The liturgy of this Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent is deeply connected to its stational observance, held at the Basilica of Saint Pudentiana, one of the oldest churches in Rome. Tradition recounts that this basilica was built over the house of the Roman senator Pudens, who is believed to have hosted the Apostle Saint Peter himself. Being a place that originally served as a domestic refuge for the nascent Church, the day's liturgy reflects the welcome, forgiveness, and divine providence that sustain the family of God. In the catechumenal and penitential period of the Vetus Ordo, the faithful preparing for Baptism and the public penitents awaiting reconciliation were reminded, at this station, that the Church is the house where God's mercy is poured out without limits and where the debts of sins are forgiven. The choice of readings harmonizes with the atmosphere of a family home - the widow's house in the Old Testament and the dynamic of forgiveness among brothers in the New Testament - teaching Christians that, just as God multiplied grace and forgave abundantly, the members of His Church must live in mutual charity, sustained by confident prayer and inexhaustible forgiveness.
📖 INTROITUS (Ps. 16, 6 et 8; Ps. ib., 1)
Ego clamávi, quóniam exaudísti me, Deus: inclína aurem tuam, et exáudi verba mea: custódi me, Dómine, ut pupíllam óculi: sub umbra alárum tuárum prótege me. Exáudi, Dómine, justítiam meam: inténde deprecatiónem meam. Glória Patri.
I have cried to thee, for thou, O God, hast heard me: O incline thy ear unto me, and hear my words. Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of thy eye: protect me under the shadow of thy wings. Hear, O Lord, my justice: attend to my supplication. Glory be to the Father.
📖 EPISTLE (4 Reg. 4, 1-7)
In diébus illis: Múlier quædam clamábat ad Eliséum Prophétam, dicens: Servus tuus vir meus mórtuus est, et tu nosti, quia servus tuus fuit timens Dóminum: et ecce, créditor venit, ut tollat duos fílios meos ad serviéndum sibi. Cui dixit Eliséus: Quid vis, ut fáciam tibi? Dic mihi, quid habes in domo tua? At illa respóndit: Non hábeo ancílla tua quidquam in domo mea, nisi parum ólei, quo ungar. Cui ait: Vade, pete mútuo ab ómnibus vicínis tuis vasa vácua non pauca. Et ingrédere, et claude óstium tuum, cum intrínsecus fúeris tu et fílii tui: et mitte inde in ómnia vasa hæc: et cum plena fúerint, tolles. Ivit itaque múlier, et clausit óstium super se et super fílios suos: illi offerébant vasa, et illa infundébat. Cumque plena fuíssent vasa, dixit ad fílium suum: Affer mihi adhuc vas. Et ille respóndit: Non hábeo. Stetítque óleum. Venit autem illa, et indicávit hómini Dei. Et ille: Vade, inquit, vende oleum, et redde creditóri tuo: tu autem et fílii tui vívite de réliquo.
In those days: A certain woman cried to the prophet Elisha, saying: Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him. And Elisha said to her: What wilt thou have me to do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I thy handmaid have nothing in my house but a little oil, to anoint me. And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbors empty vessels not a few. And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within, and thy sons: and pour out thereof into all those vessels: and when they are full take them away. So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons: they brought her the vessels, and she poured in. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have no more. And the oil stood. And she came, and told the man of God. And he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor: and thou and thy sons live of the rest.
📖 GOSPEL (Mt. 18, 15-22)
In illo témpore: Dixit Jesus discípulis suis: Si peccáverit in te frater tuus, vade, et córripe eum inter te et ipsum solum. Si te audíerit, lucrátus eris fratrem tuum. Si autem te non audíerit, ádhibe tecum adhuc unum vel duos, ut in ore duórum vel trium téstium stet omne verbum. Quod si non audíerit eos: dic ecclésiæ. Si autem ecclésiam non audíerit: sit tibi sicut éthnicus et publicánus. Amen, dico vobis, quæcúmque alligavéritis super terram, erunt ligáta et in cœlo: et quæcúmque solvéritis super terram, erunt solúta et in cœlo. Iterum dico vobis, quia si duo ex vobis consénserint super terram, de omni re quamcúmque petíerint, fiet illis a Patre meo, qui in cœlis est. Ubi enim sunt duo vel tres congregáti in nómine meo, ibi sum in médio eórum. Tunc accédens Petrus ad eum, dixit: Dómine, quóties peccábit in me frater meus, et dimíttam ei? usque sépties? Dicit illi Jesus: Non dico tibi usque sépties, sed usque septuágies sépties.
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: If thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and reprove him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother. And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more: that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then came Peter unto him and said: Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith to him: I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times.
🕊️ THE ABUNDANCE OF MERCY AND THE HEARD CRY
The appeal of the Introit, "I have cried to thee, for thou, O God, hast heard me: O incline thy ear unto me", establishes the fundamental premise of Christian prayer: absolute trust in the Father's attentive listening. In today's Gospel, Our Lord reveals that this same infinite mercy we demand from God for our sins must be the standard by which we treat the offenses of our brothers. When Saint Peter asks about the limit of forgiveness, suggesting seven times, Christ elevates the measure to infinity: "till seventy times seven times". This is not a mathematical count, but the abolition of any limit to charity. Saint John Chrysostom teaches that God does not require continuous forgiveness from us merely for the benefit of the offender, but primarily for our own salvation, because He who keeps us as "the apple of his eye" and protects us "under the shadow of his wings" conditions the outpouring of His grace to our willingness to empty the heart of all resentment. If we desire the Lord to incline His ear to our cry, we must incline our hearts to unrestricted forgiveness of our neighbor (Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily 61).
This dynamic of inexhaustible grace is vividly prefigured in the Epistle through the miracle performed by the prophet Elisha. The indebted widow, who also "cried" to the man of God in her despair - mirroring the penitent soul of the Introit -, receives the instruction to gather empty vessels. The miraculous oil flows abundantly until there are no more vessels to fill. Saint Augustine interprets this passage luminously: the oil is charity and the grace of the Holy Spirit, while the empty vessels represent the souls that have emptied themselves of pride, self-love, and the vanities of the world. God pours out His mercy unceasingly; the only limit to receiving this grace is ourselves, when our hearts are full of earthly attachments or bitterness toward our neighbor. The oil only stops flowing when the widow says: "I have no more" empty vessels. Likewise, the salvation and sustenance of our spiritual life depend on keeping our soul emptied of itself to be filled by God (Saint Augustine, Sermons on the Old Testament).
The wisdom of the liturgy masterfully unites the widow's empty vessel and the Christian's forgiving heart. To forgive "seventy times seven" is the continuous act of emptying our own vessels. Each time we release a brother from his debt to us, we remove the poison of sorrow from our soul, creating the empty space necessary for the oil of divine grace to overflow within us. Protected under the shadow of the Lord's wings, as the Introit sings, we recognize that before the divine tribunal we are all insolvent debtors, just like the widow. When we cry out for mercy, God answers us not with a calculated measure, but with the abundance of His love, provided He finds in us the same loving disposition to forgive our brothers without counting the times, living in profound communion where Christ makes Himself present in the midst of those who gather and reconcile in His Name.