Friday July 7, 2023

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“Rules without compassion do nothing but push people away from repentance.”

Good News Reflection for:

Friday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
July 7, 2023

Today’s Prayer:

Lord, give me a merciful heart, able to look beyond rules and laws but not forgetting them, always seeking the good and salvation of my brothers and sisters. Amen.

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Today’s Readings:

Genesis 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67
Ps 106:1b-5
Matthew 9:9-13
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070723.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-july-7-2023

The conversion power of mercy

What kind of sacrifice does God not want? In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus quotes from Hosea 6:6 (“It is mercy I desire and not sacrifice”) in order to emphasize that mercy is superior to the rules and rituals that were being legalistically enforced by the Pharisees. They believed that breaking any rule was a sin and needed to be atoned for in temple sacrifices. According to their understanding, Jesus was making himself impure by hanging out with sinners. What was Jesus going to sacrifice for this?

Regardless of what the Pharisees thought, it was the mercy of Jesus that motivated him to dine with sinners. It was his mercy that evangelized them and purified them — much more than any temple sacrifice. In contrast, the Pharisees’ hard stand about the rules had failed to prevent Matthew from cheating and stealing.

Rules without compassion do nothing but push people away from repentance. Threats of punishment and chastisements do nothing more than lead people to temporary repentance. How did you develop a close relationship with God? What made his love so real and desirable that it motivated you to grow in holiness? Not the rules and rituals of the Church. These help us grow stronger in our holiness, but they do nothing — permanently — to give us such a strong love for God that we want to repent of our sins.

First comes the love, then the rules and rituals become more meaningful. Legalistically insisting that others obey all rules and rituals perfectly is what pushes people away from God. Mercy is what turns them toward God, and once turned, they can finally understand the benefits of the rules and rituals.

So, how do we help those who break rules or neglect important rituals? If we care about them, we reach out to them like Jesus did with tax collectors. We enter into personal relationships with them and learn why they think it’s necessary to break the rules. We identify the need that their disobedience attempts to fill, and we share with them how God can fill that need better. This merciful approach can awaken new understanding and the desire to grow in holiness.

Mercy is love that’s undeserved. Mercy is what gets into the heart when love is blocked. God is the Lord of second chances. And third chances. And. … a gazillion million chances to finally get it right. He does not hit anyone with a bolt of lightning for breaking any law, not even the highest laws, the moral laws. Even the worst evil-doers in this world are receiving God’s mercy. Their only hope for changing is to recognize this mercy. Will you show it to the wrong-doers in your life?

Read more about this subject in our WordByte, “The Surprising Truth about Mercy” @ https://wordbytes.org/spiritual-growth/the-surprising-truth-about-mercy/

© 2023 by Terry A. Modica

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