Extending our Care and Concern

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine the role of our individual responsibility to be examples of faith, hope, and love in our community and ambassadors of Christ.

Responsibility and Faith

The Reading from the Prophet Ezekiel examines Personal Responsibility across Generations.

* [18:25] The LORD’s way is not fair: this chapter rejects the idea that punishment is transferred from one generation to the next and emphasizes individual responsibility and accountability. (Ezekiel, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 130 cries to God asking for mercy.

* [Psalm 130] This lament, a Penitential Psalm, is the De profundis used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed. In deep sorrow the psalmist cries to God (Ps 130:1–2), asking for mercy (Ps 130:3–4). The psalmist’s trust (Ps 130:5–6) becomes a model for the people (Ps 130:7–8). (Psalms, PSALM 130 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus extends the Teaching About Anger.

* [5:22–26] Reconciliation with an offended brother is urged in the admonition of Mt 5:23–24 and the parable of Mt 5:25–26 (//Lk 12:58–59). The severity of the judge in the parable is a warning of the fate of unrepentant sinners in the coming judgment by God.

* [5:22] Anger is the motive behind murder, as the insulting epithets are steps that may lead to it. They, as well as the deed, are all forbidden. Raqa: an Aramaic word rēqā’ or rēqâ probably meaning “imbecile,” “blockhead,” a term of abuse. The ascending order of punishment, judgment (by a local council?), trial before the Sanhedrin, condemnation to Gehenna, points to a higher degree of seriousness in each of the offenses. Sanhedrin: the highest judicial body of Judaism. Gehenna: in Hebrew gê-hinnōm, “Valley of Hinnom,” or gê ben-hinnōm, “Valley of the son of Hinnom,” southwest of Jerusalem, the center of an idolatrous cult during the monarchy in which children were offered in sacrifice (see 2 Kgs 23:10; Jer 7:31). In Jos 18:16 (Septuagint, Codex Vaticanus) the Hebrew is transliterated into Greek as gaienna, which appears in the New Testament as geenna. The concept of punishment of sinners by fire either after death or after the final judgment is found in Jewish apocalyptic literature (e.g., Enoch 90:26) but the name geenna is first given to the place of punishment in the New Testament. (Matthew, CHAPTER 5, n.d.)

Suzanne Braddock asks “How can I ever live up to what Jesus is asking of us?”

I ask myself do I have a grudge, an unwillingness to forgive? Do I harbor anger or resentment? Have my actions caused someone to feel this way toward me? Sure, sometimes how others feel is beyond my control, but if I can, I will approach anyone such as this with love, reconciliation, and prayer. Let them free up their soul space to allow Love to come in. Then you find you have freed up a bit of space in your own heart as well. Then you both enter the Kingdom. (Braddock, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “Are you ashamed to ask pardon?” by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"How many there are who know that they have sinned against their brothers or sisters and yet are unwilling to say: 'Forgive me.' They were not ashamed to sin, but they are ashamed to ask pardon. They were not ashamed of their evil act, but they blush where humility is concerned." (excerpt from Sermon 211,4) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler notes that Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon and addressed the justice of God  about evil and punishment and the consequences of turning from from good to evil. We don’t build up credits with God, who is just in His treatment of all people. The Pharisees wanted to widely interpret the Laws scrupulously but Jesus extends the Law in a spiritual way. How do we kill life and hope? We need to treat all with sacred dignity. The Gospel refers to the Temple dump as a kind of place of symbol for Hell.  Friar Jude underlines that Jesus' teaching requires us to treat all with the respect we treat the Tabernacle that contains the Presence just like all people who are children of God. 

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 5:20-26 notes that we offer to the Lord, not animals or grain, but our own lives. Jesus gathers these offerings and unites them to the sacrifice of his own Body and Blood as one offering to his Father. What if we were to offer Jesus our repentance for hurting someone—and our willingness to humbly reconcile with them? What if we offered our forgiveness of the people who have hurt us? Those would be precious gifts indeed!

