23 February 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Matthew 23:11–12
Isaiah speaks to the rulers of Jerusalem as if they were the rulers of Sodom. Their temple is full of sacrifices, but their hands are full of blood. God does not want more ritual; he wants a changed life: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Then comes one of the most tender invitations in the Bible: “Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow.” God reasons with his people like a father with a son who has gone wrong. The Psalm says the same: God does not need our bulls and goats; what honours him is a thankful heart and a straight road: “to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
In the Gospel Jesus warns against a religion of display. The scribes and Pharisees “sit on Moses' seat”, and what they teach from the law should be done, “but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.” They tie heavy burdens on others and will not lift a finger; they love the best seats and the greetings in the market and the title “rabbi”. Jesus turns this upside down: you have one teacher, one Father, one instructor, the Messiah, and you are all brothers and sisters. “The greatest among you will be your servant.” Lent is a time to check whether our faith is lived or only displayed. Today we remember St Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of St John the Apostle, who served his people for decades and was burned at the stake about the year 155, at the age of eighty-six. When the proconsul told him to curse Christ, he answered (in substance): for eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my King who saved me? He practised what he taught, to the end.
Theme: “The greatest among you will be your servant.”
Washed from scarlet sins, freed from a religion of display, faithful like Polycarp.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Isaiah 1:16–17
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” James 1:27
Apply: Visit or help one widow, orphan or lonely person before Sunday.
“Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18
“If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Apply: Plan your Lenten confession: choose the day and the church now.
“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
“The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Matthew 23:11–12
Apply: Like Polycarp, let your life speak louder than your words: one hidden service each day this week.
God washes us and asks us to do good.
Jesus makes greatness into service, and the saints show it to the end.
Take-home resolution: Do one hidden act of service each day this week.
Dear friends, God speaks through Isaiah to a people whose temple was busy but whose lives were not changed. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean… cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:16–17).
And then the invitation: come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow (Isaiah 1:18). No sin is too red for God's mercy. Lent is the time to come and reason with him in confession.
In the Gospel Jesus warns us about a faith of display: they do not practice what they teach. They love the best seats and titles. But Jesus says: the greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:11–12).
Today we remember St Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and disciple of St John. At eighty-six, when told to curse Christ, he said in substance: for eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my King? He lived what he taught. May we too say and do, for Christ our King. Amen.
Children, Jesus says the greatest person is the one who helps others. St Polycarp was a bishop who loved Jesus all his life, even when he was very old. Let us do one kind thing today without being asked!
Merciful Father, you call us to wash ourselves and learn to do good. Make our sins white as snow, free us from the love of honour, and make us servants of one another. Through the prayers of St Polycarp, faithful bishop and martyr, keep us loyal to Christ our King to the end. Amen.
Both readings deal with a religion that looks well and is hollow within. Isaiah, speaking to the leaders of Jerusalem, says: wash, learn to do good, and God will make scarlet into snow. Jesus warns against a piety done “to be seen” and points to another greatness: service. Neither reading is against worship or against teachers. Both ask that what we do on the outside should come from within. The key words are learn, justice and servant.
Setting.
Isaiah preached in Jerusalem in the eighth century BC, when the small kingdom of Judah lay under the shadow of Assyria. Chapter 1 serves as an opening to the whole book, a kind of court case between God and his people. Just before our reading, the prophet says that but for a small remnant Jerusalem would have become like Sodom (1:9).
The Lectionary leaves out vv. 11–15, the hardest part. God says he has had enough of sacrifices and solemn festivals, “your hands are full of blood” (1:15). The point is not that worship is bad. Worship without justice is an offense to the God it honors.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!” (1:10)
The worst insult available: the rulers of the holy city are addressed as Sodom. The Hebrew for “teaching” here is tôrâ.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;” (1:16)
Ritual washing was part of Israel’s worship. The prophet turns the word towards conduct: this is the washing that matters.
“learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (1:17)
The list comes down to names and faces. A test of a community’s religion is how its weakest members fare.
“though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (1:18)
Red dye of this sort held fast and would not wash out of cloth. What no effort of ours can remove, God can. Some scholars read the lines as a question, but the Church has always heard them as a promise.
How the Church reads it.
St Justin Martyr, writing around AD 150, quotes Isaiah 1:16–20 when he explains Christian baptism to the Roman authorities (First Apology 61). In Lent, a season that prepares for baptism at Easter and for the renewal of baptismal promises, the words fit well. The Catechism, speaking of the true worship of God, recalls that the prophets denounced sacrifices not offered from the heart or not joined to love of neighbor (CCC 2100). The Lenten call to almsgiving belongs here too: it is part of worship and not an extra.
Setting.
Jesus is in the Temple in the last days before his Passion. This chapter is his last public speech in Matthew’s Gospel, and it is the sharpest. The scribes were the experts in the Law, and the Pharisees were a lay movement devoted to holiness in everyday life. Jesus shared much with them: belief in the resurrection, the practices of almsgiving, fasting and prayer, and calling God Father (CCC 575).
Many scholars think that the sharpness of Matthew’s wording also reflects the painful disputes between his own Christian community and the synagogue leaders of his day. This speech should never be used to paint the Jewish people, or Pharisees in general, in dark colors (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597). It is aimed first at Jesus’ own disciples, who are named in the first verse, and the warning passes to every Church leader since.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do,” (23:3)
A remarkable sentence, spoken by the one who is most severe with them. Authority does not depend on the holiness of the person who holds it. This protects the faithful when a teacher fails, and it gives no comfort to the teacher.
“for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.” (23:5)
The fringes are the tassels commanded in Numbers 15:38. Jesus himself wore them: the same word is used of the “fringe of his cloak” (Matthew 9:20). The fault is in lengthening them for show.
“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.” (23:8)
A note on the text. The Greek says “you are all brothers”, and the POC has it (സഹോദരൻമാർ). The NRSV says “students” for the sake of the contrast with “teacher”, and notes the Greek in its margin. Both points are true: all are learners, and all are family.
“The greatest among you will be your servant.” (23:11)
This is the heart of the passage. St Gregory the Great gave the bishops of Rome the title they still use: “servant of the servants of God”.
“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (23:12)
The passive means God is the one who does it. Jesus says the same in Luke 14:11 and 18:14. Mary’s song says it too (Luke 1:52).
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council applies this directly to the Church’s own teachers: the teaching office is not above the word of God but serves it (Dei Verbum 10; CCC 86). In Lent the Gospel invites each of us, not only the clergy, to ask whose eyes we are living for. The same three practices are in view as in Matthew 6: done for the Father who sees in secret, or for those who are looking.
Jesus says, “call no one your father on earth”. Why then do Catholics call priests “Father”?
Jesus cannot mean this as a ban on the word. He himself speaks of fathers and mothers in the commandment (Matthew 15:4). St Paul writes, “in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15), and St Stephen addresses the Council as “brothers and fathers” (Acts 7:2). Jesus is using strong language, as he does when he speaks of plucking out an eye, against titles that are sought as honors or that put anyone in God’s place. A priest who is called “Father” should hear in it a duty of care. If he hears a claim to importance, this Gospel is for him.