19 February 2027 · Latin Rite
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“leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:24
The exiles in Babylon had a proverb: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.” We are paying for our ancestors' sins, they said; nothing we do can change our fate. Ezekiel answers with God's own word: every person stands before God in his own present choice. “If the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed… they shall surely live; they shall not die. None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them.” And then the heart of the chapter: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?” The warning cuts the other way too: the righteous who turn to evil cannot hide behind their past goodness. Neither our past sins nor our past virtues decide our future; what matters is the turning of the heart now. That is why Lent is always hopeful: it is never too late to turn and live. The Psalm prays it from the depths: “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you.”
Jesus asks for a righteousness that “exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees”. Not a longer list of rules, but a law written deeper in the heart. “You have heard that it was said… ‘You shall not murder’… But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment.” Murder begins long before the knife, in contempt, insult and anger nursed in secret. Then Jesus says something astonishing about worship: “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” God would rather wait for our gift than receive it from a divided heart. On this Lenten Friday, when we abstain from meat, the better fast is to abstain from anger and to go first to the one we have hurt.
Theme: “First be reconciled to your brother or sister.”
The God who wants us to live, the root of anger, and the gift that waits for peace.
“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?” Ezekiel 18:23
“This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3–4
Apply: Pray today for someone you have written off as unable to change.
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20
Apply: Refuse every insult, even in thought, for one whole day.
“But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” Psalm 130:4
“leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:24
Apply: Visit, call or write to someone with whom you need to be reconciled before Sunday Mass.
No one is beyond the call to turn and live.
God waits for our gift until our hearts are at peace.
Take-home resolution: Before Easter, go first to one person with whom you are not at peace.
Dear friends, the exiles said: we are paying for our parents' sins; nothing we do matters. Ezekiel answers with God's word: if the wicked turn away from all their sins… they shall surely live; they shall not die (Ezekiel 18:21).
God asks: have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked… and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23). No one is too far gone. Lent is always a time of hope.
Jesus asks us for a deeper righteousness. Murder begins with anger and insult. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled (Matthew 5:23–24).
Today we abstain from meat. Let us also abstain from anger, and go first to someone we have hurt. That is the gift God most wants from us this Friday. Amen.
Children, Jesus says: if you have hurt someone, go and make peace first. Is there a brother, sister or friend you need to say sorry to today? Go and say it, and God will be very happy!
Lord God, you take no pleasure in the death of sinners but desire that they turn and live. Turn our hearts to you this Lent. Uproot from us the anger that kills love, and give us courage to go first to those we have hurt, so that our gifts at the altar may be pleasing to you. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
On this Friday of Lent the readings look at where the heart is now. Ezekiel tells a discouraged people that no one is trapped by the past, neither the sinner by his sins nor the good man by his good record. Jesus takes the commandment against murder down to its root in anger, and then sends us away from the altar to make peace. The key words are turn, live and be reconciled.
Setting.
Ezekiel was a priest taken to Babylon with the first deportation of 597 BC (1:1–3). Jerusalem was then destroyed in 587. Among the exiles a bitter saying went round: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (18:2). It meant: we are paying for our ancestors’ sins, and nothing we do can matter.
Chapter 18 answers that saying. Each person stands before God on his own account, and the present turning of a life counts. Scripture also knows of the way sin harms later generations, and Ezekiel does not deny that. He is speaking to a despair that was using it as an excuse. The words “live” and “die” here mean life and death under God’s covenant, in a time when belief in life after death had not yet become clear.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them;” (18:22)
The past really is past. This is the Old Testament’s strong word for what the Church offers in the sacrament of Penance.
“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?” (18:23)
This is the heart of the reading, and it comes as a question because God wants us to answer it. God “desires everyone to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4).
“Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is unfair.”” (18:25)
It is a very human complaint. It may be heard from the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son. God’s mercy can look unfair to those who keep accounts.
“Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.” (18:28)
The verb “considered” is worth noticing. Conversion begins when a person stops, looks honestly at his life, and sees it.
How the Church reads it.
The Church hears in this passage both her hope and her warning. Mortal sin, if not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, leads to exclusion from Christ’s kingdom; but we must entrust judgment of persons to God’s mercy (CCC 1861). God wills no one to perish, and desires all to come to repentance (CCC 1037; 2 Peter 3:9). Lent is the Church’s time for this “consider and turn”, and the sacrament of Penance is its proper place (CCC 1422–1424).
Setting.
Jesus has just said that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it (5:17–19). Verse 20 is the heading for what follows, and vv. 21–48 give six examples, each with “You have heard… But I say to you”. Today’s is the first, on murder.
Jesus’ word about the scribes and Pharisees is not an attack on the Jewish people or on the Law. The Pharisees’ own concern for keeping the Law in spirit as well as letter was close to his own (CCC 579). Many scholars think that Matthew writes in a time of tension between his community and other Jewish teachers, and a reader should keep that in mind. Jesus asks his disciples for a righteousness that goes to the root.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment;” (5:22)
A note on the text. Many later manuscripts add “without cause”; the oldest do not have it, and neither does the NRSV. The rising list (anger, an insult, “You fool”) is not a table of penalties. It is a way of saying that murder begins here. The word the NRSV renders “insult” is the Aramaic raka, “empty-head”.
“So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,” (5:23)
Note that it is not “if you have something against him”. Even if the fault is the other’s, the first step falls to me.
“leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” (5:24)
For a Galilean the altar was days away in Jerusalem, and that is part of the force of the picture. Jesus is not setting worship aside. “Then come”: he wants the gift, from a reconciled heart.
“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him,” (5:25)
There is an urgency. There is still time on the road. A quarrel left alone grows, and so does its cost.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that the Lord adds to “You shall not kill” the proscription of anger, hatred and vengeance (CCC 2262), and that from the Sermon on the Mount onward he insists on conversion of heart, reconciliation with one’s brother before presenting an offering on the altar (CCC 2608). The very old Didache tells Christians at odds with one another not to join the Sunday Eucharist until they are reconciled, so that the sacrifice may not be defiled (in substance; ch. 14). At Mass the Sign of Peace keeps this teaching before us.
Does one sin wipe out a whole good life, as Ezekiel seems to say?
Ezekiel is describing a change in the direction of a life, “turning away” and doing the abominable things of the wicked, not a slip. The Church distinguishes mortal and venial sin (CCC 1854–1855). One mortal sin does lose the state of grace (CCC 1861), yet even a grave sin is not the end, since the same chapter that warns the righteous also promises life to anyone who turns back. What the prophet refuses is the idea that a good record is a bank account against which one may sin.