FEBRUARY 27, 2026: FRIDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

 February 27, 2026

Friday of the First Week of Lent

Lectionary: 228

 

Reading 1

Ezekiel 18:21-28

Thus says the Lord GOD:
If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, 
if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just,
he shall surely live, he shall not die. 
None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him;
he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced. 
Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked?
says the Lord GOD. 
Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way
that he may live?

And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil,
the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does,
can he do this and still live?
None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered,
because he has broken faith and committed sin;
because of this, he shall die. 
You say, "The LORD's way is not fair!" 
Hear now, house of Israel:
Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?
When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies,
it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if the wicked, turning from the wickedness he has committed,
does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, 
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8

R. (3) If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered. 
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the LORD
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
Let Israel wait for the LORD.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
 

Verse Before the Gospel

Ezekiel 18:31

Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the LORD,
And make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
 

Gospel

Matthew 5:20-26

Jesus said to his disciples: 
"I tell you, 
unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, 
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."
 

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022726.cfm

 

 

Commentary on Ezekiel 18:21-28

The prophet Ezekiel today makes a double point. On the one hand, if the man who has done evil genuinely repents of what he has done, he will be totally forgiven:

None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them, for the righteousness that they have done they shall live.

This is because it is God’s desire that we should live rather than die.

On the other hand, if the formerly good man turns to a life of sin, he will die in his sin. Some may object that that is not fair. Why should he be punished when he did so much good in the past?

There was a tendency among the people of the Old Testament to believe that people were not only guilty of their past sins, but even of the sins of their parents. We remember in John’s Gospel, how Jesus was asked whether the man born blind was that way because of his own sin or the sin of his parents. Chronic disabilities—blindness, paralysis, deafness and the like—were often seen as punishment for sin. When the paralysed man let down through the roof came to the feet of Jesus, the first thing Jesus said to him was:

Friend, your sins are forgiven. (Luke 5:20)

And his subsequent healing was taken as proof that indeed his sins were really forgiven, because the cause had also been removed.

But here, Ezekiel is affirming that sin is something that belongs to the individual. And that it is a person’s present disposition, and only this, that determines God’s judgement.

One thing that comes out clearly in the Scriptures, especially the New Testament, is that God has a very short memory. Far from being a defect, it is a quality that very much favours us.

The person God sees is the person that I am now. What matters is my relationship with him now. The past, good or bad, is forgotten. There is not a divine account book with credits and debits that have to be balanced out at the end of the day.

Judas, a chosen Apostle, was lost because of the final choice he made in life. The murderous brigand on the cross with Jesus repents, and goes with Jesus to heaven.

Some may complain that what the Lord does is unjust. But the reading makes the situation clear:

When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed, they shall die…when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.

It is not God who condemns us. It is we who make the choice to be with God or to alienate ourselves from him; and God recognises our choice.

So we too need not be anxious about our past. All that matters is how I relate to God today, and each day forward. And the choice to be with God, or away from him, is all ours. If today I reject God, directly or through the way I relate with those around me, then, however virtuous I have been in the past, I have put him out of my life. If, on the other hand, today I choose God, then I have nothing to fear, whatever I may have been guilty of in the past.

For our own reflection, we can be consoled that, no matter what we did in the past, it will have no effect on our relationship with God provided we reach out to him here and now. On the other hand, there is no room for complacency. Our past good record can be completely undone by our turning away at any time.

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Commentary on Matthew 5:20-26

Today’s readings are about repentance for the wrongs we have done and the guarantee of God’s mercy. The Gospel passage comes from the Sermon on the Mount, and is the first of six so-called ‘antitheses’ where Jesus contrasts the demands of the Law with those of the Gospel.

Virtue, for the scribes and Pharisees, was largely measured by external observance of the law. For Jesus, that is not enough. For him, real virtue is in the heart. There was a commandment not to kill, but Jesus says that even hatred and anger (i.e. violence in the heart, often expressed by abusive language) must be avoided. Furthermore, we cannot have one set of relationships with God, and another set with people.

So, it is no use going to pray and make our offering to God if we have done harm to a brother or sister. I must leave my gift at the altar, and first go and be reconciled with my brother or sister. Only then may I come to offer my gift.

I cannot say I love God if I hate a brother or sister:

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars… (1 John 4:20)

and

Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. (Matt 25:45)

Repentance has to be expressed both to God and the person I have hurt. It is not possible to be reconciled to one, and not to the other.

We have something like this in every celebration of the Eucharist, although in practice, it can be very superficially done. At the beginning of the Communion, we together recite the Lord’s Prayer in which we all say:

…forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us…

How often are we conscious of saying those words, and how often do we really mean them?

