Humility and Conversion

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to assess the attitudes and prejudices that have distorted our understanding of our brothers and sisters as precious people who share Jesus' love and care.

Peace or Power

The Reading from the Prophet Hosea examines Insincere Conversion.

j. [5:15] Jer 29:13; Ps 78:34.

* [6:2] After two days; on the third day: presumptuous Israel expects that soon God will renew them (cf. Ez 37). (Hosea, Chapter 5 | USCCB, n.d.)

* [6:5] The word of God proclaimed by the prophets is effective, it accomplished what it promised: punishment. (Hosea, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 51 prays for the removal of the personal and social disorders that sin has brought.

* [Psalm 51] A lament, the most famous of the seven Penitential Psalms, prays for the removal of the personal and social disorders that sin has brought. The poem has two parts of approximately equal length: Ps 51:3–10 and Ps 51:11–19, and a conclusion in Ps 51:20–21. The two parts interlock by repetition of “blot out” in the first verse of each section (Ps 51:3, 11), of “wash (away)” just after the first verse of each section (Ps 51:4) and just before the last verse (Ps 51:9) of the first section, and of “heart,” “God,” and “spirit” in Ps 51:12, 19. The first part (Ps 51:3–10) asks deliverance from sin, not just a past act but its emotional, physical, and social consequences. The second part (Ps 51:11–19) seeks something more profound than wiping the slate clean: nearness to God, living by the spirit of God (Ps 51:12–13), like the relation between God and people described in Jer 31:33–34. Nearness to God brings joy and the authority to teach sinners (Ps 51:15–16). Such proclamation is better than offering sacrifice (Ps 51:17–19). The last two verses express the hope that God’s good will toward those who are cleansed and contrite will prompt him to look favorably on the acts of worship offered in the Jerusalem Temple (Ps 51:19 [20–21]). (Psalms, PSALM 51 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus presents The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

* [18:1–14] The particularly Lucan material in the travel narrative concludes with two parables on prayer. The first (Lk 18:1–8) teaches the disciples the need of persistent prayer so that they not fall victims to apostasy (Lk 18:8). The second (Lk 18:9–14) condemns the self-righteous, critical attitude of the Pharisee and teaches that the fundamental attitude of the Christian disciple must be the recognition of sinfulness and complete dependence on God’s graciousness. The second parable recalls the story of the pardoning of the sinful woman (Lk 7:36–50) where a similar contrast is presented between the critical attitude of the Pharisee Simon and the love shown by the pardoned sinner. (Luke, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB, n.d.)

Angela Maynard (2021) recalls that someone pointed out that we, as Christians, are quick to judge.  This is contrary to the teachings of the gospels.  Jesus associated with anybody and everybody—particularly those to whom the Pharisee refers.

Jesus uses one of the seven deadly sins, pride in contrast with the heavenly virtue of humility, to teach us the importance of attitude when we pray.  It’s easy to get caught up in the how to pray and where to pray.  Let us take the opportunities of the Lenten season to perform some self-examination around the manner in which we pray.

“Our strength is prayer, and the prayer of a humble person is the weakness of God.  The Lord is weak only in this one sense:  He is weak before the prayers of his people.” -- Pope Francis (Maynard, n.d.)

 Don Schwager quotes “God's mercy is our only hope,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Driven out of paradise by You and exiled in a distant land, I cannot return by myself unless You, O Lord, come to meet me in my wandering. My return is based on hope in your mercy during all of my earthly life. My only hope, the only source of confidence, and the only solid promise is your mercy." (excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 24,5) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler was not available at publication time.

 The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 18:9-14 comments that this parable reminds us that God wants our obedience to flow from our love for him. No amount of sacrifice or good deeds can justify us before him; only God can do that. The things we do are important to God, but on their own, they can never make us right with him.

If you want to know the freedom of God’s forgiveness, then put aside your list of good deeds—and failures—and come to the Lord with a humble heart. Put your faith in his mercy and the salvation Jesus has won for you. Offer him your love and sorrow for your sins. He will surely forgive, for “the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

“Thank you for your mercy, Lord!” (Meditation on Luke 18:9-14, n.d.) 

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Laurie Brock who witnesses how God gathers together the “scraps” of our lives, reweaving them into a unified and beautiful whole. We aren’t all that adept at piecing and reforming. For that, we need God’s quilting prowess. We need God to remind us that no part of our selves and souls is beyond redemption, beyond being useful in another way.

 

Mistakes are pieced together with threads of God’s compassion. Personas we wore when we were younger but no longer fit can be altered. God’s love provides the framework to sew all these parts and pieces into something renewed, refashioned, and redeemed.

God treasures the things we throw away or stop caring about. God adores these scraps of our selves. God longs for us to sit in the holy space long enough to see the quilt that God creates from what we thought were worthless scraps. God touches those scraps like women over centuries. God fingers them, noting the beauty of small patterns. God reshapes our scraps into new things, useful things, even extraordinarily beautiful things. (Rohr, n.d.)

We invoke the Spirit to guide our contemplation of our relationships and inspire our action to restore the love and compassion that we may have neglected to offer the people in our environment.

References

Hosea, Chapter 5 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hos/5?15#36005015 

Hosea, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hosea/6?1 

Luke, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/18?9 

Maynard, A. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Online Ministries. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-march-14-2026 

Meditation on Luke 18:9-14. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/03/14/1518661/ 

Psalms, PSALM 51 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/51?3 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC.org. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/what-do-we-do-with-sin-weekly-summary/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). God, Be Merciful to Me a Sinner! Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Commandments and Community

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine the sincerity of our conversion and our commitment to full life in our community.

