Judgement, Persecution and Destruction

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today recall the Destruction and Disaster of Biblical Wars in contrast with Jesus' love and compassion.

Upend notions of retributive justice

The Reading from the Book of Daniel describes The Seventy Weeks of Years.

* [9:2] Seventy years: Jeremiah was understood to prophesy a Babylonian captivity of seventy years, a round number signifying the complete passing away of the existing generation (Jer 25:11; 29:10). On this view Jeremiah’s prophecy was seen to be fulfilled in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus and the subsequent return of the Jews to Palestine. However, the author of Daniel, living during the persecution of Antiochus, extends Jeremiah’s number to seventy weeks of years (Dn 9:24), i.e., seven times seventy years, to encompass the period of Seleucid persecution. (Daniel, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 79 laments the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 587 B.C.

* [Psalm 79] A communal lament complaining that the nations have defiled the Temple and murdered the holy people, leaving their corpses unburied (Ps 79:1–4). The occasion is probably the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 587 B.C. The people ask how long the withdrawal of divine  favor will last (Ps 79:5), pray for action now (Ps 79:6–7), and admit that their own sins have brought about the catastrophe (Ps 79:8–9). They seek to persuade God to act for reasons of honor: the nations who do not call upon the Name are running amok (Ps 79:6); the divine honor is compromised (Ps 79:1, 10, 12); God’s own servants suffer (Ps 79:2–4, 11). (Psalms, PSALM 79 | USCCB, n.d.)

The “Sermon on the Plain” in the Gospel of Luke exhorts us to avoid Judging Others.

* [6:20–49] Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” is the counterpart to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Mt 5:1–7:27). It is addressed to the disciples of Jesus, and, like the sermon in Matthew, it begins with beatitudes (Lk 6:20–22) and ends with the parable of the two houses (Lk 6:46–49). Almost all the words of Jesus reported by Luke are found in Matthew’s version, but because Matthew includes sayings that were related to specifically Jewish Christian problems (e.g., Mt 5:17–20; 6:1–8, 16–18) that Luke did not find appropriate for his predominantly Gentile Christian audience, the “Sermon on the Mount” is considerably longer. Luke’s sermon may be outlined as follows: an introduction consisting of blessings and woes (Lk 6:20–26); the love of one’s enemies (Lk 6:27–36); the demands of loving one’s neighbor (Lk 6:37–42); good deeds as proof of one’s goodness (Lk 6:43–45); a parable illustrating the result of listening to and acting on the words of Jesus (Lk 6:46–49). At the core of the sermon is Jesus’ teaching on the love of one’s enemies (Lk 6:27–36) that has as its source of motivation God’s graciousness and compassion for all humanity (Lk 6:35–36) and Jesus’ teaching on the love of one’s neighbor (Lk 6:37–42) that is characterized by forgiveness and generosity. (Luke, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB, n.d.)

Rev. Elvin Cardoso, SJ, comments that forgiving small hurts may seem manageable, like a harsh word from a spouse, an embarrassing moment at work, or a misunderstanding among friends. But what about deeper wounds?

“Stop judging… stop condemning… forgive and you will be forgiven” (Lk 6:37). These words feel counterintuitive in a world driven by retaliation and fear. But spiritually, we know the truth: we all miss the mark. We all depend daily on forgiveness. And God never withholds it. Divine love always precedes our efforts; it is the source from which our mercy flows. The mercy we receive is universal, constant, and unconditional. If we are created in God’s likeness, then such mercy is deeply rooted within us to be shown to others as well.

