Commandments and Community

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine the sincerity of our conversion and our commitment to full life in our community.

Community Care

The Reading from the Prophet Hosea exhorts us to Sincere Conversion and New Life.

* [14:1] Samaria: the capital of the Northern Kingdom will fall; this is the punishment predicted for Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom.

* [14:4] These good intentions promise a reversal of Israel’s sins: no more reliance on “Assyria,” i.e., on foreign alliances (see notes on 8:9 and 12:2), on “horses,” i.e., on human power (10:13), and on idolatry (8:4–6; 13:2). Israel will trust in the Lord alone.

* [14:9] Verdant cypress tree: the symbol of lasting life, the opposite of the sacred trees of the Baal cult (4:13). The Lord provides the “fruit” (peri) to Israel (2:7, 10), another instance of the wordplay on Ephraim (see notes on 9:16 and 13:15).

* [14:10] A challenge to the reader in the style of the wisdom literature. (Hosea, CHAPTER 14 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 81 tells how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt.

* [Psalm 81] At a pilgrimage feast, probably harvest in the fall, the people assemble in the Temple in accord with the Sinai ordinances (Ps 81:2–6). They hear a divine word (mediated by a Temple speaker) telling how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Ps 81:7–9), gave them the fundamental commandment of fidelity (Ps 81:9–11), which would bring punishment if they refused to obey (Ps 81:12–13). But if Israel repents, God will be with them once again, bestowing protection and fertility (Ps 81:14–16). (Psalms, PSALM 81 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus teaches The Greatest Commandment.

* [12:13–34] In the ensuing conflicts (cf. also Mk 2:1–3:6) Jesus vanquishes his adversaries by his responses to their questions and reduces them to silence (Mk 12:34). (Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)

Barbara Dilly comments that repentance is not so much about confession of guilt as it is drawing closer to God to better hear God’s voice. 

It is not about me trying so hard. It is about me letting the Lord be my God. That should be a joyful spiritual discipline, not a burden.

Jesus reminds us of what we need to hear. We must love the Lord our God with all our hearts, our understanding, and our strength. And we must love our neighbors as ourselves. I pray today that when we are called to repent, we can see this as an invitation to enter into joy, for the Kingdom of heaven is indeed at hand when we love the Lord, ourselves, and our neighbors. (Dilly, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The fire of God's love,” by Augustine of Hippo,354-430 A.D.

"Gravity keeps everything in its own place. Fire climbs up, while a stone goes down. Elements that are not in their own place are restless until they find it. This applies also to us. My weight is my love; wherever I go, I am driven by it. By the love of God we catch fire ourselves and, by moving up, find our place and our rest." (excerpt from Confessions 13,9) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler notes that Hosea speaks of return to the Lord and not putting trust in the Assyrians and idols. What more do the Israelites have to do with idols? God wants what is good for them. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells the scribe the Shema Israel is the first commandment. Friar Jude explains the key areas of love of God: the heart; where in Jesus' time, was where you thought; soul indicating to love God in persecution; mind is love through conscience; and strength is using your physical possessions to love God. Jesus affirms that the scribe realizes the truth places him close to the Kingdom. 

The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 12:28-34 comments that our love for God is not meant to be static or theoretical. Our relationship with him should be the foundation for everything else in our lives. It should bear fruit in the way we treat everyone created in God’s image and likeness. In fact, the whole Law provides specific direction on how to live out our love for him, especially in the way in which we relate to other people. And so Jesus adds this second commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

So often we want Jesus to give us some new way to become holy. We want a fresh spirituality or a challenging mission. But you can love God and your neighbor right where you are now. You can honor the image and likeness of God in the person right in front of you. You can take care of the most vulnerable of his children. You can show mercy just as he does. It’s simple, and it’s “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33).

“Jesus, I long to grow in love for you and to show that love to every one of your children who crosses my path.” (Meditation on Mark 12:28-34, n.d.)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, describes how moving beyond an emphasis on personal sin allows us to focus on larger forces at play that create systemic harm.

If we are honest and perceptive, we surely see that actual evil often seems to “dominate the very air” (a phrase found in Pauline texts such as Ephesians 2:2) and is more the norm than the exception. In fact, evil is often culturally agreed-upon, admired, and deemed necessary, as is normally the case when a country goes to war, spends most of its budget on armaments, admires luxuries over necessities, entertains itself to death, or pollutes its own common water and air. Evil seems to be corporate, admired, and deemed necessary before it becomes personal and shameable.

Sin and evil must be more than personal or private matters. Convicting people of individual faults does not change the world. I believe the apostle Paul taught that both sin and salvation are, first of all, corporate realities. Yet, we largely missed that essential point, and thus found ourselves in the tight grip of monstrous evils in Christian nations, all the way down to the modern era. (Rohr, n.d.)

We implore the Spirit to awaken our understanding of the error of transactional relationships with God and people that impede our need for conversion to full life relationships modelled by Jesus' total sacrificial love.

References

Dilly, B. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-march-13-2026 

Hosea, CHAPTER 14 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hosea/14?2 

Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/12?28 

Meditation on Mark 12:28-34. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/03/13/1518061/ 

Psalms, PSALM 81 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/81?6 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/collective-sin-and-evil/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). You Are Not Far from the Kingdom of God. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Help with Hardness of Heart

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge our understanding of the origin and effect of sin as an interruption in the fullness of life God desires for us.

