20220326 INSINCERE LOVE
26 March, 2022, Saturday, 3rd Week of Lent
First reading | Hosea 5:15-6:6 © |
What I want is love, not sacrifice and holocausts
The Lord says this:
They will search for me in their misery.
‘Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us;
he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds;
after a day or two he will bring us back to life,
on the third day he will raise us
and we shall live in his presence.
Let us set ourselves to know the Lord;
that he will come is as certain as the dawn
his judgement will rise like the light,
he will come to us as showers come,
like spring rains watering the earth.’
What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
This love of yours is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that quickly disappears.
This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets,
why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth,
since what I want is love, not sacrifice;
knowledge of God, not holocausts.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 50(51):3-4,18-21 © |
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
In your goodness, show favour to Zion:
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice,
burnt offerings wholly consumed.
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps94:8 |
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
Gospel | Luke 18:9-14 © |
The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified.
Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’
INSINCERE LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [HOSEA 5:15 – 6:6; LUKE 18:9-14]
We feel disgusted when we find out that those who profess their love for us are insincere. They use flattery to make us feel loved and great about ourselves. They pretend to be caring and interested in our lives. They make empty promises and even send us gifts to win over our confidence in them. This is especially devastating for those lonely individuals who are seeking love, companionship and intimacy. Instead of finding true love, they find themselves cheated of their life savings.
This was the case of Israel in their relationship with God. They appeared to be sincere and full of faith. They said, “Come, let us return to the Lord.” Indeed, they seemed sincere in their desire to return to the Lord and to seek His forgiveness. They were so sure that God would forgive them. “He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds; after a day or two he will bring us back to life, on the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his presence.” They were so full of confidence that all would be well again. “Let us set ourselves to know the Lord; that he will come is as certain as the dawn, he will come to us as showers come, like spring rains watering the earth.”
Such words of faith in God’s mercy and restoration unfortunately lacked sincerity. The Lord lamented, “What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah? This love of yours is like a morning cloud, like the dew that quickly disappears.” They were not serious in repentance. Their love for God was a passing emotional response. When they suffered, they would turn back to the Lord. When things were back to normal, they would forget about God again. Their love for God was shallow. The sacrifices they offered to the Lord did not come from a contrite and repentant heart. This was why the Lord said, “This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets, why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth, his judgement will rise like the light, since what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.” Eventually they would be punished severely because of the lack of repentance. They were eventually exiled to Babylon because they did not take heed of the Lord’s call to repentance through His prophets.
This was the case of the Pharisee as well. He was not honest in acknowledging God and in thanking Him. His prayer at the Temple was just a show, not to thank God but to praise himself. Although, he began by saying, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get”, it was not a sincere thanksgiving, acknowledging that his virtuous life was but the grace and mercy of God working in Him. Instead the “I” is very strong and accentuated throughout his prayer. “I am not …” It was about himself, his efforts, his achievements and how different he was from the rest of the world. He was a man so absorbed in himself that he could only see himself, not God and when he saw his fellowman, he could not but despise him. Such a self-righteous man was but praying to himself and boasting about himself to God that he had done all these things by his own effort. He was praying to himself and worshipping himself rather than God.
In contrast, “the tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven.” This tax collector recognized his sinfulness and hence felt too unworthy even to approach the Lord. He felt completely humbled before the Lord and felt sorry for his many sins. “He beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'” He did not say a long prayer to God or even listed out his many sins. He was truly sorry and lost for words. God did not need him to confess his sins aloud for Him to hear because God read the sorrow in his heart. It was enough that the man was contrite and truly felt sorry for his sins. As the psalmist says, “For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Ps 51:16f) The Lord remarked, “This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not.”
Indeed, all that God wants of us is sincerity of heart. This explains why in situations when a person cannot make a sacramental confession because of illness and unable to communicate or unable to find a priest, he only needs to make the act of perfect contrition for his sins to be forgiven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1452 teaches, “When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is called “perfect” (contrition of charity). Such contrition remits venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible.” The prophet Hosea said, “what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.” God desires our perfect love. Sacrifice and holocausts might be good to demonstrate our love for God but they could also be used as an attempt to hide our lack of love for God and give the impression to others that we are sorry for our sins and that we love God. What the Lord asks of us is perfect love.
When we are sincere in love and perfect in love, then we will do all things with love and for love. Our external worship and the actions we do come from a heart of love. We love only because God has first loved us. We love only because God’s love is in our hearts. This is why we want to share that love with others. And when we do that, our love is always free and comes from a deep gratitude inside us. Not that we feel we are better than others but we feel grateful that God has loved us and blessed us with His grace to do good. When we love in that manner, there is no pride, ego or comparison with others.
This is why the Lord said that humility is the gateway to love. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.” Humility is the prerequisite to recognizing our sinfulness, unworthiness and dependence on God. Without humility, we will end up thinking that we have earned it all. God and others should be grateful to us for being so kind, generous and self-sacrificing. Pride is the cause of the fall of every man. Pride alienates him from others. To make a perfect prayer and a perfect sacrifice, we must be humble. To pray well, we must not only pray for ourselves but for others because we are all sinners before God. We must never forget that we all need God’s grace.
Hence, instead of comparing ourselves with our fellowmen, we should in our spiritual progress examine ourselves in comparison to our Lord. Jesus is the perfect image of God and the first born from the dead. We are called to be more and more like Him in love, humility and self-sacrifice. When we look at Jesus and when we look at ourselves, then we will always remain humble because we can never catch up with the true man and true God in love. But in all humility, we turn to Him and grow in “the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Eph 4:13) Together with the rest of humanity, we must also say to the Lord, “Be merciful to me, a sinner.”
It is significant that the evangelist places the episode of Jesus blessing the children after this parable to underscore the necessary virtue of humility. “People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.'” (Lk 18:15-17) We must be like little children, grateful for whatever we receive from God. Even though we might not be recognized as important to society, the Lord welcomes and loves us all the same. So we must receive the kingdom of God like a child, in all humility, in all gratitude, in total dependence on God for everything, and cooperating with His grace.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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