March 13, 2021, Saturday
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent (Violet)
CYCLE B - YEAR I
RDGS: HOS 6:1-6/ PS 51:3-4. 18-19. 20-21
GOSPEL: LK 18:9-14
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 whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
GOSPEL REFLECTION:
What would you like to boast to God about? Let's be honest. There are times when we want to tell him how good we are, or the good we have done. We may look down on others' moral or spiritual life. This is just human. But it's not to be the end of the story of our relationship with God. We look on what is good in ourselves and know that all is gift; both our talents and what we have made of them. We end up with the prayer of the taxman - cover me O Lord with your mercy, for, with all my good deeds and intentions, there is a deeply sinful side of me which needs your mercy.
PRAYER:
God, be merciful to me, a sinner’ – let this be my prayer today and always. I must not leave my place of prayer today, thankful that I am not like the Pharisee! It is God who ‘justifies’ the ungodly tax collector, whose only virtue is that he is honest before God.
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