​Today’s brief Gospel—all of three verses—contains Christ’s words telling us how we are to deal with our neighbors, namely, by being merciful as the Father is merciful, and by forgiving.

​Commenting on the difficulties that showing mercy and forgiving entail, Fulton Sheen tells us that calling to mind two things can help us a great deal: first, remembering our own sins, and second, to see ourselves as helping God to save souls.

Today’s Gospel gives us some beautiful insights into the nature of anger. Christ says, “I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” An ancient commentary on this text from the Gospel of Matthew says that Christ’s commandment is even more perfect than the law, since “often an individual does not kill because he fears punishment, but nonetheless he is angry,” [1] and wishes evil on his brother; we could say that anger would kill if it could get away with it. There is, of course, such a thing as righteous anger, and we can find a test in the last chapter of the book of Jonah. After God spares the citizens of Nineveh, Jonah throws a fit. Although translations vary, often God’s question to Jonah is rendered “Do you do well to be angry?” This is a question that, very often, we must answer “No,” since our anger doesn’t usually fulfill God’s righteousness, as Saint James writes (cf. 1:20). However, many times we try to convince ourselves that it does. 

There’s a lot that could be said about today’s Gospel, but we can consider just two points: first, what Christ says about heaven and hell, and, secondly, the importance of the little things we do as religious.

​Regarding the first, we’re reminded that Christ “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” (1 Tm 2:4). Jesus tells those who have acted well to “inherit the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34). This is man’s ultimate goal, his happiness, and it has been prepared for him from all eternity. 

In today’s first reading, King David lays dying, and his last pieces of advice to his son Solomon include an injunction that is useful for us too. David tells his son: “Take courage and be a man.”

In the Latin Vulgate, it’s esto vir. Esto vir: be a man, and it’s linked to practicing the virtue of courage (or fortitude). In fact, Saint John Paul II said just that: “To be men we need fortitude.”[1] “To be men we need fortitude.”

​Courage has to be at the heart of Christian and priestly life. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives His apostles authority and sends them out. There are two things that call our attention: first, Luke tells us that Christ “sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” There’s two things: preaching, and healing. Indeed, they do just that, as Luke ends the passage by saying: “Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.” Secondly, we notice that Christ is adamant that the apostles take nothing with them for the journey.

“I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”

These words which come to us at the end of today’s Gospel are worth pondering over. Today’s entire Gospel, in fact, deserves time for meditation. Jesus speaks to us so lovingly and clearly about His relationship with the Father, a relationship that we too must strive after—becoming by grace what Jesus is by nature.

But I want to pause at these final words of Jesus to his listeners: “I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” That we could wholeheartedly say the same thing about everything we do must become, especially during our time of formation, the true source of our fulfillment and happiness in this life. In fact, doing God’s will faithfully was the great consolation that Bl. Joseph Allamano remembered on the occasion of his 50th anniversary of priestly ordination.

Today’s Gospel presents us with Christ in Cana in Galilee, and a royal official who comes to asks for a miracle on behalf of his son. Yet Jesus gives the man a surprising response, and the official repeats his request, which is then answered. There’s a lot we could say about this passage, but one of the most beautiful teachings, and most pertinent to this Lenten season, is about prayer. John gives us two insights into the official’s prayer, two elements that need to be corrected, and then shows us how Christ responds to sincere and humble prayer.