Wednesday, March 4, 2026 - Authority in the kingdom means service

 

Wednesday, March 4, 2026 - When you are being introduced by a friend to a stranger how would you want your friend to introduce you?

To read the texts click on the texts: Jer18:18-20; Mt 20:17-28

The text begins with what is known as the third and final Passion and Resurrection prediction in Matthew’s Gospel. This is the most detailed of the three and Matthew specifies crucifixion as the manner in which Jesus will be put to death. However, Jesus is not simply a passive victim, his death is in obedience to the will of God and he will let nothing and no one come in the way of this obedience. Even as he speaks of his death, Jesus also predicts his being raised on the third day.

If in Mark, it is the brothers James and John who make of Jesus the request for places of honour (Mk 10:35-37), in Matthew, it is the mother of the sons of Zebedee (Matthew does not name the brothers since he wants to spare them this ignominy) who comes with the request on behalf of her sons. The right hand and left hand symbolize places of honour and authority. In his response, Jesus does not address the mother or even James and John, but all the disciples. In contrast to Mark who mentions both the cup and baptism, Matthew focuses exclusively on the cup of suffering, testing, rejection, judgement and violent death. The metaphor “cup” here seems to refer to the death ordained by God which is willingly accepted by the one who is to go to his death. The disciples’ bravado and willingness to drink the cup is only verbal and not one which they can show in their deeds. Though Jesus is aware of this, he looks beyond their failure and invites them to share his cup. However, even martyrdom does not gain one a special place in the kingdom because not even Jesus will be able to assign such places. These are the exclusive prerogative of God.

The request of the mother of the sons of Zebedee leads to anger on the part of the other ten. This anger indicates that they too like the mother (and the two brothers) had not really understood Jesus’ way of proceeding. Jesus thus has to teach them yet again the meaning of discipleship, authority and service in the kingdom. The king in the kingdom is not a ruler but one who serves, the Lord does not lord it over others but is their slave. By adding “Just as” before the final verse here, Matthew makes Jesus as the model whom the disciples are called to imitate.

The desire to be in charge and dominate others is a very real desire and most of us possess it. Some in large measure others in small, but it is there. We like others to follow our instructions and do what we tell them and feel upset or angry if they do not obey. Too easily we judge people by the titles they have or the positions they occupy in society and this leads to a desire in each of us to want to possess those titles or occupy those positions. We identify ourselves and others too much by these external titles and do not look at other more important areas of their lives and ours. The text of today calls us to review our need for titles and positions of honour and spend ourselves instead in service.

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 - Will you let people hear what you do rather than what you say?

 

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 - Will you let people hear what you do rather than what you say? How?

To read the texts click on the texts: Isa 1:10,16-20; Mt 23:1-12

Jesus here addresses the people and his disciples and speaks of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. Scribes were a professional class with formal training. They were schooled in the tradition and its application to current issues. Pharisees were a group within Judaism defined by strictly religious rules, composed mostly of laypersons without formal theological training. Some scribes were also Pharisees, but few Pharisees were scribes.  Moses’ seat is a metaphorical expression representing the teaching and administrative authority of the synagogue leadership, scribes and Pharisees. Jesus condemns only the practice of the scribes and Pharisees and not their teaching. The Matthean Jesus makes three points about the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. The first is that “they say but do not do”, which means that there was no consonance between their words and actions. They did not act on their words.  The second is that “they burden while failing to act themselves” which means that they lay law upon law upon the people and make life so much more complicated than it really is, and the third is that “they act for the wrong reasons: to make an impression on others”. This they did by wearing broader phylacteries. “Phylacteries” is the term Matthew uses for the “tephillin”, which were small leather boxes containing portions of the Torah (Exod 13:1-16; Deut 6:4-9; 11:13-32) strapped to the forehead and arm during the recitation of prayers in literal obedience to Deut 6:8. The “tassels” were attached to the prayer shawls, and the most important seats in the synagogue refer to the place of honour at the front facing the congregation, occupied by teachers and respected leaders. The term “Rabbi” was a title of honour. The Scribes and Pharisees wanted to be noticed, commended and honoured more than to pray.

In contrast the disciples of Jesus ought not to go for external titles and especially those which heighten distinction since they were brothers and sisters and there was to be no greater and smaller among them. They were to be one in God who alone is father. Authority and leadership were to be expressed in selfless service.

It is easy to say, but difficult to do, it is easy to preach but difficult to practice. There must be a correlation between our words and our actions. The way to ensure that there is a correlation between the two is to first do and then say, or better to let people hear not what we say but what we do. This doing, if it is to be regarded as a genuine work of love must be done not to earn titles or the approval or commendation but because one is a disciple of Jesus who has shown through his life and actions what true leadership means.

Monday, March 2, 2026 - If you do not condemn, you will not need to forgive

 

Monday, March 2, 2026 - How often have you done something for someone else without any expectation whatever? Will you do something like this today?

To read the texts click on the texts: Dan 9:4-10; Lk 6:36-38

The injunction to “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” which begins the text of today adapts the Old Testament command to “be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Lev 19:2), which in the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew has become “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Whereas this injunction stands at the conclusion of the six antitheses in Matthew 5, here it concludes the section on love for one’s enemy by placing the challenge to be merciful in a theological context. Just as God’s love for all is indiscriminate, so must the love of the true disciple be. If love is given only in return for love, it is not love at all. To be called love, it must be unconditional.

The next two verses move to the theme of not judging and not condemning. The reason for this is that the one who does not judge and condemn will not be judged or condemned him/herself. Instead, the disciple of Jesus is called to forgive and let go of hurts and resentments as these block the receipt of pardon and forgiveness that is freely available from God. The section ends with a call to a kind of giving which does not count the cost, but which gives generously and freely. The result of such giving will be God’s unbounded generosity.

