20190330 TRUE REPENTANCE
30 MARCH, 2019,
Saturday, 3rd Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Hosea 5:15-6:6 ©
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What I want is love, not sacrifice and
holocausts
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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.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 50(51):3-4,18-21 ©
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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.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps94:8
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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!
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Gospel
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Luke 18:9-14 ©
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The tax collector, not the Pharisee,
went home justified.
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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.’
TRUE REPENTANCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ HOSEA 5:15 – 6:6; LUKE 18:9-14 ]
We have come to the end
of the first half of the season of Lent. In the first three weeks of Lent, the liturgy
focused on the theme of repentance. To help us to repent, the Church also
recommends the various spiritual exercises, namely, prayer, fasting and
alms-giving as the principal means to arrive at a repentance of heart and a
conversion of life. Hence, after three weeks, the Church invites us to
reflect whether the spiritual exercises we have performed so far have brought
about the desired effects. Have we just performed them in a perfunctory
manner, lacking the right motive in what we do?
In the first reading
from the Prophet Hosea, the Lord lamented that the repentance of the Israelites
was not genuine but superficial.
He said, “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.” Would this disappointment of the Lord include us as
well? Have we been serious in seeking a real conversion of heart during
the season of Lent, or have we just been paying lip service, doing the
spiritual exercises without a real desire and sincere will to change our
lives? How might this have happened?
Firstly, when we return
to the Lord out of self-pity and selfish interests. The Lord said, “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.'” The Israelites came back to God not
because they recognized that their sins had caused others to suffer and rendered
the nation too weak to defend herself from her enemies. They came back to
God like little children out of fear and pain because of the punishment
inflicted on them. When we repent out of self-pity and fear, such
repentance will not last. The moment the punishment is removed we would
go back to our old way of life. Is not this the case for those of us who
ask for God’s forgiveness for the wrongs we have done, and when the crisis is
over we promptly go back to our old way of life?
Secondly, the Israelites
were contented with external sacrifices. They did not mind offering holocausts as
sacrifices, but the rituals were not expressive of their interior spirit.
This is what the Lord said, “what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of
God, not holocausts.” The psalmist rightly says, “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.” Rituals
are important in any religion, culture and even for the government. They
are meant to help people to remember and inculcate the values that they believe
in. Rituals are not empty expressions and void of values so long as they
are sincerely carried out. In the Old Testament, various rituals,
such as atonement sacrifices and the commemoration of significant feasts, such
as the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost were
celebrated. In the Catholic Tradition, we also have numerous traditions
and rituals celebrating the different feast and seasons of the liturgical year
and various occasions seeking God’s blessings and divine protection.
However, unless they are celebrated with our hearts and minds they are merely
externals and will not change lives. Many Catholics go to mass on
Sundays, abstain from meat on Fridays, some even attend mass daily, and say
their prayers, but have these impacted the way they relate with people, to the
elderly, their staff and their employees?
Thirdly, there was no
real repentance because they were presumptuous of God’s mercy and love. What they said about the mercy and
compassion of God is true. They said, “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.” However,
unless the people have genuine repentance, the Lord would not come to their
aid. Indeed, this was the case for Israel. They did not repent and
so instead of suffering for two or three days, the Lord allowed the kingdom to
be conquered by Assyria. They were exiled and banished from Israel.
We must not reduce the grace of God to cheap grace. This is what St Paul
also warns us after a long treatise on justification by faith alone through
grace. He said, “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in
order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on
living in it?” (Rom 6:1f) We too, if we
abuse the grace of God, we will eventually destroy ourselves. “For
freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again
to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)
At the other end of the
spectrum, the Pharisee in the gospel did not feel the need for repentance at
all. He thought that
everyone needed repentance except himself because he was such a righteous
man. Many of us fall into the sin of self-righteousness as well. We
think repentance and conversion is for others, the adulterer, the cheat, the
abuser, etc, except ourselves. Many of us pride ourselves as quite good
Catholics, like the Pharisee in today’s gospel. He said, “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.” If we belong to this group of self-righteous
sinners, we are even worse than the Israelites who knew their sins but lacked
the will to change their lives. For those of us who are not even aware of
our sinfulness, no conversion is possible.
Indeed, instead of
focusing on our own conversion, those of us who are self-righteous are always
looking at others, comparing ourselves with them, looking down on them and
despising them. This
was the reason for the parable. “Jesus spoke the following parable to
some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone
else.” Being self-righteous and presumptuous is ultimately the sin of
pride. When we are proud, we are blind to our weaknesses and our sins. We
alienate ourselves from others and lack compassion and understanding for those
who fail to live up to the Christian life. As a result, we will
never grow in holiness, which is to become like God in love, mercy and
compassion.
Those who are
self-righteous have failed to understand that salvation and holiness is the
grace of God and not through good works. Unfortunately, many Catholics think that by
living a righteous life and following the laws perfectly they will be
saved. That is why Catholics are over scrupulous when it comes to
breaking the commandments. St Paul clearly teaches that salvation is
through grace alone, and not by our works. It is through His grace alone
that makes it possible for us to do good works. “For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God
– not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what
he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand to be our way of life.” (Eph 2:8f) Obedience is the consequence of
receiving His grace and the expression of a life of gratitude for the grace we
received freely.
True repentance is
simply to be contrite and humble, like the Publican in today’s gospel. We read that “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.” He did not
say much because he knew that the Lord knew all his sins. But God read
his heart and understands his sorrow for all that he had done. He was
truly repentant from the heart. There was no external show, no drama to
attract others, but he simply acknowledged his sins, the pain he has caused to
others and to God. Hence, the Lord remarked, “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.”
Indeed, what the Lord is
asking of us in true repentance is a contrite heart born out of love and
expressed in obedience.
He said, “what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not
holocausts.” Real repentance is the consequence of realizing that our
sins are hurting God and the people that He loves. Knowing that our
sins are hurting us and causing us to suffer is not yet real repentance.
We must be moved by love for those whom we have hurt. That is why the
Lord said that what He wants is knowledge of Him. When we know the heart
of God and how much we are hurting Him, then we will stop inflicting these
injuries on those whom He loves. If in sincerity we repent of our sins,
then this prayer of the Israelites will be effective in our lives. “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.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
