Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord. PS 94:8
My Soul's Beloved,
Nothing that You have done from the time You laid the foundations of the earth has been hidden from us, whom You, O Lord, created in love. All we need to do to know Your will is to look for it daily in Your Sacred Word. Your plans for us in the world, in Your Church, and in our lives. We need to be so familiar with it that nothing will frighten us, alarm us, or discourage us. Rather, we will be encouraged, hopeful, and enthused always to actively seek Your will in all things and do it gladly and promptly.
The reason the yoke grows heavier and heavier is because we are being chastised for deliberately seeking our will over Yours. We prefer to wallow in the mire of sin and feed on scraps rather than claim our inheritance as children of God. We look for fulfillment in the noise and distractions of the world instead of seeking You in silence and contemplating with grateful hearts what the love of God has wrought for us in creating, saving, and redeeming us.
When we are contrite, repentant, and humble, You wash away our sins and restore our friendship with You. You fill us with the grace of the Holy Spirit and with joy and peace. These gifts are freely given to us when we approach You in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but we do not make use of this healing Sacrament as often as we can. You love us greatly, and You pursue us relentlessly. There is no place we can hide from You. You do not give up on us, and as long as we have breath in our bodies, You will seek us, woo us tenderly, and invite us to seek perfect joy and rest in You, and when we return to You, You will rejoice over us and restore to us all that we lost in rejecting You. Pity us, Lord, and do not permit our stupidity and foolishness to ever take us so far away from You that we are lost forever.
The Lord says this:
They will search for me in their misery.
‘Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us;
he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds;
after a day or two he will bring us back to life,
on the third day he will raise us
and we shall live in his presence.
Let us set ourselves to know the Lord;
that he will come is as certain as the dawn:
his judgement will rise like the light,
he will come to us as showers come,
like spring rains watering the earth.’
What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
This love of yours is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that quickly disappears.
This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets,
why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth,
since what I want is love, not sacrifice;
knowledge of God, not holocausts.
PSALM 50(51):3-4,18-21
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
In your goodness, show favour to Zion:
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice,
burnt offerings wholly consumed.
Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous 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 the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, 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 at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’
The Lord says this:
They will search for me in their misery.
‘Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us;
he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds;
after a day or two he will bring us back to life,
on the third day he will raise us
and we shall live in his presence.
Let us set ourselves to know the Lord;
that he will come is as certain as the dawn:
his judgement will rise like the light,
he will come to us as showers come,
like spring rains watering the earth.’
What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
This love of yours is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that quickly disappears.
This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets,
why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth,
since what I want is love, not sacrifice;
knowledge of God, not holocausts.
PSALM 50(51):3-4,18-21
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
In your goodness, show favour to Zion:
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice,
burnt offerings wholly consumed.
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
LUKE 18:9-14
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
Pride and self-aggrandizement are the hallmarks of Satan and his followers. Too often, many of us believe that God will accept as worthy our lip service in following Your Commandments and offering token signs of love for You, whereas in truth our hearts are far away from You. Some among us belong to all the right associations, making quite sure that we are visible and at the forefront of all the activities organized by the parish. We attend every mission, novena, and any other religious and social activities that are held, and lose no opportunity to announce to anyone who will listen of our prominence and all of our good works. To those of us guilty of this, You will some day say, 'Depart from Me, I never knew you.'
Let us contemplate this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer and carefully and honestly examine our own conscience. Let me look unflinchingly at where and when I act like the Pharisee, seeking to be known for my good works, my daily Holy Mass attendance, preening with self-satisfaction at the good that God in His infinite goodness allows me to do, but I turn it into self-applause.
Have mercy on me, O Lord. Grant me the grace to make a rigorous self-examination of all my faults, reveal these wounds to You, allow You to grant me wisdom to see myself as I am, and to be healed of these sins. Grant me grace to look unflinchingly at my faults, my failings, and my sins and confess them so I can receive Your forgiveness and restoration as a child of God once again.
Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous 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 the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, 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 at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’
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