The message of the readings today, then, is this revelation: we are loved beyond measure. From that overflowing love, we are empowered to love and forgive beyond what seems humanly possible. To be merciful as the Father is merciful is our challenge, our calling, and our hope—not just for today or during Lent, but to be practiced every day. (Cardoso, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes The Practice of Mercy, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"The practice of mercy is twofold: when vengeance is sacrificed and when compassion is shown. The Lord included both of these in his brief sentence: 'Forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you.' This work has the effect of purifying the heart, so that, even under the limitations of this life, we are enabled with pure mind to see the immutable reality of God. There is something holding us back, which has to be loosed so that our sight may break through to the light. In connection with this the Lord said, 'Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you.' Therefore the next and sixth step is that cleansing of the heart." (excerpt from Letter 171A.2) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that Daniel offers a penitential prayer for the suffering of those who have sinned but now he seeks “hesed”, covenant love and “emet” faithfulness as characteristics of God in Hebrew faith. Punishment is meant to be therapeutic, calling us back and we can't do it on our own. Rejecting judging means we cannot judge people as evil but as broken. We can give of ourselves in forgiveness and we are free of the burden of rancour on our hearts. Friar Jude notes that God fills our heart with the overflowing love and our ability to accept or reject God's Love increases or decreases with our choice to act with love or retribution.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 6:36-38 comments that Jesus warns us, “The measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” (Luke 6:38). He would much rather have us treat one another with mercy, even to the point where he promises, “Forgive and you will be forgiven” (6:37).

Above all, think about the way he forgave those who condemned him to death, those who nailed his hands and feet to the cross, and those who stood by and jeered and taunted him while he hung there (Luke 23:34). Jesus’ persecutors were acting cruelly, no doubt, but they were blinded by their ignorance and their inability to see in Jesus the mercy that could set them free. And so many times, this is true of us—we condemn because we cannot see. We cannot see the whole person we are condemning, and we cannot see the image of God in them. May the Lord open our eyes and teach us to see through his eyes of mercy!

“Jesus, teach me to be merciful as you are merciful!” (Meditation on Luke 6:36-38, n.d.)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, considers how God used the prophets to upend notions of retributive justice, which prevail in most cultures to this day.

By his final verses, Amos sees God as more merciful and more compassionate, even as he continues to lament Israel’s foolishness and failures:

That day I will re-erect the tottering hut of David,

Make good the gaps in it,

Restore the ancient ruins,

And rebuild its ancient ruins (Amos 9:11).

Amos is inaugurating a revolution in our understanding of how divine love operates among us. This is no longer retribution or punishment, but a full reordering. It is such divine extravagance, a philosophy of “love them into loving me back”, that sets the pattern for all the prophets to follow. He represents a strong and clear movement away from retribution and punishment to what will become a new covenant of restorative justice that we see worked out in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and, of course, in the life of Jesus. This changes everything, or at least it should. (Rohr, n.d.)

We implore the Spirit, in a world driven by retaliation and fear, to guide us in expressing a philosophy of “love them into loving me back” as we advocate for peace and reconciliation for all people through our observance of Lent and Ramadan.

References

Cardoso, E. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved March 2, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-march-2-2026 

Daniel, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 2, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/daniel/9?4 

Luke, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 2, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/6?36 

Meditation on Luke 6:36-38. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved March 2, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/03/02/1511131/ 

Psalms, PSALM 79 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 2, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/79?8 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. A Prophet’s Call for Justice. Retrieved March 2, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-prophets-call-for-justice/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Be Merciful as Your Father Is Merciful. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 2, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Faith and Truth

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine our tendency to have “our version of the truth” to limit our exploration of the Way we are invited to follow by Jesus.

Faith and Family

The Reading from  1 Maccabees 6.1-13 relates the death of the Seleucid king, Antiochus.

a. [6:1–13] 2 Mc 1:13–17; 9:1–29; Dn 11:40–45. (1 Maccabees, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 9 states loosely connected themes: the rescue of the helpless poor from their enemies, and God’s worldwide judgment and rule over the nations.

* [Psalms 9–10] Ps 9 and Ps 10 in the Hebrew text have been transmitted as separate poems but they actually form a single acrostic poem and are so transmitted in the Greek and Latin tradition. Each verse of the two Psalms begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet (though several letters have no corresponding stanza). The Psalm states loosely connected themes: the rescue of the helpless poor from their enemies, God’s worldwide judgment and rule over the nations, the psalmist’s own concern for rescue (Ps 9:14–15). (Psalms, PSALM 9 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus responds to the Question About the Resurrection.

* [20:28–33] The Sadducees’ question, based on the law of levirate marriage recorded in Dt 25:5–10, ridicules the idea of the resurrection. Jesus rejects their naive understanding of the resurrection (Lk 20:35–36) and then argues on behalf of the resurrection of the dead on the basis of the written law (Lk 20:37–38) that the Sadducees accept. See also notes on Mt 22:23–33.

