Saturday

3rd Week of Lent

1st Reading: Hosea 6:1-6

True and false conversion – a call for love, not sacrifice
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[1] "Come let us return to the Lord;
For he has torn, that he may heal us;
He has stricken, and he will bind us up.
[2] After two days he will revive us;
On the third day he will raise us up,
That we may live before him.
[3] Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
His going forth is sure as the dawn;
He will come to us as the showers,
As the spring rains that water the earth."

[4] What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
Like the dew that goes early away.
[5] Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of my mouth.
And my judgment goes forth as the light."
[6] For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
The knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.

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Commentary:

6:1-7. The call to seek the Lord at the end of the previous oracle (5:15) is res-
ponded to in 6:1-3. We hear the people speaking, led by their representatives
(the prophet, or the priests). Having suffered (vv.1-2), they are ready to repent 
and return to the Lord (v. 3). However, through the prophet the Lord tells them 
that their love should be steadfast (vv. 4 and 6 speak of hesed) but it is like dew
or a morning cloud: it does not survive the heat of the day. The rather puzzling
reference to "Adam" in v. 7 may mean the first man, but it could also be a city
that stood at the entrance to the promised land where the waters of the Jordan
were stopped to let the people cross (Josh. 13:16); the meaning of the passage
does not change much, whichever "Adam" is meant; the point is that trans-
gression of the Covenant has a long history that extends back almost to the
beginning; their faithfulness is as short-lived as the morning dew.

As against that, the Lord tells them where true worship lies – in steadfast love
and "knowledge of God" (v. 6). The first words of this verse have had a consid-
erable impact on Christian tradition, because they get to the heart of what reli-
gion is all about, and because our Lord quotes them more than once (cf. Mt
9:13; 12:7) to underscore his teaching that God judges not to condemn but to
save:"For their own good, God demanded of the Israelites not sacrifices and ho-
locausts, but faith, obedience and righteousness. He revealed his will through 
the words of the prophet Hosea: I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the 
knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings (Hos 6:6). The Lord gives further 
advice, saying: and if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not
sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless (Mt 12:7); and thus bear 
witness on behalf of the prophets, who preached the truth, against all those who
threw their ignorance in the faces of God's servants" (St. Irenaeus, Adversus 
haerseses, 4, 17, 4).

In v. 2, the words "after two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise
us up" is a way of saying that the event described will happen in a short period
of time. Some Christian writers beginning with Tertullian read the verse as refer-
ring to Christ's burial and resurrection; but the New Testament never quotes the
verse as prophecy. However, one cannot completely rule out Hosea 6:2 having
a connexion with the New Testament wording "on the third day he arose accor-
ding to the scriptures" (cf. 1 Cor 15:4) and with what Jesus said when he ap-
peared in the cenacle (Lk 24:46); cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 627.


Gospel Reading: Luke 18:9-14

Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
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[9] He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and despised others: [10] "Two men went up into the temple to
pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee stood and
prayed thus with himself, `God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men, extor-
tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week,
I give tithes of all that I get.' [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not
even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to
me a sinner!' [14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than
the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles
himself will be exalted."

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Commentary:

9-14. Our Lord here rounds off His teaching on prayer. In addition to being perse-
vering and full of faith, prayer must flow from a humble heart, a heart that repents
of its sins: "Cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies" (Psalm 51:19);
the Lord, who never despises a contrite and humble heart, resists the proud and
gives His grace to the humble (cf. Peter 5:5; James 4:6).

The parable presents two opposite types--the Pharisee, who is so meticulous
about external fulfillment of the Law; and the tax collector, who in fact is looked
on as a public sinner (cf. Luke 19:7). The Pharisee's prayer is not pleasing to
God, because his pride causes him to be self-centered and to despise others.
He begins by giving thanks to God, but obviously it is not true gratitude, because
he boasts about all the good he has done and he fails to recognize his sins;
since he regards himself as righteous, he has no need of pardon, he thinks; and
he remains in his sinful state; to him also apply these words spoken by our Lord
to a group of Pharisees on another occasion: "If you were blind, you would have
no guilt; but now that you say, `We see,' your guilt remains" (John 9:41). The
Pharisee went down from the temple, therefore, unjustified.

But the tax collector recognizes his personal unworthiness and is sincerely sorry
for his sins: he has the necessary dispositions for God to pardon him. His eja-
culatory prayer wins God's forgiveness: "It is not without reason that some have
said that prayer justifies; for repentant prayer or supplicant repentance, raising
up the soul to God and re-uniting it to His goodness, without doubt obtains par-
don in virtue of the holy love which gives it this sacred movement. And therefore
we ought all to have very many such ejaculatory prayers, said as an act of loving
repentance and with a desire of obtaining reconciliation with God, so that by thus
laying our tribulation before our Savior, we may pour out our souls before and
within His pitiful heart, which will receive them with mercy" (St. Francis de Sales,
"Treatise on the Love of God", Book 2, Chapter 20).
　

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

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