone on trial while the word translated as “condemning” means something more than expressing a negative opinion.  In fact, Jesus is not saying that we cannot form opinions critical of others and their actions.  Indeed, it is necessary for us to recognize danger and wickedness so as to avoid it and protect ourselves from it.  But the judgment and condemnation he is speaking of means that social sanctions of some kind will apply.  For instance, in the Lord’s time, a Jew might see another Jew laboring in a field on the Sabbath.  The first man calling out the second for his breach of the commandment regarding the Sabbath would be an act of judgment.  Official condemnation would follow through the recognition of this breach by the local religious authorities, and the man would suffer whatever consequences followed.  In modern times, this judging and condemnation might take the form of a public accusation against a person for a breach of etiquette, moral conduct or of the law, with the ensuing consequences.  For instance, a merchant raises prices on the product he is selling or a landlord raises the rent he charges, and these are assailed in the newspapers or in social media for their greed, even though greed may not be a factor in these cases at all.

“Forgive and you will be forgiven.”  When we show mercy to others we grow in our capacity to receive the mercy God so much desires to give us: “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.”  God will not be outside in his mercy toward us: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  That is, for showing mercy to others, the infinite God deigns to show us unimaginable mercy, even bringing us into heaven.