2023년 3월 18일 사순 제3주간 토요일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
<내가 바라는 것은 희생 제물이 아니라 신의다.>
제1독서
호세아 예언서. 6,1-6
1 자, 주님께 돌아가자.
그분께서 우리를 잡아 찢으셨지만 아픈 데를 고쳐 주시고
우리를 치셨지만 싸매 주시리라.
2 이틀 뒤에 우리를 살려 주시고 사흘째 되는 날에 우리를 일으키시어
우리가 그분 앞에서 살게 되리라.
3 그러니 주님을 알자. 주님을 알도록 힘쓰자.
그분의 오심은 새벽처럼 어김없다.
그분께서는 우리에게 비처럼, 땅을 적시는 봄비처럼 오시리라.
4 에프라임아, 내가 너희를 어찌하면 좋겠느냐?
유다야, 내가 너희를 어찌하면 좋겠느냐?
너희의 신의는 아침 구름 같고
이내 사라지고 마는 이슬 같다.
5 그래서 나는 예언자들을 통하여 그들을 찍어 넘어뜨리고
내 입에서 나가는 말로 그들을 죽여 나의 심판이 빛처럼 솟아오르게 하였다.
6 정녕 내가 바라는 것은 희생 제물이 아니라 신의다.
번제물이 아니라 하느님을 아는 예지다.
복음
<바리사이가 아니라 세리가 의롭게 되어 집으로 돌아갔다.>
루카. 18,9-14
그때에 9 예수님께서는 스스로 의롭다고 자신하며
다른 사람들을 업신여기는 자들에게 이 비유를 말씀하셨다.
10 “두 사람이 기도하러 성전에 올라갔다.
한 사람은 바리사이였고 다른 사람은 세리였다.
11 바리사이는 꼿꼿이 서서 혼잣말로 이렇게 기도하였다.
‘오, 하느님! 제가 다른 사람들,
강도 짓을 하는 자나 불의를 저지르는 자나 간음을 하는 자와 같지 않고
저 세리와도 같지 않으니, 하느님께 감사드립니다.
12 저는 일주일에 두 번 단식하고 모든 소득의 십일조를 바칩니다.’
13 그러나 세리는 멀찍이 서서 하늘을 향하여
눈을 들 엄두도 내지 못하고 가슴을 치며 말하였다.
‘오, 하느님! 이 죄인을 불쌍히 여겨 주십시오.’
14 내가 너희에게 말한다.
그 바리사이가 아니라 이 세리가 의롭게 되어 집으로 돌아갔다.
누구든지 자신을 높이는 이는 낮아지고
자신을 낮추는 이는 높아질 것이다.”
March 18, 2023
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Daily Mass : https://www.youtube.com/@CatholicTV
: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyTVMass/videos
Books of the BIble : https://bible.usccb.org/bible
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.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab
R. (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.
Gospel
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,
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
At first, there appear to be two separate threads in today’s readings. Hosea ends with the God telling us “. . . it is love I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” And the message from Jesus that Luke conveys is related – the Pharisee believes he is entitled to salvation because he “sacrifices” by tithing and fasting, while the tax collector merely prays for mercy. Jesus concludes that the tax collector is “justified” – connected to God in the way Hosea described, by love, not merely sacrifices. After reflection, from my perspective, these two passages can be synthesized as follows.
Jesus came into the world of the Roman Empire, a time in human history where there were significant disparities between the haves and have nots. Pharisees were religious, but many times were more concerned not with their true spiritual calling, but how they appeared both to their fellow Jews and also to God. The Pharisees’ approach to religious practices generally centered around doing the right thing, but not always for the right reason. Many of them were prideful, entitled, and self-centered. I read one commentator on this passage who noted that this Pharisee really didn’t pray FOR something when he was in the temple, but merely recited all the good things he was doing to display his piety. His conversation with God was a series of “I” statements about his actions, but his actions seem to be disconnected from what God wants. The tax collector, a reviled person in Israel at this time (unlike the IRS today, he was a sanctioned extortionist by the Roman occupiers), recognized his personal sinfulness without feeling the need to compare himself to others, and prayed for mercy. He did not feel the need (the right?) to catalog his goodness but merely to ask for forgiveness for his sins.
I tried to give the Pharisee the benefit of the doubt by putting his prayer into a more positive light. After all, as many of us have done, he was following the dictates of his religion very faithfully and strictly. In fact, he exceeded the expectations – fasted more frequently, fully tithed (10%) his income for use by the temple, was not greedy or adulterous. He certainly felt that he was doing the right things. But it is hard to get past his insistence of bragging about his actions. He might have acted in admirable ways, but for what motive – i.e., where was his heart when he was doing all the doing? Wouldn’t his prayer have been more pleasing to God if he had not compared himself to the tax collector? Would his actions have been more powerful if they had been motivated by gratitude to his Creator, rather than how he looked to his contemporaries?
I also reflect on how easy it is to feel the smug sense of entitlement and rationalization that the Pharisee exhibits. I know I have in the past unfairly compared myself to my sisters and brothers who are in different economic circumstances. Haven’t I sinned as the Pharisee did? I know that I have gone through a checklist and felt good (smug?) about merely following the rules. Is that what God wants? I have worked hard for 50+ years to be in the financial position that I enjoy – I feel grateful to be blessed in this way, but I acknowledge it is tempting to look with insensitivity on those who have not been as successful.
