3 March 2026 - rabbi bye

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.

The scribes and the Pharisees had legitimate teaching authority, and, for that matter, genuine knowledge of the Scriptures. But they did not practice what they knew, so as to become truly holy as God is holy. Instead they performed what they knew in a way that was convenient for them, that required no deep conversion, no real change of heart. They might well have often preached true things, things which their listeners would be required to observe. But they themselves did not practice them so as to present good examples worthy of imitation. One could observe the truth of their words. But if one went further and imitated their behavior it was likely that he would become like them, a hypocrite.

They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.

The Pharisees weren't motivated by mercy. Since their hearts were hardened, they were unable to receive it and were in no position to demonstrate it toward others. Lacking the one correct motivation for sharing the truth they have to make do with lesser substitutes. They not only didn't mind that they were almost asking the impossible of their audience, they seemed to celebrate it. When someone collapsed under the weight of their teaching it was just another instance as someone could judge as inferior to themselves. Not, of course, that they really practiced the things they commanded. But by preaching in the way they did they seemed to come to believe in their own perfection. They performed just enough to make others think they were practicing, though their hearts were far from God. But the fact that others were willing to believe it helped them to reinforce their own illusions.

All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

We may not know any teachers with massive phylacteries or giant tassels. But we all know teachers who are a bit over-invested in the idea of themselves as teachers, as sages and sources of wisdom. But this must be because they overestimate their own contributions on that score. It is not as though they are truly the sources of the wisdom for which they are admired. No one is really interested in something wisdom that was made up or created by man.  Rather, true teachers are valuable as conduits of wisdom for which they themselves cannot take credit. Moreover, even their ability to convey that wisdom is itself a gift of the Holy Spirit. As individuals, they are valuable precisely for their ability to surrender and get out of God's way. John the Baptist understood this when he said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (see John 3:30). Pride is the enemy of learning, both on the side of teachers, and on that of students. 

As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called 'Master';

We might be afraid to ever teach when we hear the high standards to which the Gospel holds those who do so: "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (see James 3:1). Yet instructing the ignorant is among the spiritual works of mercy. But we must do so on guard against the temptation to see ourselves as the source, or to present ourselves as infallible. It is desirable, and even possible, that we become good examples, worthy of imitation. We want to be able to say, together with Paul, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (see First Corinthians 11:1). But like him, we must not be afraid to admit that we are limited, finite, and fallible. We should be ready to repeat his words "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (see First Timothy 1:15). We know that God humbles the proud but exalts the humble. We want to be like Mary, ready to celebrate that fact.

John Michael Talbot - Holy Is His Name

 

2 March 2026 - blessed perspective

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.

We are often quick to judge, ready and waiting for an excuse to condemn others. We are more likely to assume the worst about the behavior of others. We are more ready to believe something was intentional, planned malice, rather than a momentary failure of self-control or a mistake. Even less do we bother imagine what sort of circumstances might make said behavior make sense. We do all this and then we come to expect that God has a similar bias toward us, that he is looking for an excuse to condemn us, waiting for any misstep of ours to send us to hell. We need to reevaluate, starting from the top down, learning to imitate God's merciful heart, rather than projecting our egotistical self-protective nature on him. We tend to judge others not for the sake of justice but to feel validated ourselves. But God has no such self-interested need, and is thus entirely free and available to show mercy.

Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.

It has been truly said that we can't outdo God in generosity. The more we willingly and readily forgive others the more we will experience the effects of his forgiveness in our own lives. The more we treat others merciful, as fallible creatures in need of grace, the more we ourselves will experience ourselves being treated by God in that way. As we ourselves act mercifully and forgive, we will experience the presence of God, the origin of all good and perfect gifts (see James 1:17), living and moving within us. There is no better gift than God himself.

We have sinned, been wicked and done evil;
we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws.

Daniel himself had not done any of those things for which he plead guilty and asked God for mercy. But rather than asserting his own righteousness and judging others, he identified himself with them, pleaded for mercy for them as if for himself. It would have been easy for him to smugly look down on others while asking God to preserve only him. But he seemed to unite himself to the destiny of his people, such that he and they together would either receive the mercy for which he prayed, or else perish together. There was apparently no incentive to pray such a selfless prayer. But it was precisely through this prayer that massive blessings were unlocked not only for Israel, not only for subsequent generation, but even for Daniel himself, who grew closer to the Lord and became a type of Jesus by doing so.

Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.

 

Vineyard - Help Us Our God

 

1 March 2026 - from glory to glory

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.

Moses had received the law on Mount Sinai and descended with his face shining, radiant with the light of God's glory. The Transfiguration revealed that it was the light of Jesus, the word of God, that made the face of Moses shine. He himself was the source of the light that shone from him like the sun. As God had met Moses on Sinai so too had he once met Elijah on a mountain in the form of a quiet voice. How could they be present with Jesus unless he himself transcended time and was present to all times and in all places? Jesus thus allowed his eternity to break into the normal world, to show forth through the normal veil that concealed it, for the benefit of Peter, James, and John. 

Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

At first Peter didn't know what to make of that which was revealed to him, didn't know how to process glory of that magnitude. He did his best to contextualize it in the traditions of his messianic hope. Perhaps in suggesting to build tents he was trying to prolong the experience, and may have thought it justified if the revelation meant that the messianic age had at last arrived. But he was overwhelmed and barely knew what he was saying. But this was not the culmination of the mission of Jesus. Peter was experiencing the already/not yet duality that would become a hallmark of Christian spiritual experience.

While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him.”

