Responding Appropriately

~~~ Hosea 6:1-6 ~~~ Psalm 51 ~~~ Luke 18:9-14 ~~~

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled...

A sacrifice is the act of giving up something
 that you want to keep especially to get or do something else.
A sacrifice is a loss or something you give up,
usually for the sake of a better cause.

We can make sacrifices for many different reasons.
But often we gain something in return for the sacrifice.
Parents routinely make sacrifices so their
children can have a better life.

We sacrifice our selfish ways, our prideful thoughts and actions
so that we may have this closer relationship with God.
We would be nothing without him and yet we find ways to ignore him.
We find ways to close him out of our lives.
It happens before we even realize he is missing.
Do you ever feel as if you have replaced God
with something else in your life?
This exactly what happens when we sin;
we replace God with what we want
 to do instead of listening to him.

For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

More than anything else God wants us to love him.
We can make one sacrifice after another,
 but God simply wants us to love him.
The best way to love God more is to get to know him better.
The best way to get to know God better is to spend
more quality time with him.

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.’

The tax collector came to the temple
with his heart already in the state of repentance.
He came, not to brag about who he was or what he had done;
he came to seek God's mercy.
He came to spend more time with God.
He came to learn how to love God more
in response to his mercy.

During Lent there is great emphasis on our being repentant,
but every Mass begins with a penitential rite.
We begin the celebration of his death...
of our salvation with repentance.
We call to mind how God has loved us
and how we have failed to respond. 

This is how we fall into sin,
 we do not respond appropriately to God's love for us.

If we could consistently love God in return as much as he loves us
then how could we step into a life sin?

Perhaps we can never love God enough.
Loving him with our whole mind, body,
and soul may not be possible.

Just maybe loving our neighbor as ourselves
bolsters our ability to love God more.

The more time you spend with God
the better you will be at responding appropriately.

We are Blessed not by what we sacrifice,
but rather by how much we can love.

I invite you to take time this weekend to consider
how well you have responded to his love.
For it is love that he desires above all.
Peace.