You Just Don't Know
Mar 18: Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Everyone has unique circumstances. Everyone has different ability to offer, and different temptations to resist. It’s part of the reason we’re admonished to not judge one another.
It’s also why God loves us each uniquely and particularly. He knows what challenges you face and what you’re capable of, probably better than you do.
Reading I
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.
The people of Israel, in the first part of this passage, are being a bit overconfident, assuming God will come to their aid. They assume their sacrifices will force God to rescue them.
In the second half, God is exasperated. “What am I going to do with you?” Their piety fades away soon after their sacrifices are made. So God sends prophets to convince them to change their ways. But do they? No!
Who does that remind you of? If they answer is anyone but yourself, wait until you read today’s Gospel…
Responsorial Psalm
51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab
R. 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.
It’s not that God doesn’t appreciate your sacrifices, especially during Lent. It’s that he doesn’t want empty ritual. God knows what’s in your heart, and so that’s what he’s looking for.
Give alms, say extra prayers, give up chocolate or twitter for Lent. Those are great, if you’re doing it out of love for God, if they’re the outward sign of an inner love
Verse before the Gospel
Ps 95:8
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
If you’re reading this blog, you hear his voice every day.1 So be extra careful not to harden your heart.
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.”
In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis says that you never really know how someone’s circumstances affect them. You may look at a Christian and think they’re a bad person, but because you can’t know what’s in their heart, you don’t know if they’d be even worse without their Christianity. The same is true in reverse; you don’t know how saintly an atheist could be if he found God.
So that’s the mistake the Pharisee is making. He has no idea how difficult it is for the tax collector. He has no idea how hard he’s trying to not steal, not skim off the top, not pay off the centurions and populares. What’s more, he doesn’t know how good he’d be in the same position.
We’d all like to think we’d resist temptations if we were presented with them, but we really never know. Would you be the only honest tax collector in Israel?
Except for yesterday. Sorry!