The Father's voice made it clear that there was a purpose to the Transfiguration. It was not the end of the journey. They would still need to descend the mountain together with Jesus and eventually witness something as dark and traumatic as the Transfiguration was bright and glorious, the passion of their Lord. The motive of the Transfiguration was thus that they would "listen to him", not to the 'them' of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, but to Jesus as the one who in himself summed up and fulfilled both the law and the prophets. As disciples, Peter, James, and John had been listening already. But now they were called to do so with even more complete trust in him than ever before, and to  keep listening, even when it seemed as though all was lost. It is true, of course, that they did not always listen well, even after the Transfiguration. But the experience planted a seed which would later help to give them strength to repent, return, and listen again. They were able to reflect back on the Transfiguration and realize that the cross could not possibly be the end of the story for such a one. It would give them, at least, the courage to hope.

and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel.

This appearance, this epiphany, had a preview during the Transfiguration. But it was made known to the world through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Even more than the Transfiguration forever changed Peter, James, and John, his resurrection is meant to transform all Christians. 

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (see Second Corinthians 3:18).

What strength do we receive from the Transfiguration? Let us listen to Saint Paul: "Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God".

Vineyard Worship - Shine Jesus Shine

 

28 February 2026 - breaking the cycle

Today's Readings
(Audio)

You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

They previously heard the commands of the law with the ears of minimalists. The law told them to love their neighbor, so they assumed that they were therefore free to hate their enemies. From a merely human perspective that made sense. In order to preserve themselves and not succumb to their enemies they thought they had to hate them. They may have believed that it was insufficient hatred for Gentiles that had caused such problems as their struggles during their desert journey, that made them long for what they left behind in Egypt. They probably assumed that it was the hatred of their enemies that allowed them to wrest control of the promised land from the various tribes who dwelt their. Moreover, the world seemed to have it out for them. From the Babylonians, to the Assyrians, to the Greeks, to the Romans, people seemed to be lining up for their turn to oppress them. It didn't seem like their was a realistic way to care for their own people without hatred for Gentiles. 

But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you

On the surface, the command of Jesus to love our enemies seems hugely impractical. It seems to require that we simply role over and admit defeat whenever we encounter opposition. Yet it is true that as nations we must sometimes still take decisive action to maintain a justice international order, and that, within nations, we must take steps against those who are lawless in order to keep the peace. But even when are at war, it does not mean the people with whom we fight are really are enemies. Even criminals have dignity as men and women made in the image of God, and are still capable, despite what many believe, of redemption. The point is not that we shouldn't preserve appropriate boundaries, but rather that we understand the reason for those boundaries. The good that God wants to protect by his command to love is not merely one or another group, but all. This was seen in the parable where it was in fact the Samaritan who was in fact the neighbor of the man beaten by robbers. He really did go the extra mile to provide for the wounded man, giving of his own time and resources to help him. In doing so he did something better than preserving a rigid boundary between Jews and Samaritans. He began to actually heal the wound. Rigid boundaries might seem necessary at times. But even if they are, they are like a tourniquet on a wound, meant to be eventually removed so that life can return in fullness.

that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

In the fall of Adam humanity signaled its desire to be separate from God, to have a barrier behind which they could make their own determinations about good and evil. But although God could not immediately restore things to how they had been, he spent the rest of history working to heal humanity's self-inflicted wounds of sin and division. We treated God like an enemy. Yet he did not merely destroy us, as he easily could have. While we were yet his enemies, as far as the disposition of our souls was concerned, he sent his Son to die for our sins. When Jesus came we acted as his enemies too, nailed him to the cross, and took his life. But he allowed us to do so, surrendered himself into our hands, so that by absorbing our hatred with a greater love he could make us his friends and his brothers. We will never rid this world of enemies by means of force, conquest, and victory. Violence is a cycle that more violence is insufficient to break. But we can still have hope for the future if we act as children of the heavenly Father, in the pattern given to us by his Son. We can rid the world of enemies, not by beating them, but by loving them until they become friends.

For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?

Love is meant to be more than repayment. It is something we are meant to show to others whether or not they have earned it. Reciprocity is relatively easy. We are capable of mutual affirmation amongst those with whom we are close. But we seldom wish to reach beyond those boundaries. We are generally willing to greet brothers and sisters. But what about when strangers cross our paths? Do we cross to the other side of the road, or rather, like the Samaritan, show them mercy?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The Jewish people had often interpreted the call to be holy as God was holy in the sense that they were meant to be rigidly separated from the surrounding nations. And before the coming of Jesus that was perhaps the best that could be hoped. But by his coming Jesus opened and taught a new and better way, a way to more perfectly imitate God, to love neighbor and enemy, without the risk of succumbing the idolatry of the world around us. It wasn't something that merely human love could do. But Jesus gave his followers new hearts with which to love, hearts so full of the Holy Spirit that they could give and give without becoming empty, and therefore without being tempted to seek alternatives to God. Finally the call of God to his people through Moses could be realized.

Be careful, then,
to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

Brooke Ligertwood - Bless God

 

27 February 2026 - the yes behind the no

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I tell you, 
unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

We tend to begin Lent with a Pharisee-like focus on performative acts of religion and merely external compliance so as to tick as many boxes on the list of what, we imagine, a good Catholic ought to do. But the thing about stopping at the surface is that we can still be quite terrible on the inside, all the while putting on a good show for those around us, possibly even believing our own hype. But as for the Pharisees, so for us. Such righteousness is insufficient. 

Externally we may not be violating the letter of any laws, even if our hearts are not converted. But we may be acting against the spirit of those laws, or twisting their meaning to justify ourselves. We may fixate on the small details of our specific performance so as to ignore the larger and more important areas in which we know that we have room to grow. While claiming to follow the laws we may be cherishing in our hearts the very things they call us to reject.

