A reading from the book of the prophet Hosea (5:15-6:6)
‘Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us apart and he will heal us;
he has struck us and he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us,
on the third day he will raise us up
and we shall live in his presence.
Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord.
His coming is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like a shower,
like the rain of springtime on the earth.’
‘What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
For your love is like morning mist,
like the dew that quickly disappears.
Therefore have I hacked them to pieces
by means of the prophets,
I have killed them with words from my mouth,
my judgement will blaze forth like the light,
for my pleasure is in faithful love, not sacrifice,
knowledge of God, not burnt offerings.
There are two speeches in this reading. The people begin by voicing their determination to ‘return’ to the Lord. The ‘third day’ is a metaphor for the arrival of God’s salvation. The people are convinced that God will come. But is this commitment of the people genuine, or mere words? A second speech, this time of God, begins: ‘What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you Judah?’ The Lord is anxious both about the northern kingdom, Israel, also known as Ephraim, and about the southern kingdom of Judah. God’s concern is that the people’s love is fickle. God is frustrated by the inconstancy of the people, whose love (hesed) is like mist, like dew which does not last. There has been so much disappointment. Hosea draws on his own personal experience to voice the anxiety that God feels about the relationship. What God desires is faithful love (hesed), and knowledge of God. The offering of sacrifices is worthless without these. God is still anxiously waiting.
Psalm 51 (50) The Miserere is used again with its penitential tones. The verses concerning true sacrifice tie up with the reading from Hosea.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (18:9-14)
Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being righteous, 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 everyone else, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I possess.” The tax collector stood at a distance, 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 justified; the other did not. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, but anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.’
The issue in the mind of Jesus is that of people who ‘pride themselves’ on being ‘righteous’. The parable is for them. At the end of the parable we will be told who was righteous in the eyes of God. The first man, who happens to be a Pharisee, is described as ‘praying to himself’. He is more concerned to denigrate ‘this tax-collector here’, whom he judges unrighteous, and quickly draws attention to his own virtuous deeds of fasting and tithe-paying. The second man, the tax-collector, raises his eyes to God and seeks God’s mercy. All he knows of righteousness is that he stands in need of it. It is not by works that we are saved, and certainly not by pride in our works, but by humble reliance on the mercy of God. The parable should leave no doubt in the minds of the ‘righteous’ who ‘despised everyone else’.
Do good works contribute to being righteous before God?
For those who are trapped in a judgemental mind-set, we pray.