God leads... to Godself through the Other!

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Third week

March 09, 2024 - Hosea 5:15- 6:6; Luke 18: 9-14

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. Truly, that freedom is the absolute communion with God, the eternal freedom, the salvation or the eternal boundless life. In short, God leads us to Godself. These days we are reflecting on how the Lord leads us, and to what the Lord leads us. Yesterday we said, the Lord leads us to the decision of Returning to the Lord... this return, the Word says today, is through the Other. 

Not sacrifice, but love - instructs the Lord through Hosea. It is only love that can lead us to God. Sacrifices, offerings, worship and adoration that we offer to the Lord are made meaningful and fruitful, only in love. In love do we become acceptable to God. But what kind of a love? A love that says in empty words to the Lord - I love you Lord with all my heart, with all my spirit and with all my soul? It has to be a love that is expressed in concrete, in action, in life - in our rapport with the Other. 

This triangular dynamic is a typical Christ perspective: the dynamic that is between me and God, essentially through the other. It is in the way that I treat the other, in the way I relate to the other, in the way that I respect and welcome the other that I determine the way I will be treated and related to by God. If only we realise this, we would understand immediately what it means to have a contrite and humble heart. It is not a heart that is humble and lowly before God, but a heart that is humble and lowly in dealing with the other. 

When a heart is humble and mindful of the goodness of the Lord, the mercy that it has received from the Lord, it shall reflect the same mercy and love to the other. Where there is a judgement of the other, disrespect of the other, manipulation of the other, exploitation of the other, despise of the other, it is a clear sign that there is haughtiness! Though that is not expressed or made manifest in God's presence, God notices it, sees it and is aware of it. The result is, we deprive ourselves of the abundance and fullness of God's love!

Thus the Lenten journey, to be led to Godself, through the Other - in mercy not in sacrifice. To love the other, to be merciful to my brother and sister, to honour and respect every other who is beside me, in order that my love and my regard for God becomes authenticated. The Word invites us today to "Go and learn, what it means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice!"