Find the Readings for these Reflections here:
https://www.catholic.org/bible/daily_reading/?select_date=2023-03-11
1. One of the earliest and most dangerous heresies which began to spread in the early Second Century church, was named after its greatest proponent, a man named Marcion. This was the time before the official canon (from a Greek word meaning measuring stick) was still being discerned by the early Church leaders, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Marcion argued a dualism which divided the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, and what was to become the New Testament, the compiled Gospels, letters and accounts which would later be confirmed as wholly true and reliable.
The core of his error was his claim that the God revealed in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scripture, the God revealed to Israel, was a tyrant, a wrathful unforgiving “deity”. That wrathful deity, according to Marcion, was not the same as the Merciful God revealed in Jesus Christ. Marcion was a false teacher, he led many astray and was “excommunicated”, put outside of the communion of the Church.
Our first reading, taken from the name of the author of the beautiful book of the Minor Prophet Micah, is an example of that Mercy. The God of Israel is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he is rich in mercy. Remnants of this kind of errant teaching reoccur when people, even well intended ones, contrast the justice of God and the Mercy of Godin the wrong way.
When someone is choosing against God and His loving ways, when they sin, the most merciful thing the Lord does for them is to call them to repentance and conversion. To call them, as we heard at the beginning of Lent, to “repent and believe the Gospel”
How are we doing in responding to that call?
2. David the Psalmist sings along with the beautiful message we heard through Micah in the Psalm, which is given to us for our response today, calling us to praise God precisely because
“He forgives all your offences, cures all your diseases,
he redeems your life from the abyss, crowns you with faithful love and tenderness;
his indignation does not last for ever, nor his resentment remain for all time;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve, nor repay us as befits our offences.
As the height of heaven above earth, so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him.
As the distance of east from west, so far from us does he put our faults.”
Do we act that way toward those who have sinned against us? That is part of what it means to reveal the Image and Likeness of God to others.
3. The Gospel passage for today’s Holy Mass is excerpted from Luke’s account of the Prodigal Son parable. It drives this theme of Justice and Mercy home with one of the most beautiful stories in the New Testament.
Notice, the Father waits for the Son to turn away from his wrong choice. That is what sin is, a wrong choice, a wrong exercise of our human freedom.
Part Three of the Catechism, a section devoted specifically to a discussion of Moral theology, is entitled Life in Christ. The Section treats the vocation of man to beatitude, or happiness. It articulates a clear Moral theology of choice by considering the morality of human acts, the role of the passions, proper formation of the conscience and the cultivation of the virtues, all accompanied by the rejection of sin.
In its explanation of the morality of human acts, The Catechism offers a sobering insight concerning a wrong exercise of freedom:
“Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.” (CCC #1861)
It properly insists that authentic Human Freedom cannot be realized in decisions made against God and against what is good because it is “patterned on God’s freedom.”
While the wayward son chose to repent and return to the house of the Father, it was the Father who showed us the Face of mercy. The Father is the one in the parable who reveals, as the Apostle Paul writes, “the God of love who is rich in mercy”. (Eph 2:4)
The parable tells us “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him (the word can also be interpreted Mercy); he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:21)
Wow! Repentance walks, and even stumbles…but MERCY RUNS!
Jesus tells us “Blessed are the merciful”. (Matt 5:7) May His Face of Mercy be revealed through us to a world waiting to be born again and welcomed home.
Are we just and merciful?
source
Thanks for the Cathecism reference #