Immersed in Christ: March 13, 2021
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Hosea 6:1-6; Psalm 5; Luke 18:9-14
Our Father Looks At The Heart
It is love that I desire… and knowledge of God. Hosea 6:6
The Pharisee in Luke 18 did not know God. He thought God wanted law observance. But God wants love.
If we believe those who keep God’s law are good Christians, and those who don’t are not, we are like the Pharisees. Jesus says people who are breaking God’s law, but feel terrible about it and are trying to change, are pleasing to God. People who find it easy to keep the rules, and feel they are better than others because of it, are not. They don’t know God. Or the New Law Jesus taught.
If we asked any of the Saints, “Are you keeping God’s law?” the answer would be, “I’m not even coming close!” To love God with our whole heart, and others no longer as ourselves, but as Jesus loves them (John 13:34), is beyond any perfection we reach on this earth.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7) Jesus gives guidelines for living on the level of God. He teaches God’s ideals. We will reach them in heaven, because “when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1John 3:2). Not before.
Until then we begin every Mass introducing ourselves as sinners: “I confess….”
If we know the Father, we will know ourselves as sinners, and simultaneously be afflicted and at peace.
ACTION: Read the Sermon on the Mount. Pragmatically.
PRAYER: “Father, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
Merci David de nous rappeler que la Foi ne se reconnait pas dans l'application des lois de l'Eglise mais dans la reconnaissance de cet amour inconditionnel que Dieu a pour nous. Amour qui nous entraine sur un chemin de pardon et de libération du péché.