Today ask the Spirit to show you if you are harboring resentment against anyone. If so, ask for the grace to forgive. If the offense is too big or your emotions are too strong, then offer your pain to the Lord. Try your best to surrender it into his hands and ask him to help you take the next step toward forgiveness. And if you have offended someone, try to apologize and reconcile with that person. Then, the next time you are at Mass, offer these “gifts” to Jesus. Come to the altar to receive the greatest gift of all—the Body and Blood of your Savior!

“Jesus, I offer you my heart of mercy!” (Meditation on Matthew 5:20-26, n.d.)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, invites us to take a journey of faith. It may be plagued by uncertainty, but we can trust in God’s presence along the way. We want certitude, but instead God asks us to have faith.

Our faith and our trust, then, are in God—not in our own cleverness, strategies, or planning, not in our status or money. In the desert, all our idols are taken away from us and our security is gone. The desert, the darkness, is the school of surrender, the place for learning total dependence on God. (Rohr, n.d.)

We ask the Spirit for guidance and consolation as we accept the invitation of God to explore our lives with the desert mentality that focuses our attention on our dependence on the Presence of God.

References

Braddock, S. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved February 27, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-february-27-2026 

Ezekiel, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved February 27, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/18?21 

Matthew, CHAPTER 5. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved February 27, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/5?20 

Meditation on Matthew 5:20-26. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved February 27, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/02/27/1509541/ 

Psalms, PSALM 130 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved February 27, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/130?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). How Do We Reach the Promised Land? Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 27, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/how-do-we-reach-the-promised-land/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Do Not Be Angry, Be Reconciled. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 27, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Patience Trust in Providence

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to embrace patience as we trust our prayers will resolve our needs in accord with God’s desire for our best life.

Care for Our Neighbours

The Reading from the Book of Esther 14.1, 3-5, 12-14 Prayer of Esther. 

The Greek version of the book dates from ca. 116 to 48 B.C. (see note on F:11). In the present translation, the Greek additions are indicated by the letters A through F. The regular chapter numbers apply to the Hebrew text.

The book may be divided as follows:

1. Prologue (A:1–17)

2. Esther Becomes Queen (1:1–2:23)

3. Haman’s Plot Against the Jews (3:1–13; B:1–7; 3:14–15)

4. Esther and Mordecai Plead for Help (4:1–17; C:1–D:16; 5:1–5) (Esther, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB, n.d.)

5. Haman’s Downfall (5:6–8:2)

6. The Jewish Victory and the Feast of Purim (8:3–12; E:1–24; 8:13–9:23)

7. Epilogue: The Rise of Mordecai (9:24–10:3; F:1–11)

The order of the Vulgate text in relation to the order of the Greek text is as follows:

Vulg. 11:2–12:6	=	A:1–17 at the beginning of the book.
13:1–7	=	B:1–7 after 3:13.
13:8—15:3–19	=	C:1–D:16 after 4:17.
15:1–2	=	B:8, 9 after 4:8.
16:1–24	=	E:1–24 after 8:12.
10:4–13	=	F:1–10 after 10:3. (Esther, THE BOOK OF ESTHER, n.d.)

Psalm 138 is a Thanksgiving to God, who came to the rescue of the psalmist. 

Esther* [Psalm 138] A thanksgiving to God, who came to the rescue of the psalmist. Divine rescue was not the result of the psalmist’s virtues but of God’s loving fidelity (Ps 138:1–3). The act is not a private transaction but a public act that stirs the surrounding nations to praise God’s greatness and care for the people (Ps 138:4–6). The psalmist, having experienced salvation, trusts that God will always be there in moments of danger (Ps 138:7–8). (Psalms, PSALM 138 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of Matthew proclaims The Answer to Prayers.

* [7:9–10] There is a resemblance between a stone and a round loaf of bread and between a serpent and the scaleless fish called barbut.

* [7:12] See Lk 6:31. This saying, known since the eighteenth century as the “Golden Rule,” is found i n both positive and negative form in pagan and Jewish sources, both earlier and later than the gospel. This is the law and the prophets is an addition probably due to the evangelist. (Matthew, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB, n.d.)

Nancy Shirley shares a focus on our relationship with God and the trust in that relationship.