* [20:36] Because they are the ones who will rise: literally, “being sons of the resurrection.” (Luke, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB, n.d.)

Eileen Wirth notes that today Jesus asks us to consider if we are asking the right questions so that our concerns align more closely with God’s.

When I picture God judging me, I hope he doesn’t nail me for all my garden variety faults. Yes, I gossiped. Yes, I lost my temper etc.

I HOPE God will be concerned with things that Ignatian spirituality asks us to focus on like whether we have tried to be men and women for and with others or tried to change the world for the good. (Wirth, 2025)

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus cites Moses to affirm the resurrection,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)

"The Savior also demonstrated the great ignorance of the Sadducees by bringing forward their own leader Moses, who was clearly acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. He set God before us saying in the bush, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob' (Exodus 3:6). Of whom is he God, if, according to their argument, these have ceased to live? He is the God of the living. They certainly will rise when his almighty right hand brings them and all that are on the earth there. For people not to believe that this will happen is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the Sadducees, but it is altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. We believe in him who says, 'I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11:25). He will raise the dead suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the last trumpet. It shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:52). For Christ our common Savior will transfer us into incorruption, glory and to an incorruptible life."(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 136) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 20:27-40 comments that the One who fills our hearts and guides our lives here on earth will not condemn us to a life of eternal boredom or reluctant celibacy. No, heaven will be the “fulfillment of the deepest human longings” in ways we don’t yet fully understand (Catechism, 1024).

It’s not exactly clear how our loved ones fit into the picture, but we can be confident that all our relationships will be perfected. We will know nothing but joy and perfect unity among all the redeemed. For now, all Jesus wants is that we trust in his promises and fix our hope on the glory to come.

“Lord, I long for the day when I will be with you forever!” (Meditation on Luke 20:27-40, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler recalls how Seleucid king Antiochus persecuted the Jews, retreats to Babylon, confesses that he is being punished and then dies. This probably is not actually biographical, but fictional, to teach that God will protect his people. Some Sadducees, who only accept the Pentateuch as the Bible, try to trap Jesus. Jesus rejects the premise of the problem of the widow. We rise like angels without exclusive love and human traps. Jesus reminds the Sadducees of Moses' encounter with “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” as proclaimed in the Pentateuch. Friar Jude notes their response to Jesus “You have answered well” as appreciating Jesus' cleverness.

Fr. Mike Schmitz discusses the ministry of the apostles and encourages us to allow God to work in our lives in the same way. He also reminds us that through Baptism, we are set free from our fallen human nature and given the freedom to live according to the spirit. Today’s readings are from Acts 5, Romans 8, and Proverbs 27:7-9.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, Introduces Pastor Molly Baskette who urges us to let go of rigid binaries in our thinking. All claims to the contrary, Jesus did not preach from a place of rigid binaries and judgments but from a place of continual becoming.

The churches I’ve served strive to follow Jesus in this “third way”: neither returning evil for evil nor caving in to it. Our God does not hate all the same people we do, nor does our God particularly want us to be rich or admired. Our faith, frail as it is sometimes, is also flexible. It is self-correcting as we have profound encounters with people who are different from us and are exposed to new experiences and ideas. If we are willing to be humble, we can continuously root out our own biases, the weeds of white supremacy that are deeply seeded into the soil of our culture, religion, and country.  

Staying in the liminal place of holy uncertainty is deeply uncomfortable. But certainty in the life of faith doesn’t serve us well. (Rohr, n.d.)

We seek the Wisdom of the Spirit to consider what might be beyond the simple binaries that we accept and Jesus rejects.

References

Luke, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/20?27 

Meditation on Luke 20:27-40. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/11/22/1433216/ 

1 Maccabees, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1maccabees/6?1 

Psalms, PSALM 9 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/9?2 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Recognising our Bias. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/recognizing-our-biases-weekly-summary/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). All Live to Him. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Wirth, E. (2025, November 22). Daily Reflection November 22, 2025 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved November 22, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-november-22-2025