Mercy, forgiveness and love are in short supply today. Most relationships between people are built on what one can gain from the other and how the relationship will help one. It is rare to see (even in relationships between members of one family) selflessness and generosity. Yet, this is what Jesus calls the disciple to and expects that the disciple will live such a generous life.

Sunday, March 1, 2026 - Homily. If you were on the mountain with Jesus, how would you respond?

 

Sunday, March 1, 2026- If you were on the mountain with Jesus how would you respond?

To read the texts click on the texts: Gen 12:1-4; 2 Tim 1:8-10; Mt 17:1-9

There is a common thread which runs through all three readings of today. All of them speak of grace given freely and without reserve.

This gift of grace is promised to Abram in the promise of a new land, descendants sufficient to people a great nation and participation in God’s life. Abram becomes the means through which God’s saving grace will bless all the families of the earth. God takes the initiative and his gratuitousness alone is responsible for this. Abram has done nothing to achieve this blessing. What Abram (noble father) will become – Abraham (father of a multitude) is the result of God’s grace and not Abram’s effort.

This point is reiterated by Paul in the second reading of today in which he states that the grace in Christ was given freely before the beginning of time, and further, it has been revealed in its fullness in the coming of Jesus. In Christ, this grace takes the form not merely of new land and progeny, but of new life in his victory over death itself and the proclamation of immortality. It is revealed to the three disciples Peter. James and John and to all others who dare to go up to the mountain, in the transfigured body of Jesus.

Thus, in Jesus, we are promised even more than was promised to Abram. We are offered the gift of life and victory over death as the early disciples, and we are being invited into the presence of the same glory as that seen by Peter, James and John.

Three enormous offers of grace are given freely and in abundance … and we hear them as we have heard them so many times before and hardly pay heed. Grace? Free? What is it that keeps us from grabbing this offer wholeheartedly? Do we not trust it? Do we think it is too simple or too naive? Is it that we don’t know what’s good for us? One would think that if we were given a choice between something good and something bad we would choose the good. But there is a mysterious streak in our nature so that given the choice between life and death we often settle for the easy familiarity of death rather than the risky joys of really living.

We find ourselves always in a mixture of life and death. Some things in us are thriving, are growing, and are bearing fruit. Some things in us are drooping, are fading, and are shriveling up. And for some reason we get mesmerized by death and let life pass us by. We seem to think that death is more real than life, more to be trusted, more fitting for us. But the words of Paul do not allow us to do that: “He (Christ Jesus) abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News”. It is thus a matter of life and death.

It is Abram, seventy-five years old and childless, who sets out on what seems at first glance as a ridiculous journey to a new land, new family, and new life. Timothy knows only too well that the promise of life is made in the middle of hardships that the gospel entails. And Jesus stands on a mountain top, glowing with glory, alive as no one had ever been before, precisely between prophesies of his death. The same Jesus who will, at the end of his life, go to his death and in it and through it finds life for us all. On the mountain of Transfiguration, Jesus trusted life and trusted what God was doing for him.

Peter, James and John realized on the mountain that they were dealing with a reality that reached beyond human experience. They were dealing not merely with a social reformer or a political visionary; they were dealing with a man who had a unique relationship with God. The intensity of that relation was obvious to all on the mountain.

The people of Israel were permitted to experience a new through the faith of Abram. “The challenge of Christian faith is to accept and live a sustaining relationship with God in the most trying circumstances of Jesus, but they also heard a voice from heaven that applies that dimension to them: “This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.” The implication is that anyone who forms a relationship with God’s Son will one day share in the transfiguration of God’s Son. The good news is good news for the whole human race, not reserved for the elite few. So the apostles had to come down from the mountain with Jesus. As much as they may have wanted, they could not stay there.

If we are to be transfigured by his message we must do strange and sometimes painful things indeed: like forgiving our enemies and praying for those who we think have hurt us, maintaining hope in a world that sometimes seems hopeless, turning the other cheek not as an act of cowardice but courage, giving generously to those in need even from the little we have, and so on. This is where the shadow of the cross intrudes in a practical way. The message learned on the mountain must be lived in the valleys. Through living his message, we are being gradually transfigured. But we must leave the choosing of that day to him. Our challenge is to remain with Christ on whatever mountain, or in whatever valley, we find ourselves. Because we are assured that he will be there waiting for us.

 

 

Saturday, February 28, 2026 - Homily. Will you act without any expectation today?

 

Saturday, February 28, 2026 - How often has the expectation of some “reward” been your motivation for “doing good”? Will you “do good” without any expectation of reward today?

To read the texts click on the texts: Deut 26:16-19; Mt 5:43-48

In the last of the six antitheses, Matthew focuses on the love command. . While there is no command to hate the enemy in the Old Testament, yet, there are statements that God hates all evildoers and statements that imply that others do or should do the same. Jesus, makes explicit here the command to love enemies. This is the behaviour expected of a true disciple of Jesus. They cannot merely love those who love them, since one does not require to be a disciple to do this. Everyone, even the vilest of people can do this. The conduct of the disciples of Jesus must reveal who they are really are, namely “sons and daughters of God”.

The command to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” does not mean to be without faults, but means to be undivided in love as God is undivided in love.

The love we have for others is more often than not a conditional love. We indulge in barter exchange and term it love. We are willing to do something for someone and expect that they do the same or something else in return. It is a matter of “give”, but also a matter of “take”. When Jesus asks us to be like the heavenly Father, he is calling us to unconditional love.