Friday 27 February 2026
St Gregory of Narek
Ezekiel 18:21-28. If you, O Lord, laid bare our guilt, who could endure it? – Ps 129(30). Matthew 5:20-26.
Genuine life of virtue
That moment in a film or book when a ‘bad’ person makes good. What is the tipping point or the motivating factor? Is it a concern for one’s legacy? For a restoration of relationships? Is it a sudden awareness of mortality? A reality check?
Jesus is speaking of the importance of living virtue deeply and genuinely. Not just going through the motions. We are called to first sort out our differences with our brother, our neighbour, our work colleague, our parents.
What happens when we hold onto our anger and bitterness? William Blake conveyed how anger ‘watered in fears’ produces poisoned fruit, which, when eaten by the ‘foe’, leaves him ‘outstretched beneath the tree’. What Blake doesn’t say is that the bitterness that grows in our hearts is punishment, a kind of poison-induced death.
Forgiveness. We pray for the strength to give it and the grace to receive it.
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