Community Care

The Reading from the Prophet Hosea exhorts us to Sincere Conversion and New Life.

* [14:1] Samaria: the capital of the Northern Kingdom will fall; this is the punishment predicted for Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom.

* [14:4] These good intentions promise a reversal of Israel’s sins: no more reliance on “Assyria,” i.e., on foreign alliances (see notes on 8:9 and 12:2), on “horses,” i.e., on human power (10:13), and on idolatry (8:4–6; 13:2). Israel will trust in the Lord alone.

* [14:9] Verdant cypress tree: the symbol of lasting life, the opposite of the sacred trees of the Baal cult (4:13). The Lord provides the “fruit” (peri) to Israel (2:7, 10), another instance of the wordplay on Ephraim (see notes on 9:16 and 13:15).

* [14:10] A challenge to the reader in the style of the wisdom literature. (Hosea, CHAPTER 14 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 81 tells how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt.

* [Psalm 81] At a pilgrimage feast, probably harvest in the fall, the people assemble in the Temple in accord with the Sinai ordinances (Ps 81:2–6). They hear a divine word (mediated by a Temple speaker) telling how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Ps 81:7–9), gave them the fundamental commandment of fidelity (Ps 81:9–11), which would bring punishment if they refused to obey (Ps 81:12–13). But if Israel repents, God will be with them once again, bestowing protection and fertility (Ps 81:14–16). (Psalms, PSALM 81 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus teaches The Greatest Commandment.

* [12:13–34] In the ensuing conflicts (cf. also Mk 2:1–3:6) Jesus vanquishes his adversaries by his responses to their questions and reduces them to silence (Mk 12:34). (Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)

Barbara Dilly comments that repentance is not so much about confession of guilt as it is drawing closer to God to better hear God’s voice. 

It is not about me trying so hard. It is about me letting the Lord be my God. That should be a joyful spiritual discipline, not a burden.

Jesus reminds us of what we need to hear. We must love the Lord our God with all our hearts, our understanding, and our strength. And we must love our neighbors as ourselves. I pray today that when we are called to repent, we can see this as an invitation to enter into joy, for the Kingdom of heaven is indeed at hand when we love the Lord, ourselves, and our neighbors. (Dilly, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The fire of God's love,” by Augustine of Hippo,354-430 A.D.

"Gravity keeps everything in its own place. Fire climbs up, while a stone goes down. Elements that are not in their own place are restless until they find it. This applies also to us. My weight is my love; wherever I go, I am driven by it. By the love of God we catch fire ourselves and, by moving up, find our place and our rest." (excerpt from Confessions 13,9) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler notes that Hosea speaks of return to the Lord and not putting trust in the Assyrians and idols. What more do the Israelites have to do with idols? God wants what is good for them. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells the scribe the Shema Israel is the first commandment. Friar Jude explains the key areas of love of God: the heart; where in Jesus' time, was where you thought; soul indicating to love God in persecution; mind is love through conscience; and strength is using your physical possessions to love God. Jesus affirms that the scribe realizes the truth places him close to the Kingdom. 

The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 12:28-34 comments that our love for God is not meant to be static or theoretical. Our relationship with him should be the foundation for everything else in our lives. It should bear fruit in the way we treat everyone created in God’s image and likeness. In fact, the whole Law provides specific direction on how to live out our love for him, especially in the way in which we relate to other people. And so Jesus adds this second commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

So often we want Jesus to give us some new way to become holy. We want a fresh spirituality or a challenging mission. But you can love God and your neighbor right where you are now. You can honor the image and likeness of God in the person right in front of you. You can take care of the most vulnerable of his children. You can show mercy just as he does. It’s simple, and it’s “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33).

“Jesus, I long to grow in love for you and to show that love to every one of your children who crosses my path.” (Meditation on Mark 12:28-34, n.d.)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, describes how moving beyond an emphasis on personal sin allows us to focus on larger forces at play that create systemic harm.

If we are honest and perceptive, we surely see that actual evil often seems to “dominate the very air” (a phrase found in Pauline texts such as Ephesians 2:2) and is more the norm than the exception. In fact, evil is often culturally agreed-upon, admired, and deemed necessary, as is normally the case when a country goes to war, spends most of its budget on armaments, admires luxuries over necessities, entertains itself to death, or pollutes its own common water and air. Evil seems to be corporate, admired, and deemed necessary before it becomes personal and shameable.

Sin and evil must be more than personal or private matters. Convicting people of individual faults does not change the world. I believe the apostle Paul taught that both sin and salvation are, first of all, corporate realities. Yet, we largely missed that essential point, and thus found ourselves in the tight grip of monstrous evils in Christian nations, all the way down to the modern era. (Rohr, n.d.)

We implore the Spirit to awaken our understanding of the error of transactional relationships with God and people that impede our need for conversion to full life relationships modelled by Jesus' total sacrificial love.

References

Dilly, B. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-march-13-2026 

Hosea, CHAPTER 14 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hosea/14?2 

Mark, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/12?28 

Meditation on Mark 12:28-34. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/03/13/1518061/ 

Psalms, PSALM 81 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/81?6 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/collective-sin-and-evil/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). You Are Not Far from the Kingdom of God. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 13, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/