Just after that, we are invited to share a sign of peace with those around us. Again, this can be done in a very perfunctory way. But the meaning of this gesture is that we want to be totally in a spirit of union and reconciliation with each other before we approach the Lord’s Table together to break the Bread—which is the sign of our unity as members of his Body.

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LECTIO DIVINA

Friday, February 27, 2026

Season of Lent

 

Opening Prayer

God of mercy and compassion, you challenge us to be responsible for the good and the evil we do and You call us to conversion.

God, help us to face ourselves that we may not use flimsy excuses for covering up our wrongs.

Make us honest with ourselves, and aware that we can always count on Jesus Christ to be our guide and strength on the road to You, now and forever.

Gospel Reading – Matthew 5: 20-26

Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise, your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."

Reflection

•       The text of today s Gospel forms part of a broader or more extensive whole: Mt 5: 20 up to Mt 5: 48. In these passages Matthew tells us how Jesus interprets and explains the Law of God. Five times He repeats the phrase: You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, in truth I tell you! (Mt 5: 21, 27, 33, 38, 43). Before, He had said: Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; no, I have come not to abolish, but to complete them (Mt 5: 17). The attitude of Jesus before the Law is, at the same time, one of breaking and of continuity. He breaks away from the erroneous interpretations but maintains firm the objective which the Law should attain: the practice of a greater justice, which is Love.

•       Matthew 5: 20: An uprightness which surpasses that of the Pharisees. This first verse presents the general key of everything which follows in Matthew 5: 2048. The word Justice never appears in the Gospel of Mark, and it appears seven times in that of Matthew (Mt 3: 15; 5: 6,10, 20; 6: 1, 33; 21: 32). This has something to do with the situation of the communities for which Mark wrote. The religious ideal of the Jews of the time was to be just before God. The Pharisees taught: people attain justice before God when they succeed to observe all the norms of the law in all its details! This teaching generated a legalistic oppression and caused great anguish in the people because it was very difficult to be able to observe all the norms (cfr. Rm 7: 21-24). This is why Matthew takes the words of Jesus on justice to show that it has to surpass the justice of the Pharisees (Mt. 5: 20). According to Jesus, justice does not come from what I do for God in observing the law, but rather from what God does for me, accepting me as His son or as His daughter. The new ideal which Jesus proposes is the following: therefore, be perfect as is your Heavenly Father! (Mt 5: 48). That means: you will be just before God when you try to accept and forgive people as God accepts and pardons me, in spite of my defects and sins.

By means of these five very concrete examples, Jesus shows us what to do in order to attain this greater justice which surpasses the justice of the and the Pharisees. As we can see, today’s Gospel takes the example of the new interpretation of the fifth commandment: You shall not kill! Jesus has revealed what God wanted when He gave this commandment to Moses.

•       Matthew 5: 21-22: The law says: You shall not kill! (Ex 20:13). In order to observe fully this commandment, it is not sufficient to avoid murdering. It is necessary to uproot from within everything which, in one way or another, can lead to murder, for example, anger, hatred, the desire to revenge, insult, and exploitation, etc.

•       Matthew 5: 23-24. The perfect worship which God wants. In order to be accepted by God and to remain united to Him, it is necessary to reconcile oneself with brother and sister. Before the destruction of the Temple, in the year 70, when the Christian Jews participated in the pilgrimages in Jerusalem to present their offerings at the altar and to pay their promises, they always remembered this phrase of Jesus. In the year 80, at the time when Matthew wrote, the Temple and the Altar no longer existed. They had been destroyed by the Romans. The community and the communitarian celebration became the Temple and the Altar of God.

•       Matthew 5: 25-26: To reconcile oneself. One of the points on which the Gospel of Matthew exists the most is reconciliation. That indicates that in the communities of that time, there were many tensions among the radical groups with diverse tendencies and sometimes even opposing ones. Nobody wanted to cede to the other. There was no dialogue. Matthew enlightens this situation with the words of Jesus on reconciliation which demands acceptance and understanding. The only sin that God does not forgive is our lack of pardon toward others (Mt 6: 14). That is why one should try to reconcile yourself before it is too late!

Personal Questions

•       Today there are many people who cry out for justice! What meaning does evangelical justice have for me?

•       How do I behave before those who do not accept me as I am? How did Jesus behave before those who did not accept Him?

Concluding Prayer

From the depths I call to You, Yahweh: Lord, hear my cry. Listen attentively to the sound of my pleading! (Ps 130: 1-2)

 

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