Monday, March 10: "You shall not steal… lie… curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment…nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake” (Lv 19:1-2, 11-18). When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him (Mt 25:31-46).

Today’s missive from Leviticus lists things we, as individuals, “shall not” do. In the gospel, we hear about the judgement of the “nations.” What do you think this means? That governments and leaders of nations will be judged, but those under their rule won’t be? Somehow, I don’t think that’s it. (So, if we are part of a “sheep nation,” we won’t benefit from their largesse!?) One way to look at these two passages is to contrast the difference between personal sin and societal sin.

Provision: ACT as if your life depended on it. We all get the idea of personal sin, but how do you define societal sin? Jesus’ list seems to be about charitable works, but that’s a narrow reading of this text. Societal sin includes policies and practices that exclude others from God’s bounty, that bring about the need for charitable works: racism, bigotry, “deference to the mighty” (as we hear in Leviticus), injustice, denying people a place at the table, policies that demonize the stranger or ignore care for the earth. Spend time reflecting on societal sin, and how your actions and inaction impact the greater good. “Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me” (Frederick Buechner).

Tuesday, March 11: “The LORD confronts the evildoers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth” (Ps 34).

In Hebrew, that last phrase is “to cut off from the earth their names.” I understand what the psalmist is saying here: evil will be forgotten in the face of good. But for me, there’s a huge caveat, expressed best by George Santayana’s most famous quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In the US and some European countries, there is a rise in “neo-Nazism.” Let’s get one thing straight: there’s nothing “neo” about it, and world leaders who, no matter how much they deny it, are, by their words, actions, and policies, supporting this movement. My parents’ generation, those who lived through WWII, and, in my father’s case, fought against the scourge of Nazism, have moved on to their reward, and it is up to my generation to honor them by making sure the coming generations never forget. Humanity is nowhere near being ready to dismiss the presence of evil. It is front and center right now.

Provision: FAST from turning away. “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you didn’t know” (William Wilberforce, British slavery abolitionist). Oh, I know how easy it is to say, “this too will pass, we’ve survived this before” or “there’s nothing I can do” or “someone else will deal with it.” But what is happening now is an affront to all those with a moral conscience, regardless of political affiliation. I encourage you to make your voice heard repeatedly to your elected leaders. Tell them there is no place for hatred and bigotry in our world.

Wednesday, March 12: “Everyone shall turn back from their evil way and from the outrage to which they hold fast” (Jon 3:1-10, Hebrew). “This generation is an evil generation” (Lk 11:29-32).

Outrage: as a noun it could be both a horrible, violent act, or the reaction to a horrible, violent act. In the NABRE translation, I guess it’s the former: the violence the Ninevites “had in hand.” But we know an outrageous act can easily spark an outrageous and equally violent response. Violence begets violence, which is why Jesus’ words to his evil generation can likely be said to all generations. How do we work to turn back from our evil ways, from violence?

Provision: ACT nonviolently. I am a bit of a hothead. I’ve calmed down some in these, my later years, but my outrage can be sparked quickly. What’s interesting about our current political climate is that there are a lot of people who are outraged, but we are not all outraged about the same things. Some are outraged by elitism (I’m not saying, “so called,” because I think this is grounded in reality). Others, like me, are outraged by the current political situation and the leaders in my country. They have deceived the very people to whom they have promised greatness (go back to Sunday’s reflection) and are destroying democracy to feed their own egos and bank accounts. Considering Jesus’ comment about an evil generation, let’s go back to Monday’s reflection as well. Is Jesus talking just to the leaders or to all of us? How can we calm and channel our outrage into nonviolent and compassionate ways to “repair the breach?”
 

Thursday, March 13: “Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, for I am taking my life in my hand”
(Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25).

Esther is scared. She is taking a big risk. Her husband, the king, is a powerful and mercurial dude (although we hear God changed his anger to gentleness), but she doesn’t know that walking into his throne room. She prays fervently to God to give her courage to speak truth and goodness to treachery and evil.

