It is 21st March 2020. The readings are from Hosea 5:15-6:6; and the Gospel from Luke 18:9-14. The readings address our duplicity and pretentions in our faith commitments. It is our authentic love that God is interested in not our mere display of piety alone. Our love for the Lord must be profound, pure, progressive and productive. The first reading points out that God reject superficial love of Israel. Unless we love God, we cannot be healed. Our integral healing comes from the Lord alone. “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.” (Hosea 6:1,2). The responsorial Psalm intones, “What I desire is mercy, rather than sacrifice.” (Ps.51:1,2). The Gospel presents two types of dispositions of heart to God. We are sometime like one man who brags about all that one has been doing and some other times, we admit our faults, failures and our personal sins to the Lord. There is no need to prove God how good we are. God does not need our litany of good works repeated day in and day out. Without humility and surrender, it would be hard to experience God in our lives. Our prayer life needs to be more of submission and supplication. We all need to present ourselves to God daily and sincerely. Our trust is strengthened by consistent prayer life. Prayer without humility is a waste of time. Justification comes through our relationship with God in loving God whole heartedly. “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Lk.18:14). We are all invited to be humble in confessing how much we distanced ourselves from God in relation with the other. What God wants from us mercy and merciful deeds. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6:8). May the Lord bless us to face this day with prayer with humility, confession with contrition of heart, action with honesty. May God bless you.