Hope over Hardness

The Reading from the Book of Jeremiah outlines Abuses in Worship.

o. [7:23] Jer 11:4; Lv 26:3, 12.

p. [7:24] Jer 17:23.

q. [7:25] 2 Chr 36:15–16; Bar 1:19.

r. [7:26] Jer 19:15; 2 Chr 30:8. (Jeremiah, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 95 calls the people to praise and worship God. 

* [Psalm 95] Twice the Psalm calls the people to praise and worship God (Ps 95:1–2, 6), the king of all creatures (Ps 95:3–5) and shepherd of the flock (Ps 95:7a, 7b). The last strophe warns the pe ople to be more faithful than were their ancestors in the journey to the promised land (Ps 95:7c–11). This invitation to praise God regularly opens the Church’s official prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours. (Psalms, PSALM 95 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of Luke contrasts Jesus and Beelzebul. 

* [11:19] Your own people: the Greek reads “your sons.” Other Jewish exorcists (see Acts 19:13–20), who recognize that the power of God is active in the exorcism, would themselves convict the accusers of Jesus. See also note on Mt 12:27.

* [11:22] One stronger: i.e., Jesus. Cf. Lk 3:16 where John the Baptist identifies Jesus as “mightier than I.” (Luke, CHAPTER 11 | USCCB, n.d.)

David Crawford comments that we are all subject to moments when our hearts are hardened, our minds are closed.

Hardening of the heart does not have to be a permanent condition. As we read in the verse from Joel, our gracious and merciful God invites each one of us, even in our most obstinate, selfish, self-important, judgmental, and difficult states, to return to Him, to bring a whole heart ready to be opened and receptive to God’s direction. You can take comfort in the words God spoke to Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). God wants to do that for us because He loves us.

Loving God, lead us away from the temptations that harden our hearts. Give us hearts that please you. Open our minds so that we hear your voice and follow you. Amen. (Crawford, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “God's help for our complete conversion,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"When we transform our old life and give our spirit a new image, we find it very hard and tiring to turn back from the darkness of earthly passions to the serene calm of the divine light. We must ask God to help us that a complete conversion may be brought about in us." (excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 6,5) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler notes that Jeremiah was bringing the Word to Israel through his prophecy.  But the people were stiff necked and they would be punished as the Babylonian army is the about to carry them to captivity.  Jesus addresses the illogic of casting demons out by Beelzebul. The origin of the Beelzebul name and connection to “Lord of the Flies”, the prince of the demons, is assigned to Jesus who asserts that a divided kingdom will not stand. Friar Jude compares Jesus' statement of whoever is not with me is against me with an example of truth ( see Mk 9:40.) in the “middle” of Gospel sayings.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Jeremiah 7:23-28 invites us to pause and consider that word “untiringly” (Jeremiah 7:25). God never grows impatient or exasperated. Whether it’s over centuries of his people’s wavering faithfulness or over the course of a day as we stumble in and out of sin, he is always ready to rescue us.

Even better? You can overcome this cycle—and not by achieving some impossible level of perfection! In Jesus, God himself has entered our world and broken the age-old pattern of sin and liberation followed again by sin. Like Moses bringing the people through the Red Sea, Jesus has carried you through the waters of Baptism. He washed you clean from sin and rescued you from the power of death. And most wonderful, he filled you with his own Spirit, who can transform you over time so that sin doesn’t have the same hold on you.

So rejoice today! You have become a new creation. The old futile cycle of sin has been broken. Forever.

Thank you, Jesus, for revealing the Father’s untiring love and for rescuing me once and for all! (Meditation on Jeremiah 7:23-28, n.d.)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Author Danielle Shroyer who shares how the Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek frequently define sin as “missing the mark”. In Scripture, sin is often described as an error or mistake, not a condition of our being:

The Bible talks about sin as something that ought to be called out, but not something that ought to be condemning to the point of shame…. Sin is an action, a choice, or if we’ve made a number of them in a row, a path or a habit. There is nothing irreversible or determinate about it. Sin is not a state of being. It is a way of being in the world that is always and every moment in flux, based on our choices. It’s a growth mindset, not a fixed one.

To put this another way, there is a difference between having fallen and being fallen. Sin (hamartia, hatta) means that we have fallen. It doesn’t mean  are fallen. We may be in flux depending on our last action and our next intention, but we aren’t simply tossed around on the waves of our own competence. We reside in the boat of blessed grace, which holds us steady even as we falter and sway from day to day. We may have fallen, but we can get up. (Rohr, n.d.)

We implore the Spirit to guide our journey to avoid the “hardness of heart” that opposes our openness to seek forgiveness and communion in the environment in which He invites us to be “with Him”.

References

Crawford, D. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved March 12, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-march-12-2026 

Jeremiah, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 12, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/7?23 

Luke, CHAPTER 11 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 12, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/11?14 

Meditation on Jeremiah 7:23-28. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved March 12, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/03/12/1517497/ 

Psalms, PSALM 95 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 12, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/95?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC.org. Retrieved March 12, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/missing-the-mark/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). God's Kingdom Has Come upon You. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 12, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/