Tuesday – 3rd Week of Lent – A

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this third Tuesday in the holy season of Lent, may the Lord give you his peace. Friends, in today's readings, we have a plea for God's mercy from Azariah in the Book of Daniel. And then we have our Lord's insistence that after we have received that mercy, we ought to extend it to others, as illustrated in the parable we hear from the Gospel of Matthew.

In the Book of Daniel we know that Azariah, along with his two brothers, is pleading with God while in the furnace that has been set ablaze—seven times stronger than usual (Daniel 3:19). Nebuchadnezzar was a savage. He did not play around. The punishment for not bending a knee to his image was to be thrown into the burning fire.

And so Azariah, we are told, “stood up in the fire and prayed aloud” (Daniel 3:25), saying: “For your name’s sake, O Lord, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant. Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, Isaac your servant, and Israel, your holy one, to whom you promised to multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven or the sand on the shore of the sea. Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord” (Daniel 3:26, 34-36, 43).

My brothers and sisters, Azariah was one of the three faithful Israelites who did not bend a knee when the trumpet sounded before the false idol, the false image of Nebuchadnezzar. And when they were taken to be executed, they pleaded to God for mercy. And God, as we know, answered their prayer. He stood beside them in the fire and protected them.

So shocked was Nebuchadnezzar that he reached toward the furnace, thinking perhaps the fire was not real, perhaps it was some illusion—and he immediately scorched his hand. The one who had made himself a god was shown that he was but a mere mortal.

Now, my dear brothers and sisters, jumping ahead to the beautiful Gospel that we have today from Saint Matthew: Saint Peter approaches Jesus and asks him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (Matthew 18:21).

Now why would Peter approach Jesus with such a question? Perhaps forgiving his brother had become a tedious chore for him. How many times must I forgive the same offense over and over again? Or perhaps the hurt was so deep that each time Peter tried to forgive, the memory returned and stirred up anger again.

And so Peter wonders: How many times must I go through this? Seven times?

But Jesus answers him: “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22).

And then he tells a parable about a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. One servant owed him a massive debt. When the servant pleaded with the king for patience, the king was moved with mercy and forgave the entire debt.

Notice that the debtor begged for mercy and wanted time to repay what he owed. So too it is with us when we repent. And this is what Lent is mainly about—that our remorse is accompanied by penitence.

Now, of course, Jesus has already paid that debt through his suffering on the Cross. But we, my brothers and sisters, must collaborate with his sacrifice.