Hosea
5:15 -6:6 / Luke 18:9-14
God
speaks through Hosea; “I want love, not sacrifice.”
A
news reporter was on assignment in Clay, Kentucky, in the 1960s. A black woman,
named Gordon, was going to try to enroll her two children in an all-white
school. On Sunday the reporter stopped in at the local white church, where worship
was in full swing. The congregation was praying mightily and singing lustily.
After the service one of the pillars of the white church talked to the
reporter. He told the newsman that he would rather have his taxes tripled to
pay for separate schools than have the races mixed in the same school.
****
Do
we worship God on Sunday but ignore his teaching the rest of the week? “The
test of worship is how far it makes us more sensitive . . . to Christ in the
hungry, the naked, the homeless, and the prisoner.” John Robinson, Honest to God
***
When
we review how our prayer life is going, we may be able to notice how our prayer
life has changed in the way we pray. We may have started off by reciting
formula prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary and the Rosary. After a while
we may feel we want to move on to a deep form of prayer and we will practice
meditation on the Word of God and other forms of deeper prayer.
Then
we might want to go further and pray to God in a spontaneous way and we start
composing our own prayers. Whatever form of prayer we might have adopted, what
is essential is not so much what we say or do in prayer. Rather it is the
awareness in prayer; the awareness of who we are with. When we realize who we
are with in prayer, then we will also realize who we really are.
In
the presence of God who is infinite love and mercy, we can only humbly admit
that we are nothing without Him and that we constantly need His love and mercy.
Whatever words we might use in prayer and whatever thoughts we might have, let
us always remember the prayer of the tax collector in the gospel: God, be
merciful to me, a sinner.
****
Saturday of 3rd Week
of Lent - Liturgy
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.
Penitential Rite:
- Come, let us
return to the LORD, it is he who has rent, but he will heal us, LHM
- he who has struck us, also will bind our wounds, CHM
- as certain as the dawn is his coming, and his judgment
shines forth like the light of day, LHM
Opening Prayer
Lord, our God, you yourself remind us through your holy
people that all our religious practices, even this Eucharistic sacrifice, are
not worth anything if we use them to bend you our way. God, may we come to you in
humility and repentance, ready to encounter you in love and to turn your way. Accept
us as your sons and daughters, together with Jesus Christ, your Son and our
Lord for ever.
Commentary
Ritual has meaning when it is the expression of an inner
spirit. Otherwise practice becomes an empty shell. The scriptures today
illustrate this principle with considerable clarity. Hosea speaks to Ephraim
and Judah, the northern and southern kingdom of the Hebrew people. They have
long since shown their lack of an authentic commitment to the Lord; their
expressions of faith are transient and vanishing. Their piety is like a morning
cloud, like the dew that quickly passes away. Yet the ritual continues, but to
no avail. “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God
rather than burnt offerings.” The Gospel today goes on to make an added point
in saying that one cannot judge by externals. The Pharisee was a member of a
respected and benefice Jewish body; the tax collector was the employee of a
foreign power, an occupying force. The Pharisee practiced worthy expressions of
faith—fasting and tithing—but it had led to self-adulation and very clear
shades of superiority. The tax collector, with head bowed, could make no
religious claims, but his heart was right. In a spirit of sincerity, he simply
asks God’s mercy. It is he who went home justified, totally dependent on the
goodness of God. Since comparisons are odious, we do well to avoid them. If we
strive to be faithful, it ill behoves us to compare ourselves with others, who,
at least by external standards, show little or no effort. Paul tells us that if
anyone would boast, he should boast in the Lord. We are what we are by the
grace of God to whom we remain deeply grateful. A man cannot get to daily Mass
but never fails to stop in church for a short time as an expression of his
faith. Religious is ultimately a matter of the heart, a theme to which Christ
returns time after time. My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit, a heart
contrite and humble you will not spurn.
Points to Ponder
Religious practice versus a religious spirit
A piety that vanishes as quickly as the dew
Humility, a recognition of God’s goodness
Intercessions
– That we may acknowledge before the Lord that we are still
wounded people in need of healing, we pray:
– That we may not be concerned about outward appearances,
but that our life and actions may be sincere and transparent, we pray: – That
we may not boast to the Lord what we have done for him but acknowledge what he
has done for us, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord, our God, we have not come together here to justify
ourselves before you or to boast of our merits. We simply ask of you, Lord, to
accept us as we are with our goodwill, our lame efforts and our half-hearted
conversions. Accept us with the sacrifice of your Son, who stays with us and
lives with you for ever.
Prayer after
Communion
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have celebrated with your
Son the memorial of his sacrifice. Give us the strength now to make our
everyday life into a living proof, that we are one with him and that we follow
him on the way through death to life. Let him stay with us, now and for ever.
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.
