​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.

Fr. Nathaniel Dreyer, IVE
Tuesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues with His rebukes of the unbelieving Pharisees. Here, a Pharisee invited Him to partake of a meal at his house, and is astonished when Jesus doesn’t perform the ceremonial washing of hands as prescribed by the law.

The word Luke uses to describe the Pharisee’s reaction is ἐθαύμασεν (ethaumasen); it means to be awestruck or even astonished out of one’s senses, but it’s a word that’s usually used to describe the reaction that people have to Jesus’ miracles or His grace-filled words.[1] Here we can see just how backwards the Pharisees have understood things:

​The word capital has a lot of different meanings. It could refer to an important city from which a region is governed, and so Annapolis is the capital of Maryland. It could refer to a letter which differs from its lowercase version in height and form. In economics, capital is that surplus of wealth or assets used to begin a new enterprise. In architecture, it refers to the highest point of a column which connects it with the structure which is being supported. But we are not studying government, nor economics, nor architecture, so we are not concerned about these capitals so much. Rather, we need to consider a different but far more important sort of capital, a capital sin.

Fr. Christopher Etheridge, IVE
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

In today’s Gospel our Lord teaches us what the true measure of our forgiveness should be…without measure. When asked by Peter how many times we must forgive our neighbor who offends us, Our Lord gives a loaded answer.

“Not seven times” he tells Peter, “but seventy times seven.” In other words he is saying, “without limit”. As St. John Chrysostom says, “Our Lord did not limit forgiveness to a fixed number, but declared that it must be continuous and forever”.[1]

Today’s Gospel presents us with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. It calls our attention that in absolutely all His other parables, Jesus never gives a character a proper name: they are simply “a man,” “a woman,” and the like. Lazarus, a name derived from the Hebrew Eleazar, meaning, God is my help, is the only one who merits this special distinction.[1] There’s something ironic in this, since Jesus gives this poor man special attention, whereas the rich man, and, indeed, everyone, refused to pay him any mind at all. Yet, had they looked, they would have seen one of God’s beloved children, and indeed, even Christ Himself.

Fr. Nathaniel Dreyer, IVE
Monday of the Second Week of Lent

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.