March 11, 2025
Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Lectionary: 225
Reading 1
Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19
R. (18b) From all their distress God rescues
the just.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Verse Before the Gospel
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
"In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
"This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
"If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031125.cf
Commentary on
Isaiah 55:10-11
This short reading comes from the last chapter of the second
part of Isaiah, known as Second Isaiah (chaps 40-55). It is also known as the
‘Book of Consolation’ because it speaks with hope and encouragement of the
approaching end of the Jewish exile in Babylon, in contrast to earlier
prophecies which rather emphasised the punishments which Israel had merited by
her infidelities.
We are reminded that God has his plans for the world and
that they will not be frustrated. Those plans are not arbitrary. They are for
the well-being of all creation. He is the loving Father to whom we pray with
confidence, described in the Gospel reading about the Lord’s Prayer.
The prophet expresses these ideas in language that is truly
poetic. The inevitability of God’s Word being realised is like that of the
gentle rain that makes the earth fertile and fruitful, and so produces the seed
that provides the bread on which we live:
…so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
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Commentary on
Matthew 6:7-15
Jesus tells us here not to babble endless prayers as if
somehow by so doing we can bring God round to our way of thinking (see also
Elijah and the priests of Baal: 1 Kgs 18:25-29). Some religious groups, too,
would keep calling their god by all his different names, hoping that by hitting
on the right one he would listen. There is no need to do this because God knows
our needs before we ask. Why then do we need to pray at all?
The praying is not for God’s sake, but for our own. It is
important for us to become deeply aware of our needs, of our basic
helplessness, and of our total dependence on God. We also need to discern just
what God wants of us so that we can do what he wants.
And that is what the Lord’s Prayer is about. Strictly
speaking, it is not a prayer to be recited. It is a way of praying; it is a
list of the things we need to pray about. And it is less our telling God what
we want him to do than making ourselves aware of the ways by which we can
become more united with him. It is a very challenging prayer and, in a way, a
very dangerous and daring prayer to make.
Our Father…
God is the source of all our life and all we have and are. And, if Jesus urges
us to approach God as “Our Father”*, then every single
person, each one without exception, is my brother or sister.
May your name be revered as holy…may your kingdom
come…may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…
The three petitions are all really saying the same thing. Obviously, in one
sense we cannot make God’s name more holy than it is. But we do need to respect
that awesome holiness, and that is more for our sake than God’s. The petition
can also be a petition that God make his name holy by showing his glory, in
this case by bringing about the Kingdom in its fullness.
We want God to be loved and respected and worshipped by
all—not in some future life, but here and now on earth. We want the
loving and compassionate Reign of God to be fully accepted by people everywhere
as part of their lives, individually and corporately. We want God’s will for
this world to be also the will of people everywhere.
Clearly, all this has to begin with ourselves. The coming of
the Kingdom is not just the work of God alone; it is the result of our
cooperating with him in the work. What am I doing in my life now for the
realisation of that Kingdom?
Give us today our daily bread…
This is a prayer that our needs be satisfied for today, a prayer that rules out
excessive anxiety about the future. But how are those needs to be satisfied? Do
we expect manna to drop from the skies? And what about that little word ‘our’
again? Does it just mean me, my family, our community, our town, our country—or
much more? Is this not a prayer that we all work together to ensure that no one
goes hungry? Yet we know that millions do go to bed hungry every night and even
more suffer from an unhealthy diet. And we recognize that most of it is the
result of human behaviour and neglect. This prayer reminds us that changing
that situation is the responsibility of all of us—this is another dangerous
prayer.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors…
Yet again, we have a dangerous thing to pray for. I really should not say it
unless I am ready to do it. And if I am not ready, I need to pray hard for a
forgiving heart. This is the only petition which is spelled out more clearly at
the end of today’s Gospel passage:
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you…
(also see Matt 18:21-35 about the unforgiving servant)
And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us
from the evil one…
A final plea that we will not fail, but that God’s help will be with us all the
way. It is an admission of our basic impotence to set things right in our own
lives and in the world. Given the challenges of the rest of the prayer, we need
all the help we can get.
If this prayer were to really enter our hearts and minds, we
would become deeply transformed people. So let us stop babbling it as we often
do and really pray it, phrase by phrase—and let us live it as well.
________________________________________________
*As discussed in the Catechism, “God transcends the human
distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also
transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and
standard: no one is father as God is Father.” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 239)
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/l1013g/
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Season of Lent
Opening Prayer
Lord God,
You speak Your mighty word to us, but we cannot hear it
unless it stirs our lives
and is spoken in human terms.
Keep speaking Your word to us, Lord, and open our hearts to
it,
that it may bear fruit in us
when we do Your will
and carry out what we are sent to do.
We ask You this through Your living Word, Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Gospel Reading -
Matthew 6: 7-15
Jesus said to his disciples: "In praying, do not babble
like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
"This is how you are to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and
forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. "If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither
will your Father forgive your transgressions."
