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From: Hosea 6:1-6

True and false conversion â€“ a call for love, not sacrifice

[1] “Come let us return to the Lord;
For he has torn, that he may heal us;
He has stricken, and he will bind us up.
[2] After two days he will revive us;
On the third day he will raise us up,
That we may live before him.
[3] Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
His going forth is sure as the dawn;
He will come to us as the showers,
As the spring rains that water the earth.”

[4] What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
Like the dew that goes early away.
[5] Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of my mouth.
And my judgment goes forth as the light.”
[6] For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
The knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.

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Commentary:

6:1-7. The call to seek the Lord at the end of the previous oracle (5:15) is respon-
ded to in 6:1-3. We hear the people speaking, led by their representatives (the
prophet, or the priests). Having suffered (vv. 1-2), they are ready to repent and re-
turn to the Lord (v. 3). However, through the prophet the Lord tells them that their
love should be steadfast (vv. 4 and 6 speak of these) but it is like dew or a mor-
ning cloud: it does not survive the heat of the day. The rather puzzling reference
to “Adam” in v. 7 may mean the first man, but it could also be a city that stood
at the entrance to the promised land where the waters of the Jordan were
stopped to let the people cross (Josh. 13:16); the meaning of the passage does
not change much, whichever “Adam” is meant; the point is that transgression of
the Covenant has a long history that extends back almost to the beginning; their
faithfulness is as short-lived as the morning dew.

As against that, the Lord tells them where true worship lies — in steadfast love
and “knowledge of God” (v. 6). The first words of this verse have had a conside-
rable impact on Christian tradition, because they get to the heart of what religion
is all about, and because our Lord quotes them more than once (cf. Mt 9:13; 12:
7) to underscore his teaching that God judges not to condemn but to save: “For
their own good, God demanded of the Israelites not sacrifices and holocausts,
but faith, obedience and righteousness. He revealed his will through the words
of the prophet Hosea: I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of
God rather than burnt offerings (Hos 6:6). The Lord gives further advice, saying:
and if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you
would not have condemned the guiltless (Mt 12:7); and thus bear witness on be-
half of the prophets, who preached the truth, against all those who threw their ig-
norance in the faces of God’s servants” (St. Irenaeus, “Adversus haerseses”, 4,
17, 4).

In v. 2, the words “after two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise
us up” is a way of saying that the event described will happen in a short period
of time. Some Christian writers beginning with Tertullian read the verse as refer-
ring to Christ’s burial and resurrection; but the New Testament never quotes the
verse as prophecy. However, one cannot completely rule out Hosea 6:2 having
a connexion with the New Testament wording “on the third day he arose accor-
ding to the scriptures” (cf. 1 Cor 15:4) and with what Jesus said when he ap-
peared in the cenacle (Lk 24:46); cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 627.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 18:9-14

Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

[9] He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and despised others: [10] “Two men went up into the temple to
pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee stood and
prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men, extor-
tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week,
I give tithes of all that I get.’ [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not
even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to
me a sinner!’ [14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than
the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles
himself will be exalted.”

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Commentary:

9-14. Our Lord here rounds off His teaching on prayer. In addition to being perse-
vering and full of faith, prayer must flow from a humble heart, a heart that repents
of its sins: “Cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies” (Psalm 51:19);
the Lord, who never despises a contrite and humble heart, resists the proud and
gives His grace to the humble (cf. Peter 5:5; James 4:6).

The parable presents two opposite types—the Pharisee, who is so meticulous a-
bout external fulfillment of the Law; and the tax collector, who in fact is looked on
as a public sinner (cf. Luke 19:7). The Pharisee’s prayer is not pleasing to God,
because his pride causes him to be self-centered and to despise others. He be-
gins by giving thanks to God, but obviously it is not true gratitude, because he
boasts about all the good he has done and he fails to recognize his sins; since
he regards himself as righteous, he has no need of pardon, he thinks; and he re-
mains in his sinful state; to him also apply these words spoken by our Lord to a
group of Pharisees on another occasion: “If you were blind, you would have no
guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (John 9:41). The Phari-
see went down from the temple, therefore, unjustified.

But the tax collector recognizes his personal unworthiness and is sincerely sor-
ry for his sins: he has the necessary dispositions for God to pardon him. His eja-
culatory prayer wins God’s forgiveness: “It is not without reason that some have
said that prayer justifies; for repentant prayer or supplicant repentance, raising
up the soul to God and re-uniting it to His goodness, without doubt obtains par-
don in virtue of the holy love which gives it this sacred movement. And therefore
we ought all to have very many such ejaculatory prayers, said as an act of loving
repentance and with a desire of obtaining reconciliation with God, so that by thus
laying our tribulation before our Savior, we may pour out our souls before and wi-
thin His pitiful heart, which will receive them with mercy” (St. Francis de Sales,
“Treatise on the Love of God”, Book 2, Chapter 20).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.