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.

The point of the law against murder was not so that two people could live on in mutual hatred, celebrating each misstep the other made, or each disaster they experienced. It was not merely given by Moses to keep people safe from the hatred of others, although with no change of heart that was all the law could in fact accomplish. In denying murder it was not merely affirming the good of mutual nonaggression. Rather murder was rejected as a manifestation of a failure of relationship. It was because, as the Psalmist wrote, "how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!" (see Psalm 133:1). The commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill" implicitly affirmed the goodness of human relationships and connections. Not only murder, but any kind of breakdown of relationships that could eventually end in murder, was rejected. Moreover, it tacitly implied what Jesus went on to teach.

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.

Neutrality was not enough. Relationships were a positive good that should, insofar as possible, be nourished. This is obviously an area in which we can really only have influence over our own hearts. We have no control over the feelings of the other party. But by actually getting through to that level, to the level of our heart, we will do much better than if we stop at the surface. We will be much more persuasive to those with whom we wish to be in relationship if we are, in fact, sincere, if we genuinely desire that relationship. Or at least if we know that we should, and want to want it, we will still be far beyond someone merely acting because of the pressure of an external legal requirement.

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.

We may escape condemnation if we avoid mortal sin, or repent whenever we do fall into it. But even so, our hearts may yet have a debt to pay if we are still in some way cherishing sinful behaviors, even if we have avoided them, if we are still attached to sin in our hearts. It isn't necessarily an easy thing to attain conversion of heart, in the sense that it is never an immediate and permanent transformation. But we aren't going to avoid the necessity of doing so by delaying it. God has designed existence such that, after death, the souls who are united to him but not yet perfect can still experience the purification they did not complete on earth. After all, how could heaven by heaven if we still held hatred for others in our hearts? In heaven we and they will share life together, in complete transparency to one another, joining together in the praise of God, including praising him for the creation of the other. If there are those people in our world whose creation we cannot yet celebrate, we may still be in need of deeper conversion. This isn't surprising. That's what life is for. But we should add that the heart is not something we can convert ourselves.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (see Jeremiah 17:9).

What we need we can only receive as a gift. Or more precisely, we have received it. We have been given new hearts in baptism. But now we need to rely on the Spirit to help us put our old sinful self to death so that we can more and more live from the new hearts we have received.

Maranatha! Music - I Will Delight

 

26 February 2026 - prayer in practice

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.

We know that prayer isn't like magic. It doesn't usually bring results instantaneously to satisfy our whims or to give us that which merely seems good to us in the moment. That is why we often pray without any expectation that our prayers make a difference. We utter brief prayers in moments of desire and then forget about them entirely, only pausing later to confirm our suspicions that they were ineffective after all. 

Actual prayer that brings results seems to require that we invest something of ourselves into it. As with the widow who kept returning to the unjust judge until her demands were met we must persevere if we wish to receive what we ask. This isn't because there is any special power in our will that we have to build up sufficiently, or anything like that. It is rather because God uses prayer, not only to bless others, but to enlarge our own hearts. As with the leper who was brought before Jesus for healing but was first given the forgiveness of his sins we must be open to have our desires refined from those lesser things to those that God knows will conduce to our good. We may seek healing, when God first wants to offer us spiritual healing. We may ask for a loaf of bread or a fish. But God may respond by offering us more of his Holy Spirit. Though it is often the case that once we are willing to receive higher things from him it becomes safer for him to also give us lesser things as well, knowing that we won't turn them into idols.

For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, everyone who asks consistently, with faith, for matters necessary for salvation always receive from God. Why, then do we mistrust prayer? Why do we treat it like a lottery which we may only win if infinitesimally small odds happen to favor us? In part, no doubt, it is because we ask for things that aren't' ultimately part of the plan, and are not open to the better things God has for us instead. No doubt it is also because we are too quick to give up when the results are not immediate. But the reason that underlies both of these defects in our prayers is often our image of God. We do make him out to be an unjust judge, or someone just as likely to give us a stone or a snake as to give us fish or bread. We will pray better, and be more likely to receive answers, when we remember that God is a Father who desires to give us good things, more so even than our own parents desire for us.

Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.

This golden rule is a separate point of the Sermon on the Mount. Yet it is connected to the principle of prayer. God does not give us anything whatsoever we ask of him. But rather he empowers us to love himself and others according to his divine wisdom. In a lesser but analogous way, we are not called to give others everything they want, but rather, the things we know will enable them to grow and to flourish. We know what these are particularly since we ourselves need the same things. It is true that God doesn't need anything from us. But he helps us act toward himself and his creatures in a way that makes us all grow and flourish together. He really is a good Father who desires to see his children thrive. So let's not give up after momentary disappointment. Instead, may we continue to seek him with all of our hearts.

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart (see Jeremiah 29:13).

Newsboys - Thrive

 

25 February 2026 - greater than Jonah

Today's Readings
(Audio)

This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah. 

The generation the time of Jesus was like the one which wandered in the desert and failed to enter the promised land. The reason they failed was not because what God had given them was insufficient. It was rather because of the hardness of their hearts. It was emphatically not because they didn't have sufficient grounds to trust him. It was because they refused to trust him in spite of the way he had demonstrated that he was with them. So too with the people in the time of Jesus. Even ignoring the many signs they had in fact already seen, they had been given enough to recognize that Jesus was indeed sent by God, and that it was the word of God that he spoke to them.

At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.

