Reading 1
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.
Ps 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab
Responsorial PsalmR. (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.
Gosple
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.”
Meditation: Luke 18:9-14
“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” (Luke 18:13)
There’s one, it seems, in every crowd: the person who is so full of himself that his conversation inevitably swings to the subject of his own achievements, importance, and superiority. Have you traveled to some interesting place? She’s traveled more. Are your kids, grandkids, or students intelligent? His are geniuses. Do you golf, quilt, or cook? She does it better. Do you suffer from arthritis? No one has ever suffered like her—or borne the pain more nobly.
We flee people like this. And if God were like us, maybe he’d have fled too when he spotted the Pharisee in today’s parable coming up to the Temple to pray! Because although the man begins well— with “O God, I thank you”—his prayer of thanksgiving has nothing to do with God’s work. It’s all about the Pharisee: how much he’s doing for God and how brightly he shines out among the sinners. His words gush up like a fountain in smug praise of his own accomplishments and spiritual state.
Meanwhile, back there in last place, a tax collector is beating his breast. Eyes on the ground, hardly daring to speak in the presence of Almighty God, he utters just a few heartfelt words: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Is he repenting of having extorted a widow’s last coin? Is he a saint in tax-collector’s clothing? Jesus never says. It is clear, though, that this man knows his deep need for divine mercy, and he turns to God as the only one who can save him.
Today, Jesus invites each one of us to pray as the tax collector did, in humility and simplicity. So take your eyes off yourself, and fix them on God. Come into his presence, recalling his glorious majesty and his great love for you. If the Spirit leads, offer words of thanks and praise for everything that God has done for you. Or repent of your sins and failings.
And if words fail you, that’s fine! Because essentially, prayer isn’t about the words we bring to God. It’s about bringing him a heart that’s empty of self—a “broken, humbled heart” that he can heal and fill with his own love (Psalm 51:19).
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, I know that there’s some of the Pharisee in me. Have mercy on me, a sinner.”
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