HUNGER IS NOT ONLY HAVING NO FOOD
Friday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 12:1-8
Jesus quotes for the second time the Prophet Hosea in the Gospel today. Defending His disciples from the criticism of the Pharisees, Jesus says, “It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice….”
Hosea 6:6 is Jesus’ favorite passage in the Sacred Scripture. This is the only verse in the Old Testament that Jesus quotes more than once. By doing so, Jesus reveals to us what truly pleases God.
God is not a supreme being that we should appease by sacrifices. While He accepts our sacrifices, sacrifices do not touch His heart as much as mercy does. “Mercy,” says St. Fautina Kowalska, “is God’s greatest attribute.” Thus, mercy, too, is God’s only weakness. He makes His love for us tangible by being merciful to us. He searches in our hearts for our mercy towards others. If love begets love, mercy should beget mercy, too.
Many of the Pharisees have little sense of God’s mercy because many of them are self-righteous. They do not see their need to repent and beg for forgiveness from God because they are blind to their own sins. They are more attentive to the demands of the Law, which, in their own claim, they satisfy to the minutest detail. Following the strict requirements of the Law is a sacrifice for them. We can recall here the example of the self-righteous Pharisees who went to the temple to pray, bragging before God how rigidly he observed the Law, making God appear indebted to him for his sacrifices. Worse, however, is when self-righteous Pharisees sacrifice others in the name of the Law. Come to think of it, in the Gospel today, they rather have the disciples starve if it fulfills the Sabbath law rather than allow the disciples satisfy their hunger even if it breaks the Sabbath.
It is not only the absence of food that explains why people hunger. The absence of mercy is the worse explanation hunger can ever have.
Mt 12:1-8
Jesus quotes for the second time the Prophet Hosea in the Gospel today. Defending His disciples from the criticism of the Pharisees, Jesus says, “It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice….”
Hosea 6:6 is Jesus’ favorite passage in the Sacred Scripture. This is the only verse in the Old Testament that Jesus quotes more than once. By doing so, Jesus reveals to us what truly pleases God.
God is not a supreme being that we should appease by sacrifices. While He accepts our sacrifices, sacrifices do not touch His heart as much as mercy does. “Mercy,” says St. Fautina Kowalska, “is God’s greatest attribute.” Thus, mercy, too, is God’s only weakness. He makes His love for us tangible by being merciful to us. He searches in our hearts for our mercy towards others. If love begets love, mercy should beget mercy, too.
Many of the Pharisees have little sense of God’s mercy because many of them are self-righteous. They do not see their need to repent and beg for forgiveness from God because they are blind to their own sins. They are more attentive to the demands of the Law, which, in their own claim, they satisfy to the minutest detail. Following the strict requirements of the Law is a sacrifice for them. We can recall here the example of the self-righteous Pharisees who went to the temple to pray, bragging before God how rigidly he observed the Law, making God appear indebted to him for his sacrifices. Worse, however, is when self-righteous Pharisees sacrifice others in the name of the Law. Come to think of it, in the Gospel today, they rather have the disciples starve if it fulfills the Sabbath law rather than allow the disciples satisfy their hunger even if it breaks the Sabbath.
It is not only the absence of food that explains why people hunger. The absence of mercy is the worse explanation hunger can ever have.
posted by Fr. Bobby @ 3:00 PM
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