† Sunday, 8th June 2008
Cycle of Prayer: those who suffer persecution, oppression, denial of human rights
Keynote: Faith – our response to God’s care and protection
Prophet Hosea 6:3–6
The prophet calls the people to repent, ‘Let us set ourselves to know the Lord; that he will come is as certain as the dawn his judgement will rise like the light, he will come to us as showers come, like spring rains watering the earth.’ But with what is almost a cry of desperation, the prophet asks, ‘What am I to do with you, Judah? This love of yours is like a morning cloud, like the dew that quickly disappears.’ The prophet complains that their allegiance to God and the Law is fickle and uncertain. So often, God’s People turn away from the true God, and go back to their pagan ways. Hosea says, ‘What I want is love, not sacrifices; knowledge of God, not holocausts.’ In the gospel passage today, Jesus echoes this plea for true fidelity and repentance.
Responsorial Psalm 49 [50] – A thanksgiving song proclaiming God’s salvation
Letter of Paul to the Romans 4:18–25
One of the Eucharistic Prayers speaks of Abraham as ‘our father in faith’. Despite their advancing years, Abraham never doubted that God’s promise – that he and Sarah would have a son would come to pass. Paul says, ‘Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed… (Abraham) drew strength from faith and gave glory to God, convinced that God had power to do what he had promised. This is the faith that was “considered as justifying him”’. Paul then reminds his readers, ‘our faith too will be “considered” if we believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Jesus who was put to death for our sins and raised to life to justify us.’
Gospel according to Matthew 9:9–13
Even today, unjustly maybe, the tax collector is one of the despised trades or professions! In Jesus’ day, such tax collectors were collaborators with the Imperial Roman authorities and were considered disloyal, suspected of treason by the Jewish people. The fact that the tax collectors also used their position to extort a higher margin of profit than legally due made for hatred of this class of public servant. But it is among these ‘hated persons’ that Jesus is to be found. The gospel tells us, Jesus ‘saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and Jesus said to him, “follow me.” Then later while he was at dinner in the house, ‘It happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples.’ When challenged by the self-righteous law abiding Pharisees, Jesus tells them, ‘It is not the healthy that need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: “What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.”
© Peter J Harrison 2007