Reflection
There are two versions of the Our Father: Luke (Lk 11: 1-4)
and Matthew (Mt 6: 7-13). In Luke, the Our Father is shorter. Luke writes for
the communities which came from Paganism. In Matthew the Our Father is found in
the Discourse on the Mountain, in the part where Jesus orientates the disciples
in the practice of the three works of piety: alms (Mt 6: 1-4), prayer (Mt 6:
5-15) and fasting (Mt 6: 16-
18). The Our Father forms part of a catechesis for the converted Jews. They were accustomed
to pray, but had some vices which Matthew tries to correct.
• Matthew 6: 7-8: The
faults to be corrected. Jesus criticizes the people for whom prayer was a repetition of a magic formula, strong
words addressed to God to oblige Him to respond to our needs. The acceptance of
our prayer by God does not depend on the repetition of words, but on God’s
goodness, on God who is love and mercy. He wants our good and knows our needs
even before we pray to Him.
• Matthew 6: 9a: The
first words: Our Father, Abba Father, is the name which Jesus uses to address Himself to God. It reveals the new
relationship with God that should characterize the life of the communities (Ga
4: 6; Rm 8: 15). We say Our Father and
not My Father. The adjective places the accent on the awareness or knowledge that we all belong to the great human family of all races and creeds. To pray to the Father is
to enter in intimacy with Him. It also means to be sensitive to the cry of all
the brothers and sisters who cry for their daily bread.
It means to seek
in the first
place the Kingdom of
God. The experience of God as our
Father is the foundation of universal fraternity.
• Matthew 6: 9b-10:
Three requests for the cause of God: The Name, the Kingdom, the Will. In the
first part we ask that our relationship with God may be re-established
again. To sanctify His name: The name
JAHVE means I am with you! God knows. In this name He makes Himself known (Ex
3: 11-15). The name of God is sanctified when it is used with faith and not with magic; when it
is used according to its true objective, not for oppression but for the liberty
or freedom of the people and for the construction of the Kingdom. The coming of the Kingdom: The
only Lord and King of life is God (Is 45: 21; 46: 9). The coming of the Kingdom
is the fulfillment of all the hopes and promises. It is life in plenitude, the overcoming of
frustration suffered with human kings and governments. This Kingdom will come
when the Will of God will be fully, accomplished. To do His will: The will of
God is expressed in His Law. His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. In
Heaven the sun and the stars obey the laws of their orbit and create the order
of the universe (Is 48: 12-13). The observance of the law of God will be a
source of order and well-being for human
life.
• Matthew 6: 11-13:
Four petitions for the cause of the brothers: Bread, Pardon, Victory,
Liberty. In the
second part of
the Our Father
we ask that
the relationship among persons may be
restored. The four
requests show how necessary
it is to transform or change the structures of the community and society in order that all the sons and daughters of
God may have the same dignity. The daily bread. In Exodus the people received
the manna in the desert every day (Ex
16: 35). Divine Providence passed through the fraternal organization, the
sharing. Jesus invites us to live a new Exodus, a new fraternal way of living together which will guarantee the daily
bread for all (Mt 6: 34-44; Jo 6: 48-51). Forgive us our debts: Every 50 years, the Jubilee Year obliged people to
forgive their debts. It was
a new beginning
(Lv 25: 8-55). Jesus announces a new Jubilee Year, a
year of grace from the Lord (Lk 4: 19).
The Gospel wants to begin everything anew! Do not lead us into temptation, do not put us to the
test: In Exodus, people were tempted and fell (Dt 9: 6-12). The
people complained and wanted to go back (Ex 16: 3; 17: 3).
In the new Exodus, the temptation will be overcome by the strength which people
receive from God (I Co 10: 12-13). Deliver us from evil: The Evil One is Satan,
who draws away from God and is a cause of scandal. He succeeds in entering in
Peter (Mt 16: 23) and to tempt Jesus
in the desert. Jesus
overcomes him (Mt 4: 1-11).
He tells us:
Courage, I have conquered the world! (Jn 16: 33).
• Matthew 6: 14-15:
Anyone who does not forgive will not be forgiven. In praying the Our Father, we
pronounce the phrase which condemns us or absolves us. We say: Forgive our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass us (Mt 6: 12). We offer God the
measure of pardon that we want. If we forgive very much, He will forgive us very
much. If we forgive little, He will forgive
little. If we do not forgive, He will not forgive us.
Personal Questions
• Jesus prayer says forgive
our debts. In some countries it is translated as forgive our offenses. What is
easier to forgive, the offenses or to forgive the debts?
• Christian nations
of the Northern Hemisphere (Europe and USA) pray everyday: Forgive our debts as
we forgive those who are in debt to us! But they do not forgive the external
debt of poor countries of the Third World. How can we explain this terrible
contradiction, source of impoverishment of
millions of people?
• Debt, in the
context of society, is not only money. In fact, in referring to people who have
served time in jail we say “they have paid their debt to society.” Do we accept
these people back into society? Not only have they paid their “debt,” they are
often treated as having not been forgiven.
• How do we forgive
others in terms of immigration, documented or not, and accept them into our
communities?
Concluding Prayer
Proclaim with me the greatness of Yahweh, let us acclaim His name together.
I seek Yahweh and He answers me, frees me from all my fears.
(Ps 34: 3-4)
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