Saturday of the Third Week of Lent Year 1 2023

Title

I Desire Loyalty

Outline

Loyalty is a tricky term

The prophets were loyal to Israel and Judah even when they predicted the victory of their enemies and even when they recommended surrender to the enemy

They were, of course, telling truth, God’s truth, and they were more loyal to God than to anything human, but under God they were also loyal to Israel and Judah in that they predicted judgment with tears and were seeking the good of their nation. (Jonah, of course, was not at all loyal to Assyria when he condemned it - the contrast is striking.) Likewise Dorothy Day was loyal to the USA although she opposed wars the nation was involved in. She could see where the good of the nation lay.

So we have Hosea’s heartrending cry.

“Come, let us return to the LORD, For it is he who has torn, but he will heal us;” That is what it looked like - God’s rending or, as he says, “I struck them down through the prophets, I killed them by the words of my mouth;”

But God’s judgments were amputations to keep the infection from killing the patient. They were warnings that were graphic descriptions of what would happen if they continued walking down the railroad track. While judgment did come, it was not as if God enjoyed it and not as if he had not tried to get the people to avoid it.

The people, of course, kept saying that they were following God - the temple was still functioning - but God says, “it is loyalty that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” There is no loyalty is the real gods being worshipped are those other than Yahweh.

Christians do the same when they point to lovely cathedrals with well-appointed masses (when that was the case) while their heart worship was that of mammon and Mars, as I like to say, although we should add in a good helping of pleasure and personal power.

Jesus puts it succinctly in Luke

Some religious folk were convinced of their own righteousness and despised others. That immediately tells us that their world revolved around them - their righteousness and status - and that they knew nothing of God’s love.

So the Pharisee goes up to pray and prays true things. He thanked God that he kept the Torah and then some: “I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.” The twice weekly fasting was a pious practice added to the Torah. He thanked God that he avoided Torah-condemned sins: “greedy, dishonest, adulterous.” Well, good on him for that - he would not be better off if he committed them - but he is the focus “I am not like the rest of humanity” - that I keeps popping up. The prayer is addressed to God but knows nothing about God.

The tax collector (who may have been honest in collecting the taxes or may not) is focused on God and when he looks at God he says, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ The one thing he knows about God is God’s mercy and he calls upon that mercy. His heart is with God and so he has true loyalty even if he was not welcome in the synagogue.

We see that it depends on whom we place our focus: the I/us or God: “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Sisters, we know these things or at least have heard them

The question is whether we are doing them. It is not whether the devil is tempting us to be Pharisees by putting I-centered comparison thoughts in our minds. It is whether we are really focused on and loyal to God and what grieves us most is that we are not merciful as God is merciful and we are not loving as God is loving. The question is not our religious observance, but whether we will not be satisfied with anything less than God in us and that that is why we say, Kyrie eleison.

As James and Jesus say, there is one right response to such texts: “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 3-18-2023: Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

FIRST READING

Hosea 6:1–6

1 “Come, let us return to the LORD,

For it is he who has torn, but he will heal us;

he has struck down, but he will bind our wounds.

2 He will revive us after two days;

on the third day he will raise us up,

to live in his presence.

3 Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD;

as certain as the dawn is his coming.

He will come to us like the rain,

like spring rain that waters the earth.”

4 What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?

Your loyalty is like morning mist,

like the dew that disappears early.

5 For this reason I struck them down through the prophets,

I killed them by the words of my mouth;

my judgment shines forth like the light.

6 For it is loyalty that I desire, not sacrifice,

and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Catholic Daily Readings 3-18-2023: Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

RESPONSE

Hosea 6:6

6 For it is loyalty that I desire, not sacrifice,

and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

PSALM

Psalm 51:3–4, 18–19, 20–21b

3 Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love;

in your abundant compassion blot out my transgressions.

4 Thoroughly wash away my guilt;

and from my sin cleanse me.

18 For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it;

a burnt offering you would not accept.

19 My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;

a contrite, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn.

20 Treat Zion kindly according to your good will;

build up the walls of Jerusalem.

21 Then you will desire the sacrifices of the just,

burnt offering and whole offerings;

then they will offer up young bulls on your altar.

Catholic Daily Readings 3-18-2023: Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Psalm 95:8

8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,

as on the day of Massah in the desert.

GOSPEL

Luke 18:9–14

9 He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. 10 “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ 13 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.’ 14 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.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 3-18-2023: Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2023 | LENT

SATURDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

YEARS 1 & 2 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

First Reading Hosea 6:1–6

Response Hosea 6:6

Psalm Psalm 51:3–4, 18–19, 20–21b

Gospel Acclamation Psalm 95:8

Gospel Luke 18:9–14

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