Saturday March 2 Daily Mass Readings/Reflections

 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt I will show them* marvelous things. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger for ever because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion upon us, he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our* sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. - Micah 7:14-15, 18-20

• Thank you God for pardoning my personal iniquity 
• Thank you God for passing over my personal transgressions 
• Thank you God for not being angry with me for ever 
• Thank you God for delighting in being merciful towards me 
• Thank you for casting all of my sins into the sea. 
• Thank you for the same faithfulness and mercy you showed to Abraham and Jacob and the fathers of old 

God is merciful and pardons our sins out of compassion for us in our sufferings. Don’t get too caught up in confession with God’s anger towards you but rather be delighted that he delights in mercy towards you. 

Allow God now to shepherd you that you may not dwell in the land of sin but to be able to receive freely the “good land” He wants to give you. 

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with mercy and compassion, He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. - Psalms 103:1-4, 9-12

• I will bless you Lord with all my soul 
• All that is within me will bless your holy name 
• My soul will bless you Lord for all of your benefits towards me 
• Thank you for forgiving all of my iniquity Lord 
• Thank you for healing all of my diseases Lord 
• Thank you for redeeming my lift from the pit Lord 
• Thank you for crowning me with mercy and compassion Lord 
• Thank you Lord for not always chiding me 
• Thank you Lord for not being angry with me forever 
• Thank you for not dealing with  me according to my sins 
• Thank you Lord for not repaying me as my iniquity deserves 
• Thank you for your great mercy towards me that I may fear you now 
• Thank you for removing my transgressions far from me 

I am thankful that God deals with me according to his great mercy rather than according to how my sins deserve. Any sin deserves hell. If I cannot find anything else to be thankful for in life … at least I can always be thankful for Jesus saving me from hell! And so I commit now to blessing the Lord according to his mercy and according to his benefits towards me. 

Amen. 

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;  - Luke 15:18

• I myself must arise and go back to God my Father 
• I also have sinned against heaven and against God 
• Lord have mercy on me for I will return to you now 

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” - Luke 15:1-2

• Thank you Lord for receiving me, a sinner 
• Thank you Lord for eating with me, a sinner 
• That I might be transformed by sitting with you Lord and by eating with you 

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons;  and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them.  Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living.  And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want.  - Luke 15:11-14

• Lord I also have taken all you’ve given me and have squandered it in loose living 
• None of what the world offers satisfies 
• So now I am in great famine and great want of the true good that only you can give to me God 
• I didn’t appreciate your good gifts to me 

And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want.  So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine.  And he would gladly have fed on* the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything.  But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”’  - Luke 15:14-19

• No one can give me anything unless you do God 
• I cannot go to any other source seeking satisfaction 
• I perish in hunger unless I am satisfied with the goods of God’s house 
• All other lower goods do not nourish me 
• Sin does seem to make me unworthy of being your son
• Merely being a hired servant would be enough than to suffer anywhere away from you God 

The prodigal son comes to his senses and realizes that God might be merciful to him. He comes in humility. He acknowledges that his sin is against God and all of heaven. He knows that he is essentially lost without God. In the same way we need to come to our senses. We need to realize that sin will never satisfy us but will leave us hungry. Only by returning to God in confession  and in real repentance will we find our hunger satisfied by God. 

And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’*  But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet;  and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry;  for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry. - Luke 15:20-24

• I will arise and go to the Father 
• God sees me at a distance and still shows me compassion 
• God is running towards me to embrace me and to kiss me 
• God has been awaiting my return 
• I might think that I still deserve some sort of punishment 
• I might think that God will not be as loving to me as he would be if I had never sinned at all … if I had never wandered away from him then maybe he would love me more 
• Instead God shows that his mercy and love is greater than any of our iniquities 
• God is made happy by our return 
• He doesn’t want us to perish in our sin but to be found in his love where we can be fully alive again
• This makes me think of the song “Amazing Grace” 
• Because it truly is amazing Grace and God does not punish us as we deserve for our sins but from his great love and mercy 
• Yet this does come on the conditions of a confession and a real returning to God 
•  God isn’t blessing the prodigal son in his sin or because of his sin but because he has come to his senses in forsaking sin 
• Amen 

“Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.  And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant.  And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.’  But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’  - Luke 15:25-30

• When we see others receiving God’s mercy we should also rejoice rather than have any envy or jealousy of another’s treatment by God 
• We should join in on the celebration of every converted sinner to whom God has dispensed his mercy 
• Amen