O God, be merciful to me a sinner

SATURDAT 21 MARCH (Lk 18,9-14)

There are no just people before the Lord. Observing the whole law according to the heart of the Lord and loving him according to his will always makes us imperfect before him. The perfection asked is always very high. Our love is always incipient. In his prayer raised to the Lord, Solomon says that there is no man who does only good and does not sin: “When they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver them to the enemy, so that their captors deport them to a hostile land, far or near, may they repent in the land of their captivity and be converted. If then they entreat you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked’; if with their whole heart and soul they turn back to you in the land of the enemies who took them captive, pray to you toward the land you gave their fathers, the city you have chosen, and the temple I have built in your honor, listen from your heavenly dwelling. Forgive your people their sins and all the offenses they have committed against you, and grant them mercy before their captors, so that these will be merciful to them. For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of an iron furnace” (1Kings 8, 46-51). No one is perfect before God.

The Psalmist, after having celebrated and sung the beauty and sweetness of the Law, asks God for forgiveness for all the inadvertences against it: “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer” (Ps 19 (18) 8-15). That is how the psalmist always prays: “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications. If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared” (Ps 130 (129) 1-4). The sin of the Pharisee is threefold: of pride, of judgment and of foolishness. It is of pride because he believes to be holy, while he is a sinner. It is of judgment, because he despises the publican who is humbly asking for forgiveness. It is of foolishness because it is not valued from the fullness of revelation, but from his heart.

He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “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.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus wants to teach us that if we evaluate ourselves with a correct evaluation and use the meter of the divine Word, of all the divine Word, then we will discover that we are far from perfection and that we need a lot of mercy from the Lord. The law of mercy is for one thing: God is merciful to me, if I am merciful to my brothers. The Pharisee comes out of the temple with the burden of his sins because he had no mercy. Mercy to the brethren draws upon us all the mercy of the Father. God is not merciful to those who are not merciful.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, always make us rich in mercy, pity and compassion.