Ultimately, sacrifices and self-denial are good, not in themselves, but as a vehicle for fully appreciating the incredible gift we have received from our Creator to enjoy this physical life. Our spiritual nature is the immortal in each of us, and when our physical life in this world ends, that spirit passes on to the next phase of our existence. Thoughtful self-denial reminds us that we shouldn’t be attached to the good things in our current physical existence because that attachment can distract us from why God gave us this opportunity. God reminds us in Hosea, it seems to me, that love, and knowledge of God, come not from the sacrifices where we have the Pharisee’s motives, but from the conscious awareness that we are using the blessings of our physical life as God intended.
My prayer today is for the grace to repent for the times when I have dis-connected my actions from God’s calling to be authentic to my true self, and to guard against smug rationalizations and feelings of entitlement.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
PRAYING TO GOD OR SELF?
“Believe Me, this man went home from the temple justified but the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled while he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” —Luke 18:14
The Pharisee in today’s Gospel reading was not humble but self-centered. When he prayed, he “prayed to himself” (see Lk 18:11, RSV-CE) and talked more about himself than about God. Also, the Pharisee focused his prayer on himself by favorably comparing himself with a tax collector praying in the back of the Temple (Lk 18:11).
The Pharisee was destroying himself by his self-addiction. He was one of those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others” (Lk 18:9, RSV-CE). When we rely on ourselves, we will be unforgiving towards others, for “to err is human, to forgive is divine.” Only those relying on God’s power can forgive. Those relying on their own power cannot forgive.
When we don’t forgive, we ourselves are not forgiven, for the Lord told us to pray to be forgiven as we forgive those who sin against us (Mt 6:12). When we don’t receive God’s forgiveness, we don’t see Him as our loving Abba. Under these circumstances, we naturally tend to pray to ourselves rather than to God. Of course, this kind of prayer is meaningless at best. We may as well just stop praying — which many people have done. Our only hope of escaping from this damning dilemma is to repent of relying on ourselves and to give our lives totally to Christ (see Rm 7:24-25).
Prayer: Father, I give my heart to You so I can pray to You.
Promise: “A heart contrite and humbled, O God, You will not spurn.”—Ps 51:19
Praise: St. Cyril of Jerusalem defended the divinity of Christ despite much personal suffering.
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
How can we know if our prayer is pleasing to God or not? The prophet Hosea, who spoke in God's name, said: "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6). The prayers and sacrifices we make to God mean nothing to him if they do not spring from a heart of love for God and for one's neighbor. How can we expect God to hear our prayers if we do not approach him with humility and with a contrite heart that seeks mercy and forgiveness? We stand in constant need of God's grace and help. That is why Scripture tells us that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34).
Jesus reinforced this warning with a vivid story of two people at prayer. Why did the Lord accept one person's prayer and reject the other's prayer? Luke gives us a hint: despising one's neighbor closes the door to God's heart. Expressing disdain and contempt for others is more than being mean-minded. It springs from the assumption that one is qualified to sit in the seat of judgment and to publicly shame those who do not conform to our standards and religious practices. Jesus' story caused offense to the religious-minded Pharisees who regarded "tax collectors" as unworthy of God's grace and favor. How could Jesus put down a "religious person" and raise up a "public sinner"?
Jesus' parable speaks about the nature of prayer and our relationship with God. It does this by contrasting two very different attitudes towards prayer. The Pharisee, who represented those who take pride in their religious practices, exalted himself at the expense of others. Absorbed with his own sense of self-satisfaction and self-congratulation, his boastful prayer was centered on his good religious practices rather than on God's goodness, grace, and pardon. Rather than humbling himself before God and asking for God's mercy and help, this man praised himself while despising those he thought less worthy. The Pharisee tried to justify himself before God and before those he despised; but only God can justify us. The tax collector, who represented those despised by religious-minded people, humbled himself before God and begged for mercy. His prayer was heard by God because he had true sorrow for his sins. He sought God with humility rather than with pride.
This parable presents both an opportunity and a warning. Pride leads to self-deception and spiritual blindness. True humility helps us to see ourselves as we really are in God's eyes and it inclines us to seek God's help and mercy. God dwells with the humble of heart who recognize their own sinfulness and who acknowledge God's mercy and saving grace. I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit (Isaiah 57:15). God cannot hear us if we boast in ourselves and despise others. Do you humbly seek God's mercy and do you show mercy to others, especially those you find difficult to love and to forgive?
Lord Jesus, may your love and truth transform my life - my inner thoughts, intentions, and attitudes, and my outward behavior, speech, and actions. Where I lack charity, kindness, and forbearance, help me to embrace your merciful love and to seek the good of my neighbor, even those who cause me ill-favor or offense. May I always love as you have loved and forgive others as you have forgiven.
Psalm 51:1-4, 16-19
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless in your judgment.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: God's mercy is our only hope, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"Driven out of paradise by You and exiled in a distant land, I cannot return by myself unless You, O Lord, come to meet me in my wandering. My return is based on hope in your mercy during all of my earthly life. My only hope, the only source of confidence, and the only solid promise is your mercy." (excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 24,5)
'오늘의 복음' 카테고리의 다른 글
| March 20, 2023 Solemnity of Saint Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (0) | 2023.03.20 |
|---|---|
| March 19, 2023 Fourth Sunday of Lent (0) | 2023.03.19 |
| March 17, 2023 Friday of the Third Week of Lent (0) | 2023.03.17 |
| March 16, 2023 Thursday of the Third Week of Lent (0) | 2023.03.16 |
| March 15, 2023 Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent (0) | 2023.03.15 |