Saturday 29 March 2025
Hosea 5:15 – 6:6. It is steadfast love, not sacrifice, that God desires – Ps 50(51):3-4, 18-21. Luke 18:9-14.
Putting ourselves at rights with God
The psalmist declares that ‘It is steadfast love, not sacrifice, that God desires’. The reading from the prophet Hosea tells us the same: ‘what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts’, and then in the Gospel, Jesus’ parable about the two men in the Temple. It was the tax collector, recognising himself as a sinner, who went home at rights with God, not the Pharisee who prided himself on being virtuous. The Lenten message is clear, what we need to be doing is putting ourselves at rights with God. Not thinking of our own preciousness but rather recognising our vulnerability, frailty and our constant need for God’s mercy. As we prepare for the Easter liturgies let us hold fast to this wisdom; the liturgy is not about our glory and the spectacle but about placing ourselves gratefully in God’s mercy.
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