GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Saturday - March 18, 2023

 

Saturday - March 18, 2023

“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.”

-St. Francis de Sales

 March 18, 2023

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

Lectionary: 242

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    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                                  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.

 

Verse Before the Gospel 

 

If today you hear his voice,

harden not your hearts. 

 

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,

and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

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The Healing Shadow of Jesus

When is a saint not a sinner?

A saint is anyone who has chosen to follow Jesus to heaven. We are baptized into sainthood. We are all saints! However, Jesus points out in this Saturday’s Gospel reading (Luke 18:9-14) that there’s pride in claiming to do all the right things and using this to prove that we are righteous. A truly holy person knows that he or she can be tempted to sin and continually relies on strength from the Holy Spirit while putting energy into a real effort to be holy.

So let me rephrase the question: When is a saint living out his true identity instead of living like a sinner? When he repents, of course.

In Saturday’s first reading (Hosea 6:1-6), we can identify with the affliction as well as with the desire to return to God: Until we’re healed by his forgiveness, we’re afflicted with the sorrow and regret of realizing how easily we stumble on our journey of faith. We want to be godly, and so, if we really take an honest look at how unlike Jesus we sometimes are, we feel wretched.

How do we cope with feeling so badly about ourselves? Most of us handle it by distracting ourselves from our wretchedness.

This is why Saturday confession lines in many churches are short. We’d rather live in the illusion that we don’t need the Sacrament of Reconciliation. However, the fact is, God doesn’t look at us and see ugly wretches. Remember, Jesus substituted himself for us. He who never sinned took our sins upon himself. When God our Father looks at us, it is through the filter of Christ’s blood. He recognizes us as a holy child who wants to be free of sin. And thus he is very pleased with us.

By placing ourselves behind Jesus, in the protection of his shadow, we have a great advantage.

So be the saint that you truly are by stepping into the confessional to ask Jesus to give you the power of his Holy Spirit to overcome your sins and to avoid them in the future. Go to Mass fully aware of how easily you sin, then receive God’s forgiveness in the Penitential Rite. Finally, go home realizing that you have been empowered in your sainthood through the graces received in Confession and in the Holy Eucharist.

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God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”