The people of Nineveh were able to recognize and respond to the truth of the preaching of Jonah in spite of the fact that Jonah didn't make a particular effort to persuade or to make his message appealing. He would have probably been happier to watch Nineveh burn, but God didn't leave him a choice in the matter. Perhaps the unexpected and otherwise unaccountable nature of his prophetic mission helped people to stop and take notice. All they needed was provocation to think more deeply about their own situation in order to realize that that situation was in need of change, which was why the king told the people, "every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand". In a way the coming of Jesus to his own people was similar. Like Jonah, he did not do so out of shared self-interest, did not himself stand to gain anything by doing so. But unlike Jonah, he did so because of his compassionate heart. But, again like Jonah, he ought to have been a pattern interruption that allowed people to rethink the issues with which their own situation was fraught. He accurately pointed to the condition of their fallen sinful hearts in a way that only a genuine doctor of souls could do, in a way that confirmed he was both knowledgeable and trustworthy.

At the judgment 
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation 
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here. 

We might be inclined to give the generation of Jesus a pass for not recognizing him on the basis of his wisdom. In our own day we know how susceptible we are to believe in the deceptions or mistakes of others, with the proliferation of AI generated stories and other forms of fake news. We have at times believed that certain woman and men were very wise who later turned out to be quite flawed. We are now rightly skeptical of our own ability to sufficiently perceive the truth. But what would we make of the words of Jesus? His words were not in the same ballpark of wisdom as those of anyone else whom we may regard as wise, not on the same scale even as those of Solomon, the wisest man to ever live. Jesus claimed that it was possible to hear his words and recognize truth being spoken, or, more to the point, Truth speaking. We saw this in the way people noted that he spoke with authority, and in the way the officers responded to the Pharisees about why they had not taken Jesus into custody, "No one ever spoke like this man!" (see John 7:45-47). There were of course people like Pilate who could only scratch his head and ask, "What is truth?" (see John 18:38). But this was actually the defensive position of a hardened heart. He could have recognized the truth. But there were too many implications if he did so that he didn't want to face. And so he feigned ignorance, not just before others, but even to himself, lest he still retain some awareness of his accountable guilt.

no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.

We know that the sign of Jonah was a two-fold sign. The first pertained, as we have said, to his preaching to Nineveh. But we also know that three day journey in the belly of the fish was a sign predicting the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Although the people might fail to recognize Jesus because of his preaching they might yet realize the truth when God vindicated him in his resurrection. His preaching, which may strike us as somewhat aggressive, may have actually caused them to further harden their hearts, but perhaps only to make them brittle so that the resurrection could then break them entirely open.

It seems likely that we don't appreciate the wisdom we have through the Scriptures and through Jesus in particular. We have largely accepted a tacit relativism. Not necessarily regarding truth in the absolute, but regarding our ability to understand. Many competing truths seem equally credible. How can we really attain wisdom sufficiently durable to hold up in our own lives? We can do so by listening to Jesus with open hearts and open minds. We are created in truth to correspond to the Truth. When he speaks to us we can recognize the Truth himself speaking. Then, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (see John 8:32).

Newsboys - Belly Of The Whale

 

24 February 2026 - teach us to pray

Today's Readings
(Audio)

In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

Christian prayer is not a means of manipulating God. It isn't a technique or a strategy designed to persuade him to do something he doesn't want to do. We often see prayer as though we are working to achieve a bit of sympathy from an otherwise disinterested deity. We tend to secretly believe that God doesn't have our best interests at heart, that he is holding out on us, keeping much that he might give us for himself, or else saving it for others to whom favors more than us. The antidote to this idea is to begin our prayers by first remembers how we are related to the one whom we address.

Our Father who art in heaven

The prodigal son thought he had to plead his case, to return home only on the his ability to contribute, that he had to persuade his father in the same way that anyone who sought his favor might. But his father quickly reminded him that their relationship took precedence. He wasn't interested in what he could do in the fields or how he might or might not measure up to the hired help. He simply wanted to be with him and to share all that he had with him. The older son in the parable also had to relearn his relationship to his father. Though he had remained at home he had still imagined that his father was holding out on him. He had to realize that he was with his father always and shared all things in common with him. Both of these brothers relationship to their father are common ways in which we mistakenly relate to God. We need to learn their respective lessons, to see the father running out to meet us, throwing his cloak over us, and putting his ring on our finger. We need to hear him pleading with us to come in and join his feast. We need to realize that much of the reason why we haven't experienced the full joy of his household isn't because he was holding back, but rather because, for whatever reason, we were.

hallowed be thy name

Once we have experienced God as our Father we will want to ensure that his name is known as holy, both with us, and in the world around us. We will desire that all of the misconceptions and accusations toward his name be unmasked as falsehoods. Only when his name and the identity it conveys are regarded as holy, impeccable, and unassailable, can we relate to them with the importance, piety, and devotion, that they, in reality, deserve. His name is in fact holy. We humans have the ability to disregard this fact, but only to our harm. Only when God is at the top of the hierarchy of things we consider to be good can we hope to function with sanity and coherence in the world he created.

thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done

We need to pray for his kingdom remembering two things. The first is how good it is when it gets here. But the second, important to set our expectations, is that it is difficult while it is still on the way. We're praying here for the whole world to be revitalized with the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we know that only the death of Jesus leads to his resurrection, and that, for the world to get there, it must in some way pass through his passion. We need to desire the Kingdom enough that we can be like Jesus and still pray for it even during the agony of Gethsemane, and not turn aside from it, even when it involves taking up our own cross to follow him.

