March 20, 2004 - Saturday, 3rd Week of Lent

God Sees What It Is In Us

Readings:
Hos 5:15-6:6; Ps 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab;
Lk 18:9-14 (Listen to MP3 - The Pharisee and the tax collector)

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.

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.

Scripture Readings

First 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.

Gospel Reading: Lk 18:9-14 (Listen to MP3 - The Pharisee and the tax collector)

Jesus told another parable to some persons fully convinced of their own righteousness, who looked down on others, "Two men went up to the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and said: 'I thank you, God, that I am not like other people, grasping, crooked, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give the tenth of all my income to the Temple.'
"In the meantime the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying: 'O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'

"I tell you, when this man went down to his house, he had been set right with God, but not the other. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised."

Commentary

THE Pharisee "stood by himself": that was the very definition of Pharisee. Perhaps for that reason his prayer was all about himself: I, I, I. When there is emphasis on the separate self, life becomes competition: the "I" has to win every race and be 'better' than others. That means that it can never afford to relax and be off-guard. How difficult life becomes! It is hardly a life at all, and it certainly is not life-giving to others.

The other spoke directly to God, asking for mercy. There could hardly be a more essential prayer. He did not think of himself as complete, needing nothing. A circle is complete: it marks out a small space and it divides it off; it needs nothing from the outside. The Pharisee was such a circle: he didn't come out of himself to God-nor of course to the tax-collector. But the tax-collector knew his own incompleteness. He was like a circle with a breach in the circumference. We are at our best when we are open: when we know our need of God and one another. Then something can flow in and out. Through our woundedness the mercy of God can flow through the world.

General Intercessions

That we may acknowledge before the Lord that we still are 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 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.

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