Our prayers of hope, thanksgiving, desperation, and forgiveness are built upon that trust. It was 20 years ago this summer when I shared my aha moment in looking at the word trust. It was then that I realized the word itself was the key to understanding. It begins and ends with the cross (trust) and U is in the middle or US. Our relationship of trust is steeped in our Savior and His cross. We pray believing that our prayers will be answered, and at times lament that they are not. The truth is that they are always answered, we just don’t always like the answer…

Blessings – Laura Story

Perhaps this song conveys better, in less than five minutes, what I was trying to say in paragraphs!! (Shirley, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The gift of being good,” by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"He who has given us the gift of being gives us also the gift of being good. He gives to those who have turned back to Him. He even sought them out before they were converted and when they were far from his ways!" (Commentary on Psalm 103, 2) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler notes Esther is  a queen of Persia and is also Jewish. She is afraid to reach out to the king. She finally realizes that she has to pray to God for strength and the courage of a lion. God could work through her. In Matthew, we are encouraged to knock and ask to receive from our loving parent, God, who will give us the most loving thing possible. It is what we need and the love of God is to be seen in whatever we experience. Friar Jude comments on the widespread proclamation of the Golden Rule to treat others as ourselves with respect and fulfill the Law and the Prophets.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 7:7-12 comments that Everyone receives. Maybe in ways we don’t expect. Maybe in ways we cannot perceive. Maybe in ways we will experience only in heaven. But our heavenly Father hears every prayer we offer. He hears the cries of our hearts. And he gives us the grace we need, the wisdom we need, or the courage or hope or correction or refocus that we need. Sometimes, he even gives us the silence that we need so that we will continue to grapple with our feelings and come to a better grasp of his calling and direction for us.

Jesus promises that God will “give good things to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11). He is faithful. He is loving. He is just. He is kind and merciful. Hold onto those truths, no matter what you are dealing with. Grasp them tightly. Inscribe them in your memory. Write them on a piece of paper, and keep it in your pocket as a reminder. Give yourself the gift of time, and ask the Lord to give you the gift of patience. He won’t fail you. Make this your prayer, day and night:

“The Lord will complete what he has done for me; your kindness, O Lord, endures forever; forsake not the work of your hands” (Psalm 138:8). (Meditation on Matthew 7:7-12, n.d.)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that  the concept of “nepantla” comes from the indigenous Nahuatl people of central Mexico and nearby regions. It captures a sense of being transformed in and by the wilderness. Spiritual teacher Liza Rankow finds encouragement in the wisdom it offers.

Gloria Anzaldúa wrote about the richly nuanced Nahuatl concept of napantla. She referred to it as a state of in-between-ness, a liminal space where multiple realities simultaneously exist, and transformation can occur. Napantla relates to both our individual journeys and our collective ones….

Nepantla encourages us to embrace the in-between for all we can learn and become in the process:

Wilderness times, like those of napantla, are painful and difficult, and most of us want to get out of them as quickly as we can. Yet to shortchange the process is to pry open a cocoon prematurely because we want the butterfly. All we’re going to find in there is goop, or a half-formed bug body with tiny useless wings. The question is not what we need in order to get out of this wilderness, but rather, what do we need to inhabit the wilderness—for as long as it takes to complete our transition, our metamorphosis. You see, the wilderness is a season not a location. And like the healing of wounds, or the becoming of a butterfly, the wilderness journey is a process, not an event.

In the culture of “life hacks” and instant gratification, the idea of tarrying in the arduous in-between of spiritual wrestling may seem entirely unappealing. It’s so tempting to want to bypass the wilderness and hurry on to the promised land. However, these experiences of formation and transformation are essential, lest we try to enter the new world with the same consciousness that created the old one. 

Wildernesses are crucibles where we become the people who can live into new lands of promise and liberation. (Rohr, n.d.)

We petition God for many needs for ourselves and others and we seek the inspiration to trust that the response of Providence to our Prayer is what we need at the time.

References

Esther, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/esther/4 

Esther, THE BOOK OF ESTHER. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/esther/0 

Matthew, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/7?7 

Meditation on Matthew 7:7-12. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/02/26/1509007/ 

Psalms, PSALM 138 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/138?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-time-for-growth/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Ask and You Will Receive from Your Father in Heaven. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Shirley, N. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved February 26, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-february-26-2026