Give us this day our daily bread

We need our daily bread from God if we hope not to collapse on the way. It can be for us like the bread that gave Elijah the strength to walk for forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God (see First Kings 19:7-9). Whenever we realize God is the one who meets our needs we derive more benefit from the blessings he gives than if we receive them unknowingly. Honestly just having a thankful attitude is transformative, even life-changing. But God reminds us, sometimes through circumstances, that we cannot live by bread alone. It is his word that must have priority. For us, as for Jesus, doing his will can be the hidden food that sustains us through the highs and lows of life (see John 4:31-34). Above all, it is his gift of himself to us in the Eucharist that becomes our own thanksgiving to him, and that gives us strength for any challenges we may face in this life. It is then no longer merely us trying to imitate his words, it is his gift of himself, the Word to us, satisfying the deepest longings of our hearts.

and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;

Unforgiveness can block the blessings God desires to give us. We are have the capacity as creatures with free will to tell God that we care more about the ways we have been wronged than about the love he has for us and others. But we ought not to expect him to be convinced. His priority is always mercy. But in order for his mercy to be effective in us we must be willing to allow it to flow through us to others. However much we have been hurt by others is still infinitesimally fractional compared to the rift between himself and us that God has already definitively forgiven in Christ.

and lead us not into temptation,

When we pray for protection in temptation we must remember again to whom we are speaking. We are not speaking to a disinterested judge or a corrupt politician. We are speaking to a father who sometimes permits us to experience trials in order that we might grow through them. We know that if God wasn't carefully accommodating our circumstances to our weakness we would quickly be overtaken and succumb. So we pray that we never be so bold as to think we can face life without him. We pray that we not walk any paths of trial beyond those he deems necessary for our sanctification.

but deliver us from evil.

Jesus would have us remember that reality of hostile spiritual forces that oppose us so that we remember to rely on him for protection. We remember that our warfare is never against flesh and blood, and thus don't make any of our fellow creatures out to be our true enemies in an absolute sense. He doesn't bring up the Evil One to make us afraid so much as to remind us where our victory can be found. And we know that it can be found in him alone.

Matt Maher - The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)

 

23 February 2026 - whatever you did for one of these least

Today's  Readings
(Audio) 

‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Jesus is truly present in his people. In particular, by becoming poor and surrendering himself into the abusive hands of cruel authority, he associated himself with the poor, the abused, and the neglected throughout history. He took on himself the most challenging aspects of our fallen humanity, aspects that are hard to look upon directly, "as one from whom men hide their faces" (see Isaiah 53:3). It is perhaps easier to love the crucified Christ now that the traumatic nature of those events is in the past. But it is harder to love his presence in his people when it takes such challenging forms. Indeed, most of us manage it, if at all, by staying at a safe distance, empowering a special caste of volunteers and organizations with resources to do it on our behalf. Then we can do our part without facing the gritty reality. And perhaps this is OK much of the time. We are not called to address ourselves to every instance of poverty, illness, of imprisonment, since we are finite creatures with limited resources. But we must not turn our gaze from needs only we can meet. In a way analogous to how we should not ignore the Eucharistic presence of Jesus displayed to us on a monstrance or hidden in the tabernacle, neither should we forget his presence in other people, especially in the lowest and the least of his brethren. We did not have the opportunity to love Jesus while he embraced the fullness of earthly poverty in his passion. In any event, most of us would have fled the scene as did his disciples. But now we can at least signal that love for him by the way respond to these least brothers of his who cross our paths.

He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’

We will one day be answerable for the good we could have done but failed to do, and for the love we failed to show. We won't be able to suggest that we truly knew and loved our Lord Jesus if we neglected him in his distressing disguise of poverty, sickness, and imprisonment. It is not credible that we loved the reality but despised the image. We can't sit by while such ones are trampled under foot and yet plead that we loved every fallen fragment of the Eucharistic host. His presence in the Eucharist is indeed a more maximal level of presence. But it is a presence that is meant to lead us to discover more and more his other forms of presence, especially in our brothers and sisters.

And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life.

It is not that we earn eternal life by our righteous deeds. Eternal life is fundamentally a gift. The ability to consistently perform righteous deeds is only possibly by grace. We have light because of the light of Christ that shines within us. Yet we can signal by how we live that we do not truly desire eternal life, can reject Jesus by the way we respond to his presence in others. Every opportunity to help others should thus be seen as an opportunity for us to show our love to Jesus himself, and to demonstrate with our actions, not only our thoughts and words, that we desire to be with him forever.

Vineyard Worship UK And Ireland - Refiner's Fire

 

22 Feburary 2026 - similarly tested

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.

Jesus did not need to let himself be tempted at all. That he did so was as a part of his condescension to share in our human nature. Among other things, it gives us the assurance that he is sympathetic to our condition, "one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin" (see Hebrews 4:15). He experienced what Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden, yet was victorious. He was in the desert and hungry, yet did not sin in the way that the generation sinned, complaining, putting God to the test, and turning to idols. 

For if, by the transgression of the one,
death came to reign through that one,
how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace
and of the gift of justification
come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

Jesus was obedient where humanity had failed. Yet his obedience was not instead of our own, but rather, to make our own obedience possible. Adam and Eve's sin had real consequences. It brought spiritual death into the world, and as a consequence of that spiritual death, many were made sinners. But Jesus, through his obedience, brought life into the world, and made many righteous.

The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.

The woman wickedly stretched out her hand to take the fruit, and Adam, though close, said nothing. Jesus, on the other hand, resisted the temptation to satisfy his hunger in a way that was not part of God's plan. He refused to grumble or complain about that plan in the way that the people of Israel had in the desert. He may well have been hungrier than any of them. But he knew that man cannot live by bread alone. He who was himself the word of God would not now deviate from it, no matter what his he may have physically desired on a human level. In doing so he was triumphant over an entire category of sin, the lust of the flesh (see First John 2:16), not only for himself, but in such a way that it would later avail for all united to him who would eventually face such temptations.

