15 February 2027 · Latin Rite
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“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:40
The first full week of Lent opens with the great charter of holiness in Leviticus: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” We might expect holiness to mean temple rituals, but the commandments that follow are startlingly ordinary. Do not steal; do not lie to one another; do not keep back a labourer's wages until morning; do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; do not slander; do not judge unjustly, favouring either the poor or the great. Then the commandments go down into the heart itself: “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin… You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge… but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Each command is sealed with the Name of God. Holiness is God's own life, and it shows itself in honest scales, prompt wages, careful words and a heart without grudges.
Jesus draws back the curtain on the last day. The Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, and the nations are gathered before him like a flock at evening. The judgment turns on six simple works: food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, welcome for the stranger, clothing for the naked, care for the sick, visits to prisoners. Both groups are surprised: “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry?” And the King answers: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” The neighbour of Leviticus has a face, and it is Christ's own. Lent is not first about what we give up but about whom we see. The Church calls these the corporal works of mercy, and on the last day they will be the language in which our love is read.
Theme: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to me.”
Holiness in daily dealings, a heart without grudges, and Christ hidden in the least.
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” Leviticus 19:2
“instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;” 1 Peter 1:15
Apply: Examine your work and business dealings for honesty this week.
“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18
“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10
Apply: Name one grudge and bring it to confession this Lent.
“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and will be repaid in full.” Proverbs 19:17
“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:40
Apply: Do one corporal work of mercy before Sunday.
Holiness is love made concrete in honest hands and a forgiving heart.
On the last day our love will be read in the language of mercy.
Take-home resolution: Choose one work of mercy to practise every week of Lent.
Dear friends, on this first Monday of Lent God speaks to Moses: you shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy (Leviticus 19:2). And then, surprisingly, he talks about wages, lies, slander and grudges.
Holiness is not far away. It is in paying the labourer on time, in not putting a stumbling block before the blind, in refusing to hate in our heart. The commandment ends: you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD (Leviticus 19:18).
In the Gospel Jesus shows us the last day. The King will say: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me (Matthew 25:35–36). Both the blessed and the cursed are surprised. Neither saw him.
Lent is a time to open our eyes. Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me (Matthew 25:40). Let us look for Christ this week in someone poor, sick or forgotten. Amen.
Children, Jesus says: when you share your food or visit a sick friend, you are doing it for me! This week, do one kind thing for someone who needs help, and remember that Jesus is hiding there.
Holy Father, you call us to be holy as you are holy. Free our hearts from every grudge, make our dealings honest and our words kind, and open our eyes to see your Son in the hungry, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner, so that on the last day we may hear his voice say: Come, you that are blessed. Amen.
The first full weekday of Lent after the First Sunday puts one plain question before us: what does holiness look like on an ordinary day? Leviticus answers with wages, courts, the deaf and the blind, and a grudge kept in the heart. Matthew answers with the hungry, the stranger and the prisoner, and with the astonishing word of the King: “you did it to me.” God’s holiness is not kept away from daily life. It is met there. The key words are holy, neighbor and the least.
Setting.
Leviticus 17–26 is often called the Holiness Code, because of its refrain that Israel must be holy as God is holy. Chapter 19 is its heart. It mixes worship and ethics without any sense of changing the subject: the sabbath stands next to fair weights, and the offerings next to care for the poor.
The Lectionary takes the opening call, then the block of commands about the neighbor. Much of the chapter echoes the Ten Commandments, here applied to the life of a village: its workers, its courts, its gossip.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” (19:2)
This is the root of the chapter. Moral life begins not from a list but from who God is. 1 Peter 1:16 passes the same call on to Christians.
“and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.” (19:13)
A day laborer lived on that day’s pay. Holding it back overnight meant a hungry family. The Catechism names the withholding of a just wage as a possible grave injustice and cites this verse (CCC 2434).
“You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God” (19:14)
The deaf cannot hear the curse and the blind cannot see who laid the block. The sin can go undetected by its victim, but not by God.
“You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.” (19:17)
The law reaches inside. Silent hatred is the sin, and honest correction is one of its cures (compare Matthew 18:15).
“but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (19:18)
Rabbi Akiba called this a great principle of the Torah (in substance). Jesus joined it to the love of God as the second great commandment (Matthew 22:39), and Paul says the commandments are summed up in it (Romans 13:9).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the whole Law hangs on the two commandments of love (CCC 2055). The Second Vatican Council took up “Be holy” for every baptized person, not for a few: all the faithful are called to the fullness of the Christian life (Lumen Gentium 40; CCC 2013). This is a useful text for an examination of conscience in Lent, since it goes through work, speech and the secret heart.
Setting.
This is the last teaching of Jesus in Matthew before the Passion. It closes the discourse on the end of the age (chapters 24–25), and only Matthew has it. The scene joins two images from the Old Testament: the Son of Man who receives everlasting dominion over all peoples (Daniel 7:13–14), and God as the shepherd who judges within his flock, “between sheep and sheep” (Ezekiel 34:17).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;” (25:34)
The kingdom is an inheritance, prepared long before anyone earned anything. The works that follow do not buy it. Done in grace, they are how the gift is received and kept, and their merit is itself God's gift (CCC 2009).
“Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food,” (25:37)
The righteous are surprised. They did not serve the poor as a clever way of serving Christ. They simply saw a hungry person and gave food.
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (25:40)
Jesus does not say “it is as if”. He says “to me”. This is the centre of the passage.
“You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;” (25:41)
Compare v. 34. The kingdom was prepared for human beings. The fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. God predestines no one to hell (CCC 1037). Notice too what these people are condemned for: not for cruelty, but for doing nothing.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism draws from this passage the works of mercy (CCC 2447) and the warning that we are separated from God if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones (CCC 1033). It also quotes St John of the Cross: at the evening of life we shall be judged on love (CCC 1022). St John Chrysostom told his people that the Christ they honor on the altar is the same Christ they neglect when he is cold and naked at the door (in substance), and the Catechism links the Eucharist with the poor in the same spirit (CCC 1397). Sulpicius Severus tells how St Martin of Tours, still a catechumen, shared his cloak with a beggar and that night saw Christ wearing it.
Does this mean we are saved by good works?
No. The kingdom is “prepared” and “inherited”, and salvation is the gift of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8). But a faith that never feeds anyone is not the faith the New Testament means. Paul’s own phrase is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Grace comes first, and it bears fruit; and by that same grace our good works truly merit eternal life, as his gift and not as our own achievement (CCC 2008–2010).