Jesus said in today’s gospel (Matthew 9:13):
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
This is actually the second time that Jesus said these same words. Jesus also spoke them in (Matthew 12:7):
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
Because this was so important to Jesus that he emphasized these words twice, I think we should pay close attention to what he said.
Perhaps, it is my own guilty conscience that brings this to the surface in today’s readings for Mass…
Have you ever started out with good intentions to do something nice for someone else, and then ended up resenting it later? It’s easy to feel compassion for another person and want to do something to help them, but sometimes it is harder than we thought to follow through with it.
We can sometimes judge people harshly and may even think that we are doing them a favor by helping them. Somewhere in the back of our mind we might also think that they are to blame for the situation they find themselves in.
Sometimes these folks are the “black sheep” in our own family. They could be family members or friends with addictions or mental illness, who maybe aren’t taking any responsibility to help themselves. Perhaps there is someone we know that is not living a chaste life and has had several broken relationships.
There are also people that always seem to have one problem after another. Perhaps they can’t hold a job, or they are irresponsible with their money. We seem to always be the one to give them our money, that we worked so hard at our jobs to earn.
Many of us sacrifice a great deal of our free time, money, and effort to try to help those we care about. That could be inside our own circle of family and friends, or within the wider circle of the community that we live in. Perhaps we give a great deal of time volunteering in church ministries that we initially loved. Then later start resenting it because it seems like no one else is “unselfish” enough to give up some of their free time to help out. We seem to have to always be the one to pitch in with everything because no one else steps up to help.
This type of sacrifce does not serve Jesus though, if we end up judgemental and resentful because of the time, money and effort that we spend on other people.
Love is missing from the equation. Somewhere along the line we can lose sight of why we do what we do. I think that is what Jesus is saying in today’s gospel. It’s easy to judge other people who maybe do not have their lives together as well as we do.
Judgement and condemnation never caused anyone’s conversion of heart though. It just makes matters worse. If you ever find yourself in this situation, it would be good to remember Jesus’s words in today’s gospel. Perhaps step back from the situation. Seek a change of heart, especially through prayer, in addition to the sacraments. Maybe not “give” anything else until you have experienced a change of heart.
LOVE is what matters. It is the only thing that is of any value in the world. All the good deeds in the world does not matter to Jesus if we have the wrong motivation.
Jesus said that, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.” Sometimes the one who needs Christ’s healing the most, is ourselves. You can not give, what you do not have. If our hearts become drained of love, then there is nothing else of value left in us that we can give. That is what happened to the Pharisees in today’s gospel.
It’s time to get back to the basics. Our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The wellspring of unconditional love and healing that each and every one of us instinctively craves. Perhaps that is what Levi, the tax collector experienced when Jesus walked by in today’s gospel. Unconditional love. Jesus called Levi to Himself. Perhaps Levi responded, because all human beings crave unconditional love.
We need to be loved unconditionally too, and so do all of the other people that we encounter in our lives every day.
