Homily for Monday of the 2nd Week of Lent (1)

Homily for Monday of the 2nd Week of Lent

Theme: GIVE AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU…… “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful”

By: Fr. Zacharias MATTAM SDB
(Bangalore, India)

Homily for Monday March 14 2022

Today we ask ourselves, how does a Christian behave towards his brothers and sisters? Showing the same compassion and kindness shown to him by the heavenly Father: “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). Jesus said, “I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47). Jesus did not judge even his own murderers. Instead He was thinking well of them and excusing them and praying for them: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). As His disciples, we are invited to be like the Master.

Jesus says, in Mathew’s gospel: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” (Mt 7:1.3). The wooden beam is “the non-love”, the “pride” and “resentment” in our heart. These vices are like a wooden beam preventing us to see the fault of our brother from his proper perspective and are more serious than his fault which is only like a splinter, and so these must be banished first. It is only with love that we can truly correct another as “Love bears all things” (1Cor 13:7).

When Jesus says: “Do not judge”, Jesus is not prohibiting the exercise of our faculty of discernment, nor are we asked to approve everything that our brother does. What He is forbidding is to attribute an evil intention to the person for acting thus. Only God knows what is in the heart of a person; “God does not see as a mortal, who sees the appearance. The Lord looks into the heart” (1Sam 16:7) Furthermore, to judge is God’s prerogative, which we usurp when we judge our brother.

What is important in Christianity is love: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). This love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rm 5:5). In the Eucharist Christ gives us His Heart as a gift and we can love everyone with His Heart and be merciful as the Heavenly Father is merciful.

Fr. Zacharias MATTAM SDB
(Bangalore, India)