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
and he said to him, ""All these I shall give to you,
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”

The devil tried to appeal to the lust of the eyes (again, see First John 2:16), by showing Jesus what he believed he wanted but tempting him to obtain it in the wrong way. Jesus was not meant to inherit Satan's domination over the world, but to receive authority that was a gift from his Father. Satan provoked Jesus to obtain via idolatry what he was meant to receive only through his Passion, death, and resurrection. At a superficial level, the offer looked good, just as the fruit of the forbidden tree looked good to Eve. Achieve the results, but avoid the suffering? It is nothing if not relatable. But obtaining even a good thing in the wrong way would spoil the results. Jesus having authority over the world, as is now the case, is a very good thing. But if he had merely accepted it is a gift from the Evil One we can imagine that it would not have led to our salvation. One cannot serve an idol without becoming bound by that idol, after which any power one may possess is illusory, a puppet show of the devil. But Jesus refused to turn to idols as the Exodus generation had done. He refused to succumb to something less than his Father's will in order to enter into his messianic reign.

Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

The people God had liberated from Egypt put him to the test in the desert, trying to force him to prove he was present with them. For Jesus, the fact that God was with him was at the very core of his identity. It was this identity, above all, that the devil sought to attack. Though Jesus did want others to believe that the Father was present with him, he refused to force his Father to reveal it by means that were not part of the divine plan. In Eden, Eve found the fruit of the forbidden tree desirable for gaining wisdom, and succumbed to what we call the pride of life (see First John 2:16). She forgot about her royal identity as created in the image of God and desired greatness apart from him and his plans for her. She fell due to pride where Jesus triumphed due to humility.

Jesus is present for us in a way that Adam failed to be present and protect his own bride. His obedience has refashioned human nature to which he has united himself. We are joined to this renewed nature in our baptism and are meant to embrace that transformation throughout our lives. Jesus makes this possible by helping us to understand our own royal identity rooted in the Father in a new and deeper way, since we "have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”" (see Romans 8:15). He renews our own minds so that we can recognize and reject the lies of the Evil One. Jesus himself, through every action of his life, answered the plea of the Psalmist's heart:

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

  

Michael W. Smith - Here I Am To Worship

 

21 February 2026 - true conversion

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.

We may sense that Jesus is worthy of us responding to him by making a complete break with our sinful past and following him with all that we are. But even if there is a level at which we understand this it is not often the case that we manage to make ourselves respond in the way that Levi (also called Matthew) responded, entirely, and without reservation. If we are adult converts our conversion often results in some immediate and significant changes to our lifestyles. We set aside harmful behaviors and begin to embrace a lifestyle befitting disciples. Lifelong Christians might experience similar moments of conversion on retreat or in prayer groups. But in both cases we typically discover our initial fervor only goes so far. We set out to leave our customs post behind, but find that, even if we wander off for a while, it is still our primary base of operation. Even to the degree that we manage to get away from it for a moment it still seems to influence our thoughts and actions with a gravity that always seems to pull us back eventually. How might we actually leave the old self behind as completely as Levi left his customs post?

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Put simply, we have to want conversion more deeply to experience it more fully. And the only way to really desire it is to have a deeper understanding of the futility of the alternatives we often pursue. Only when we really realize that wealth, yes, can provide for the basics, but cannot make us truly happy, will it begin to lose its grip on us. When we still hear whispers in our souls from all the possessions, property, or experiences, that money can buy, suggesting themselves to us to fill the emptiness within us, we will not be able to entirely shake their hold over us. But we don't like to think of ourselves as under the sway of money or any other addiction. We don't want to see ourselves as sick and in need of a physician. But here is the real secret. Levi didn't leave the customs post on his own, simply because he decided to do so. He didn't make some heroic and decisive act of will. He saw someone who could at last help with the things that were making him unhappy, causing him to be less than he was meant to be, and refused to let the one pass him by. He did, in effect, leave everything behind. But his actual choice was to remain near Jesus. Yes, later, there might be consequences. Things might become harder eventually. But if he was with Jesus he knew that Jesus could help him face those possibilities, that he could face them as long as they were together. Most of us have a hard time achieving a total break with the old sinful self. But the thing we need to focus on is not so much ourselves as it is being and remaining near Jesus. This is because, obvious to say but easy to forget, we don't heal ourselves. The divine physician does.

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.

It is a good sign that we are finally starting to get it when the grace that flows to us begins to flow out from us to those around us. When we can no longer keep silent about Jesus or keep what he is doing in our lives to ourselves it is evidence that we finally realize just how important he is for us. Not only that, we demonstrate that we now know the important lesson that, if he did it for us, he can truly do it for anyone.

The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,
and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;
“Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you,
“Restorer of ruined homesteads.

We must not be content with merely partial conversion of our hearts and minds to Jesus. The ramifications are not just for ourselves and the private sphere of our own spiritual lives, but also for the Church and the world as a whole. The ruins around us seem to have been in disrepair since so long ago that we hold little hope that they might be rebuilt. The breach seems like a permanent fixture of society. The ruined homesteads seem unsalvageable. And indeed, attacking the problems directly, through merely human effort, is doomed to fail. But when we finally surrender our hearts to the Lord he becomes able to do things through us that we never imagined. Then we will become light in the darkness, for he will be light in us.

Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.

 

Elevation Worship - I Have Decided

 

20 February 2026 - the wedding of heaven and earth

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?

In a way, David's relationship with Israel had been like a marriage, with the people declaring to him, "Behold, we are your bone and flesh" (see First Chronicles 11:1), just as Adam had said of Eve in Genesis (see Genesis 2:23). And if it was a Davidic image then Jesus using it was appropriate, as he was the messianic son of David. But it was a role which David only ever fulfilled partially. In the same way that he stood in for God who was himself the true king of Israel, so too did he stand in for him as bridegroom, which was another role that was belonged fully only to God himself.