Provision: PRAY for courage. It takes courage to speak out against evil. For Esther, it could have meant death; for Jesus, it did (along with MLK, Gandhi, recent activists in Russia, and I’m sure many other saints around the world). For me, it is awful to see the cuts to USAID given the number of good people who have put their own lives at risk over the years to fight illness and evil around the world. It takes courage for us to speak out today. The threat of violence and slander is very real. Not all of us are called to take a public stand, but that doesn’t mean we don’t speak out, nonviolently, to call out evil we see. This is a time, folks, when the rubber of our faith meets the road, and that means friction; friction causes heat. Pray today for the courage to endure the heat, to take a nonviolent stand within your community.
 

Friday, March 14: “If the wicked one turns away from all the sins he committed, if he… does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die. …And if the virtuous one turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked one does… none of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered” (Ez 18:21-28).

An important thing to remember here: God sees and knows the disposition of our hearts. This is not about “thou shalt not” sins of commission. The virtuous person who appears to do nothing wrong may have a cold, hardened, judgmental heart. The one deemed as wicked because of their actions may have a warm, loving, merciful heart. (I have witnessed many times the compassion and love of those that society looks down upon for their sins.) You can’t fool God. “You are the ones who are offering justifications of yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; because that which is lofty among men is an abomination before God” (Lk 16:15).

Provision: FAST from judgment. These words of Jesus hit me: “that which is lofty among men is an abomination before God.” I know people who judge others favorably based on the amount of money or power they make or have accrued. But then, I need to look at how I judge people who judge people that way! We all judge others. It’s human nature. Heck, Jesus did, but he judged based on the actions rather than on the person (an important distinction; he saw everyone as a child of God). But today, let’s each of us look at the criteria with which we judge. How do these standards align with how we imagine God judges? "Do not pay too much attention to fame, power, or money. Someday, you will meet a person who cares for none of these, and then you will know how really poor you are” (Rudyard Kipling).
 

Saturday, March 15: “Today, I am making this agreement with the LORD: God will be my God, and I am to walk in God’s ways” (Dt 26:16-19, adapted).

Provision: GIVE this PRAYer a try! (I didn’t have any “GIVES” this week, so we will go with this one!) Each morning, imagine you are making an agreement with God. What are you agreeing to? Where might you be challenged to keep this agreement (say, you know you will encounter “this person” or “that situation” today)? And do this with the knowledge that God keeps God’s commitment. God will never abandon the promises to us! Yes, we might need to “repair a breach” or two this evening, but God awaits our return!

Monday, March 17: "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned …For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you" (Lk 6:36-38).

I like Luke’s Gospel. He says things plainly and gets to the point. These words today cause me to reflect on righteous anger and calling out hypocrisy and evil that we talked about yesterday. Now Jesus does this all the time—just look at Matthew 23 which we read from tomorrow to see how Jesus gets to the point about what he thinks of the elders’ hypocrisy! (A skeptic might say Jesus did indeed get measured out to him what he measured to others!) But unlike Jesus, and like the elders, I am a hypocrite. I preach but do not always practice. Who am I to call out others when I, like Isaiah, am a person of unclean lips as well?

Provision: PRAY for the Spirit’s guidance. When I complain about things I see as wrong in our world, or when I call out lies from our leaders, it tends to devolve into a personal attack. And while much of what is in Matthew 23 does sound like a personal attack on the elders, Jesus is also willing to engage them. He condemns their actions, but not who they are. Even though we humans are not saints and prophets (but remember, saints and prophets didn’t start that way), God still calls us to speak up, to act. Pray for guidance. Don’t use human weakness as an excuse for silence in the face of lies.
 

Tuesday, March 18: "[The scribes and the Pharisees’] works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues” (Mt 23:1-12).

A phylactery is a small leather box containing Jewish scripture. Orthodox Jewish men wear them on their foreheads as a symbol of keeping God’s word “top of mind.” Ostensibly, the wider the phylactery, the more pious the wearer, which in some cases may be very true. Jesus takes issue, though, with those who make a show of holiness but lack compassion in their hearts.

What would be the Christian equivalent today? In the Roman church, some like honoring the King with the pageantry of lace trains and tall miters. I cannot pretend to judge their hearts but also can’t help imagining Jesus running away as he did in John 6:15, not wanting to be made king! Those who preach the prosperity gospel could be examples too. Again, I don’t begrudge them their riches, if their God is still God, and they work for justice and give generously from their bounty. And yes, I must look each day at where I have made a show of something for my own ego and not for God.

