Saturday of the Third Week of Lent ‘c’

Luke 18:9-14

Quite often we all try to justify our actions. This happens especially when we have done something wrong - when we sin and then we try to make excuses. For example - I did it because that person did it to me. I cheated because everybody else does. Or, I was mean to him because he was mean to me. But guess what - God doesn’t care why you have sinned. All God wants from us is to come to Him, to be sorry for our sins, and to ask for His mercy and forgiveness. There is a paradox in this gospel reading of the parable. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’” Here is the paradox: the one who tried to justify himself went home unjustified, and the one who only begged for mercy, went home forgiven.