We have arrived at the end of the third week in Lent. Tomorrow is Laetare Sunday. As I prepare to celebrate the passion of Christ, I pray all of God’s people will know His mercy and express their love for the Lord in the weeks ahead.
It is so easy to grow weary and discouraged with life, particularly at this time of the year. This winter has been hard for many people, with worries about blizzards and floods, failing banks, people laid off from work, the sagging state of the economy, and the deaths of friends and family members. Will life ever get better?
Then today we hear the refreshing words from Hosea: God “will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth” (Hosea 6:1-6). What a poetic way to express what God’s mercy is really like. Hosea encourages us to “return to the Lord” who will “heal us”. But to do that, we must be ready to challenge our status quo.
The psalm helps to focus us properly, “It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice” (Psalm 51). Mercy, in this sense, calls for a change in US – OUR behavior, OUR way of dealing with situations and persons in our daily lives. “Sacrifice”, on the other hand, seeks to change GOD – GOD’s attitude towards us, eliciting Him to be favorable towards us. In this it echoes the last words from the Hosea reading: “for it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
The gospel (Luke 18:9-14) seems to be laser-focused on me. My Lenten challenge is to call upon God’s mercy for my own offenses rather than comparing myself to others who seem to behave a whole lot worse than I do. I know that God wants humility and in return, God grants kindness far in excess of our expectations. But I admit that it is difficult for me to comprehend and practice humility. Like a good Pharisee, I am tempted to offer as a sacrifice to God my disciplined attendance at Mass and my prayers of thanksgiving to God that I am not like those corporate executives, bankers, and investment geniuses that made off with other people’s money without expressing an ounce of guilt. That form of piety, however, is despised by God.
Today’s gospel models for us the way we are to relate to God. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector present two models of how to relate to God. The Pharisee, a religious authority, and a tax collector, a publicly branded sinner, both went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee was “convinced of [his] own righteousness” and he prayed out of that certainty: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or even like this tax collector.” He then proceeds to tell God what he does and how he acts, “I fast. . . I pay tithes. . .” Can I see in the Pharisee’s prayer my own inclination to list the good things that I am “doing” or the bad things that I am “avoiding” during Lent, with an implied “what are you doing for me, O God?”
On the other hand, the tax collector, a known sinner, stood off at a distance and prayed: “Be merciful to me, a sinner.” The gospel goes on to say that the tax collector went away “justified” while the Pharisee did not. Why? Because “[the one] who exalts himself will be humbled.”
What a marvelous lesson is here for us in this gospel reading. The Pharisee is led into pride and the tax collector is led into humility. The Pharisee thinks that he saves himself while the tax collector recognizes that he is far from being saved and trusts his salvation to God. I hope that as Lent continues, you can feel the warm rain washing from you your guilt and that it prepares you to know God’s mercy.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!