Saturday of the 3rd week of Lent
Hosea 5:15-6:6
Luke 18:9-14
The people to whom Hosea speaks to in today’s first reading have a piety like morning dew. They have come to know God as the one renews them , binds up all their wounds and heal them of their sufferings. They have come to realize God has their savior.
They figured out that God has being in control of their existence. In gratitude, they offer sacrifice, and count on this God who always shows up! Do we detect a note of privilege? How can we repay the Lord for his goodness to us? Yes, God will faithful forever. He keeps his covenant from age to age.
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee who went to pray in the Temple. The Pharisee felt he has found a fast lane on the mountain to God compared to the tax collector who is feeding himself with scraps in the desert.
In the ‘desert of his soul’ and from the depth of his heart, the tax collector encounters God’s mercy whilst the Pharisee slows himself up as he climbs the steep hill. We can gain the grace and blessings from the Lord without necessarily stepping on the little guy or those we regard as sinners along the path of our journey of faith.
PRAYER
In the wilderness of the desert or the winter of our hearts and souls may we meet the God who travels the margins, who shows us in sickness we are healed and in poverty we are rich.
May the Lord refresh you, renew his grace in you and give you an ever growing strength to face the demands of the day. May he watch over you always and make your weekend a fulfilled and fruitful one. Amen.
Fr Joseph Osho