Provision: ACT for the greater glory of God. Remember Jesus’ words on Ash Wednesday. Do good things for God that only God knows about. Don’t worry about who sees them or who gets the credit. Today, do something good in secret for someone or for some cause. God sees what you do and will reward you.
 

Wednesday, March 19: “For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift” (Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22). When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel had commanded him and took his wife into his home" (Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24).

Today, in the Catholic and some Protestant denominations, we celebrate the person and the faith of St. Joseph. We talked yesterday about acting quietly for the greater glory of God, and indeed, Joseph did just that. And, as we talked about Sunday, he surely did not take the easy road, one that was well within the law for him to do. But as we hear in Paul’s letter to the Romans, faith is not about the law. It is a gift given freely to us by God.

Provision: PRAY for the faith of Joseph. Joseph, like Mary, like the saints and the prophets on Monday, were human beings. The gift of faith they received is a gift available to each of us as well. If you are a person of faith, pray to St. Joseph for the courage to open that gift even further, aware that it may not lead you on the easiest of paths. If faith is still a concept for you or a gift you’ve not yet opened, pray that, like Joseph, you will listen closely for God’s call.
 

Thursday, March 20: “I am the Lord who probes the heart, testing the conscience and allotting to humans according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds” (Jer 17:5-10, Hebrew). “Remember that you received what was good… while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted, whereas you are tormented” (Lk 16:19-31).

The gospel today is the story of Lazarus and the rich man. For those of us blessed with plenty, it’s a “squirm in your seat” reading. But I take some solace in knowing God sees my heart. I believe I have good intentions, but we all know where that can lead: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It is the “fruit of my deeds,” “the measure with which I measure” that I will face in my heart and my conscience, for comfort or for torment, at the end of my earthly days.

Provision: GIVE from your heart. The world would be a far better place if people gave from their need to give, or even from their hope for personal salvation. But true giving comes from a loving heart. It is not the amount of money we give or the time we spend. If the source of our giving is an open and compassionate heart, the fruits of our deeds will be sweet and nourishing. Take time to examine today why you give. Is it out of obligation or guilt? See if you can soften your heart by looking into the eyes of those to whom you give. The fruit of that deed will be sweet for you, too.

Friday, March 21: Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons … When his brothers saw that their father loved him best … they hated him so much that they would not even greet him (Gn 37:3-4). “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.” They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him (Mt 21:38-39).

These readings are uncomfortable. They are about egoism, envy, jealousy, and revenge. Very human stories we see played out in the Bible many times. Stories we see played out in today’s news. It’s amazing how some people don’t see the parallels. In fact, even the word parallel doesn’t do it justice. I imagine the ancients we read about in Scripture would be horrified to see what we do today; it reminds me of what Jesus said a few weeks ago about the Queen of Sheba and the Ninevites judging the people of his generation! How would his generation look at us?!

Egoism: “It’s all about me. I am self-centered and uncaring.” Jealousy: “Don’t you dare take away or threaten what’s mine. I am selfish and suspicious.” Envy: “I covet what ‘they’ have. I am resentful, ungrateful, and scheming.” Revenge: “I’m going to make sure the ‘other’ gets what’s coming to them. I am hateful and unmerciful.” These are toxic emotions, sins that lead to terrible decisions, terrible acts, and terrible lives.

Provision: PRAY for those whose hearts are hard. Especially for yourself if you are in the grip of any of these painful emotions. Pay attention when these feelings arise. They are insidious and can creep up on any one of us. Pray too for God to soften the hearts of those in leadership positions whose fear, insecurity, or evil intent lead them to make bad decisions that impact thousands of lives.
 

Saturday, March 22: “Now the older son had been out in the field…he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants [who] said to him, 'Your brother has returned, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf’ …
He became angry, and he refused to enter the house” (Lk 15:1-3, 11-32).

Speaking of toxic emotions, let’s go ahead and add bitterness to the list! It’s one I’ve heard mentioned recently regarding US politics: people feeling bitterness towards those whose votes have put our current situation into motion. My bitterness is more towards leaders, on both sides of the aisle, who have failed, and are failing to fight to keep our democracy intact. But as is the case with the older son today, those who are bitter don’t get to feel joy.