GOD SEES WHAT IT IS IN US
Introduction
We cannot save ourselves by rites and practices. Sin is forgiven and lasting happiness found in an encounter of love with God. If we recognize that we are sinners, people who have failed at times and who could do better, we recognize that our love is still very limited, and then, there is room for growth. God bandages our wounds and raises us to life. He saves us from our failures. He makes us grow in the life of Christ.
Reading: Hos 6:1-6
“Come, let us return to the LORD,
it is he who has rent, but he will heal us;
he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds.
He will revive us after two days;
on the third day he will raise us up,
to live in his presence.
Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD;
as certain as the dawn is his coming,
and his judgment shines forth like the light of day!
He will come to us like the rain,
like spring rain that waters the earth.”
What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your piety is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that early passes away.
For this reason I smote them through the prophets,
I slew them by the words of my mouth;
For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Responsorial Psalm PS 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab
R. (see Hosea 6:6) It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
Be bountiful, O LORD, to Zion in your kindness
by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem;
Then shall you be pleased with due sacrifices,
burnt offerings and holocausts.
R. It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.
Verse Before the Gospel: Ps 95:8
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
Gospel: Lk 18:9-14
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —
greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week,
and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Commentary:
We are at our worst when we pretend to be good: when we dress like angels to do the devil’s work. Hypocrites are the real atheists, because they inflate the currency of religion and make it worthless. The Scots poet, Robert Burns, wrote: “God knows I’m not the thing I should be, / Nor am I even the thing I could be, / But twenty times I rather would be / An atheist clean / That under gospel colours hid be, / Just for a screen.”
Blessing
God will heal us and bind up our wounds. We do not boast about ourselves but about the patient love and goodness of the Lord. May Almighty God bless and heal you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!