Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 9th March, 2024
Saturday, Third Week of Lent
Memorial of St Frances of Rome, religious my be made today
When we admit that we do not know how best to pray, only then are we ready to receive the gift of prayer
FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Hosea 5:15 – 6: 6
What I want is love, not sacrifice.
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
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.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 50
Response What I want is love, not sacrifice.
1. 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. Response
2. 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. Response
3. In your goodness, show favour to Zion: rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice, burnt offerings wholly consumed. Response
Gospel Acclamation Ps 94: 8
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
Harden not your hearts today, but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 18:9-14 Glory to you, O Lord.
The tax collector went home again at rights with God; the other did not.
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 Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Saturday. Third Week of Lent Luke 18:9-14
The parable in today’s gospel reading begins, ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray’. Both men did pray. The Pharisee prayed a prayer of thanksgiving, ‘I thank you, God…’. The tax-collector prayed a prayer of petition, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner’. Yet, only one prayer was acceptable to God. Only one person ‘went home at rights with God’. The difference between the two men’s prayer was what was in their heart when they prayed. The prayer of the Pharisee revealed a heart that looked down in judgement on a fellow worshipper. He thought of himself as morally better than the tax collector. The prayer of the tax collector revealed a heart that was humble and contrite before God. He knew that he had nothing to offer God and everything to receive from God, especially mercy.
In the first reading, speaking through the prophet Hosea, the Lord declares, ‘What I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts’. The journey to the Temple was an act of love for God, for both men. However, the heart of the Pharisee revealed a lack of love for the worshipper who stood close to him in the Temple. He considered him less acceptable to God than himself. The Pharisee was right to regard the tax collector as a sinner, but he failed to recognize that he too was a sinner. Both men went up to the Temple in need of God’s mercy, but only one of them recognized that reality. We all stand before the Lord as sinners. We all come before him in our poverty. None of us can get into the business of deciding who is less, or more, of a sinner than me. That is best left to God. All we can do is open ourselves to the Lord in our poverty and allow him to enrich us in his love, in other words, to pray the prayer of the tax collector.
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