For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you (see Isaiah 62:5).

Jesus was the son of David, but somehow greater than David. That was why Jesus brought the attention of the Pharisees to an apparently incoherent element in Psalm 110, first quoting it, saying:

The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

And then asking, "If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" (see Matthew 22:44). Jesus was like David, not like a shadow cast by a greater original, but as the truth of which David was only an imperfect foreshadowing. However much David was a man after God's own heart (see First Samuel 13:14), only Jesus had a heart perfectly united to that of his Father. Jesus was therefore the bridegroom because he was in actuality the presence of God in the midst of Israel. If anything called for a feast, it was this.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.

But then, if Jesus was bridegroom because of his divinity, how could it be said that he would be taken from them? Jesus himself was the one who promised to be with them always, to the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20), and who said that if two or three of them gathered in his name that he would be present in their midst (see Matthew 18:20). The possibility of him being taken doesn't seem to admit of a situation in which the Eucharist presence of Jesus is as abundantly available as it is to us. 

The time to which Jesus referred was specifically his crucifixion and death, when he handed himself over freely, and let himself be taken. Just as he freely chose to lay down his life for his friends so too would his disciples enter into that experience by fasting, among other ways. It was part of the program by which they entered into the death of Jesus so as to share in the life of Jesus.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (see Romans 6:5).

Considered in this way we see the incommensurability of what he did for us and our response to him. Even a very rigorous fast of the sort that none of us are likely to undertake, that would strike even our Eastern brethren as difficult, would in no way approximate the sorrow and pain Jesus experienced for us. Yet the abundance and sufficiency of Jesus makes the inadequacy of our response to be sufficient. Our response to him could never earn the reward of eternal life. But by our response we signal at least our desire to be united to him, to the bridegroom who has made us, his bride, to be beautiful.

so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (see Ephesians 5:27).

David Ruis - We Will Dance

 

19 February 2026 - plausible deniability

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.

That the messiah would suffer had been predicted by the prophet Isaiah. But it was still hard to accept. It did not seem like it ought to have been necessary, or that it could lead to a positive outcome. Surely there was a more direct way to experience the rewards Isaiah mentioned when he wrote, "he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand" (see Isaiah 53:10). It seemed Jesus was choosing the opposite of what Moses suggested, death rather than life. 

There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death (see Proverbs 14:12).

But in fact, he was only choosing against a shallow and temporary life. He chose death, not as an end, in order to destroy it. He accepted the necessity of his death because it would allow him to unleash the blessings of salvation on the world. Without his death the problem of sin would have remained unanswered. Without his sacrificial self-offering all of the dividing walls between people and each and between people and God would have remained impermeable. People could not have been brought together in one body. Jesus was entitled to divine and eternal life in virtue of who he was. But it was only because of his death that others may now share in that life.

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The path by which Jesus gave life for the world did not look like it would lead to life, but in fact led to life in abundance. So too for the path by which Christians may appropriate that life. It begins for us at baptism when we are baptized into his death. But then it must take shape in our lives through the choices we make. We must forego the shallow ways of living that are not true life. We must be willing to die to the old and fallen parts of ourselves so that new life may emerge. But just as Jesus did not die for his own sake, neither now are we called to do so. We are called to be completely reoriented from selfishly seeking our ego first, to living as offerings of love for the sake of others, and in particular, love in response to the love of Jesus himself who loved us first.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

The reason that we are free to choose to put others first is precisely because Jesus made it possible by dying for our sakes. In doing so he put our selfish egos to death with him. And the love he showed us is now meant to be the primary thing that motivates and orients us in the new life that is his gift to us.

What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?”

We are not as fully committed to only and always choosing life as Moses would advise, especially because it often seems to us that in the short-term it is the more difficult path. But we know what happens to those who merely store up treasure on earth. We know that the whole world, even if we possessed it, comes with an expiration date. Even during this life we recognize that the world always underdelivers on its promises to satisfy us. Even as mortals living on earth we recognize that it is only when we answer that call of Jesus that we begin to experience the joy and satisfaction that can truly last forever.

Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Newsboys - Lead Me To The Cross

 

18 February 2026 - the Father who sees in secret

 

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

When you give alms...

When you pray...

When you fast...

Today we begin our annual campaign of Lenten renewal and transformation. Although we are invited to the traditional practices of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving, these are not meant to be manifestations of self-hatred. We do not undertake them because we are bad, in order to punish ourselves, but because they are good, in order that we might grow in holiness. 

But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

The point of our Lenten practices not so much what happens externally, much less what others witness, but rather what happens within our hearts. It isn't so much about whether these actions are functional or meet some success criteria as to whether they lead us closer to the Father who sees in secret.

When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.

We sometimes seek consolation prizes through our Lenten practices, something less than drawing near to God, something apparently more easily attainable. But such prizes have a very limited ability to console. We may seek pity from others, or simply content ourselves with a narrative of self-pity within our own thoughts. We may seek to appear pious or generous in the eyes of others, or simply content to think of ourselves as paragons of virtue. But all of these options fall short of acting for the Father who sees in secret, who is interested, above all, in what happens within our hearts.

There is something more at work here than a merely automatic consequence of virtuous asceticism. We are asked to enter into something deeper than would be possible without the assistance of grace. We are invited to experience a transformative that we could never bring about through our own efforts, to "become the righteousness of God" in Christ. To do so we must rely on God in such a way that if he were not there we would fall flat. But he is there, always, in secret, awaiting us. 

Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.

Matt Maher - 40 Days

 

17 February 2026 - leaven out

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

They concluded among themselves that
it was because they had no bread.

They had forgotten to bring bread. To us it seems a minor mistake. But the disciples seemed to be kicking themselves for it and seeing everything else through the lens of that failure. 

Jesus enjoined them, "Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod." 

No doubt they assumed that the supernatural bread miracles of which they had just been a part were in view, since Jesus was still talking about bread. But they were stuck on the level of the physical reality. Their fixation on their own minor mistake prevented them from seeing the spiritual significance.

And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?

The fact that they did not actually have physical bread was not actually a problem since they still had Jesus himself, the bread of life. They needed to recognize this fact in order to avoid the temptation to rely on other strategies to feed the crowds. The leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod might lead to some measure of success, as it seemed at the time. But that success was ultimately based on divisiveness and destruction. Rather, the disciples needed to rely on the bread of life to unite the world, just as relying on Jesus had allowed the crowds to remain united. His gift allowed both Jews (at the feeding of the five thousand) and Gentiles (at the feeding of the four thousand) to remain centered on him, represented by the twelve and seven baskets left over respectively.

The disciples assumed a mindset of scarcity based on their mistakes, and the possibility of those mistakes to impede their purpose in life. But they were meant to realize that with Jesus they always had a superabundance that was more than equal to any situation in which they found themselves. The real danger of a lack of bread was that they would fail to turn to Jesus for help but instead try different strategies to solve their problems, whether merely human, or demonic. They were, we know, slow learners. After one multiplication of loaves they still seemed unable to conceive that there might be a second. And after both they still somehow assumed that a lack of bread might be their biggest problem.

No one experiencing temptation should say,
"I am being tempted by God";

The disciples seemed to act as though God was tempting them, in the sense that he was out to get them, looking for any reason to condemn them. They did not yet fully understand that he was entirely good and that "all good giving and every perfect gift is from above". They were not yet convinced of the love God had for them (see First John 4:16), at least, not fully. Thus Jesus pointed their attention away from themselves, away from their negligible, minor mistakes, and toward the superabundance of God as it was present in his own person, demonstrated in this case by the leftover fragments of bread. 

We have said before that we too have a hard time believing in God's abundance, even after we have experienced it. And so we must again repeat that, and point to today's Gospel as more evidence to help confirm that belief. We too get hung up on our failures in ways that make us less open to trusting in Jesus, as though our mistakes have surprised him, or somehow negated his ability to work through us. There is great risk when we write ourselves off as disqualified, risk that we might turn to the alternative leaven available in our own day in order to feed ourselves and the world.  Believing that God loves us, really knowing and understanding it in our hearts, is not a nice but optional extra. It is essential that we let him convince us of his love so that he can work through us as much as he desires, even in spite of our limitations and failings.

And now, a few alleluia songs before Lent. After all, as Saint John Paul the Great said, "We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!". Shout out any favorites I missed in the comments.

Caleb & John - Hallelujah Feeling

 

Newsboys - He Reigns

Michael W Smith - Agnus Dei

 

Singing Hallelujah

 

Saint Michael's Singers - Alleluia Sing To Jesus

16 February 2026 - a doubtful test

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,
"Why does this generation seek a sign?
Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."

These people who asked for a sign where like those about whom James wrote in his epistle. They asked for wisdom, but did not ask in faith. They were like a wave of the sea driven and tossed about by the wind. They asked in order to demonstrate that their doubts about Jesus were accurate rather than because of any openness to the fact that they might be mistaken about him. Neither faith nor true wisdom can arise from rigorous skepticism. None of us are qualified to put God to the test as though by some kind of science experiment. In some way faith must always issue from a spark that is his gift. It doesn't begin in us, but by a response to an invitation from God whose eternity precedes any interest in him on our part. We aren't so wise that we can even frame the question of the identity of Jesus in a way we could test. We can't create a valid null hypothesis that we could set out to disprove. We may be aware of the claims of the supernatural, things that transcend what ought to be possible if what is claimed of him were false. But he never seems to feel obliged to do these things just to measure up to our scrutiny. He does them when needed, and not in a lab. But then, it is not as though we are neutral observers, ready to go one way or another based on evidence. We do not stand over and above the creation of which we are a part. We have prior commitments. We are either tied down to this world by the gravity of sin or else are in some stage of responding to the invitation to faith that sets us free. This does not mean it is foolish to respond to the invitation to faith with the assent of belief, as though to do so meant relying on random chance. But it is the case that the question of truth can never be separated from the moral content of choosing for or against God. 

But if any of you lacks wisdom,
he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly,
and he will be given it.

God gives wisdom generously to those who are sincere. When James tells us that he does not give to those who ask while doubting he does not mean that he only gives to those entirely without any doubtful thoughts whatsoever. Rather, he means that our request should be motivated by confidence. Otherwise, if we ask because we doubt, but say we desire wisdom, we will be acting in contradiction to ourselves. Jesus taught us that to the one who has much, more will be given. It is true here in matters of faith, prayer, and wisdom. But no one need start with little or nothing. We all have the option to begin, either on the basis of our own poverty, or with the abundance God never ceases to offer us.

The brother in lowly circumstances 
should take pride in high standing,
and the rich one in his lowliness, 
for he will pass away "like the flower of the field."

The Pharisees imagined that they already possessed wisdom. By insisting on this illusion they prevented themselves from being open to actually receiving it. But, as Scripture says, he gives wisdom to the simple (see Psalm 19:7). Thus we must become like children. We must, as the saying goes, empty our cup, so that God can fill us.

 

Songs In His Presence - Psalm 19: Lord, You Have The Words