[00:00] My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Today we're around the midpoint of Lent, So, well on our journey towards our celebration of the resurrection at Easter. And the readings today present for us a framework to ask ourselves an important question,

[00:30] which is what kind of heart am I bringing on this journey? In the first reading from the Prophet Hosea, we hear this important invitation. "Come, let us return to the Lord." We have confidence. This invitation is presented with an allusion also to the resurrection.

[01:01] "Come, let us return to the Lord." It is He who has torn, but He will heal us. He has struck us, but He will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days. On the third day, He will raise us up to live in His presence. That's pretty clearly a foreshadowing, as we say in literary criticism. It's really a prophecy that becomes clear when it's fulfilled in Christ.

[01:33] So we have that invitation, and then we have an important clarification that becomes really apparent in today's parable from our Lord. "It is love that I desire," not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. So, though external sacrifices, these practices that are central

[02:04] to our Lenten preparation such as fasting and giving things up, are a legitimate and even necessary part of our spiritual preparation, that is not the fundamental thing. "It is love that I desire," not sacrifice. Our Lord isn't saying in this that sacrifice is useless, but it isn't the point. It's a means to an end. It's not the end.

[02:35] If we just simply offered sacrifices and we're not doing it with a loving heart, that doesn't do us any good and it doesn't please the Lord. So we have to ask ourselves, where is my heart as I'm doing Lenten practices? And so there's two ways then that we can live our Lent. As in the Gospel, we hear of two approaches to the Lord. There's the one of the Pharisee and the other is of the tax collector.

[03:08] The Pharisee represents the outwardly respectable and upstanding member of the Church, of God's people, who does many good religious things. Fasting, tithing, praying. But the problem is that his prayer is about himself. Whereas the tax collector

[03:40] may do almost nothing in the way of religious exterior demonstrations or observances, but he has this prayer that goes straight to the heart of Christ. "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner." And our Lord then, to the probably shock of most of his Jewish hearers, says the sinner went home justified

[04:13] because he had the heart that God desires. Humble, repentant, confident in the mercy of God, which is exactly what we heard in Psalm 51 from the Responsorial Psalm. A contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not spurn. I have to give a talk

[04:43] later this morning to some children, and the theme that I'm going to bring out is centered around Fatima, which is an incident, a moment in salvation history that we often focus on here, being devoted to Our Lady and being also, I suppose, very connected with the Portuguese community that brings a special focus

[05:16] to this event which took place in Fatima, Portugal. Where it took place is really incidental. But we have the three shepherd children and their encounter with Our Lady at Fatima and how their lives were changed by that.

[05:47] There's one story where one day they were out playing in the fields and they met some poor children who had nothing to eat. And they gave their entire lunch to these poor children, and they themselves went hungry for the rest of the day. And Lucia explained that it wasn't that the children believed themselves to be good, and that's perhaps better

[06:18] than the poor children they were feeding with their own meal. She said that they did it, they wanted to offer sacrifices. And Our Lady did ask for sacrifices, but as I said, as a means, not as an end. And they wanted to offer sacrifices for sinners out of love for Jesus and with humility. And Jacinta, the youngest of those three children,

[06:48] would simply say, it is for love of Jesus. So the Fatima children then present sort of the contrast or the opposite of the Pharisee. They did sacrifices, it's true. But they did them with a contrite heart. And their penances were not about appearing to be holy or impressing anyone. It wasn't done with spiritual pride.

[07:19] But rather, their sacrifices were about love. Love for Jesus, which then manifests in love for neighbor. Done in humility out of reparation for the sins of a humanity that does not love Christ, does not love God. And in petition for the mercy of God. And that's what Hosea is talking about in the first reading then. God desires love,

[07:50] not sacrifice alone. It's not that He doesn't want sacrifice at all. Or sacrifice versus love. Or love versus sacrifice for that matter. He wants both. But He wants sacrifice given in love, charity that is, and in humility. So as we continue our journey through Lent and engage in sacrifices of,

[08:24] for instance, the sacrifice of fasting, denying the self, giving up meat on Fridays, or often, as many people do, giving up some treat that they usually enjoy. Chocolates, one that people often choose. Or desserts. We do this. Let us never do it simply

[08:55] as an exercise of self-denial that makes us proud of how well we're living our Lent. But with that spirit of Jacinta, it is for love of Jesus that I do this. And then in that spirit of Fatima, also out of a petition for mercy. And then when we do arrive at Easter, if we have that spirit,

[09:26] we can be pleasing to God and can truly hope and be confident of being raised up on the last day. So God does not want sacrifice instead of love. He wants sacrifice that comes from love. And Our Lady is the greatest emblem we have besides Christ Himself who gave, He sacrificed Himself out of love for His Father

[09:58] who wanted Him to do that. His Father wanted Him to do it out of love for us. So Christ's self-sacrifice was all about love. Christ was love incarnate. And Our Lady, too, was fully participating in that sacrifice, but a sacrifice of love. Again, for the same motives that Christ did it. Love for the Father, love of God, and out of love for us.

[10:28] That's why she even appeared at Fatima. Out of love for us and out of that maternal care to instruct us how to live our spiritual life. Generously making sacrifices, but always coming from love and with that love as the end to which those sacrifices are directed.

[10:59] May the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Fatima, assist us on our Lenten journey and help us arrive at true charity with a humble and contrite heart that pleases God. Praise be Jesus and Mary. Amen.