Mercy and Freedom: The Heart of True Religion

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
— Hosea 6:6

(Ex 11, 10 – 12, 14;  Mt 12, 1 – 8)

TWICE in the Gospel written by Matthew Jesus quotes prophet Hosea: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

The first time (in Chapter 9) – by the power of this Word – He defends His choice to stay with sinners & tax collectors. Instead of condemning & excluding them He decides to join them at the table, to build the community with them, offering them the medicine of love and call/vocation.

The second time we have described in today’s gospel – He defends the choice of his disciples to stay with Him, even at the cost of violating Sabbath. They are justified – and this is only in Matthew, where we can read it – because doing so they exercise the office of priesthood: „the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent – [and] something greater then the temple is HERE”.

[By the way, this is a very important lesson for those of us here who are priest: to BE, to ACCOMPANY Jesus in the Temple He is himself: the Church, the Poor & Needy, the Word etc. is far more important in our priesthood then all the sacrifices we can offer to Him on our altars. Much more important then WHAT we can do – is WHO we are & with WHOM we remain].

But – coming back to our first thought – quoting Hosea in such a way, Jesus teaches us clearly: what creates a true religion – what constitutes its essence – is a RELATIONSHIP: Person to Person. Jesus and me. Jesus and You. Me and You. True personal ties & attitudes. Meeting, listening, accompanying, helping each other, mutual respect, LOVE.

It is obvious in a theory only. We talk about it, and we write about it, but then in so many cases & situations the persons are pushed beyond a curtain (sometimes A WALL) of institutions, structures, laws, regulations, customs, traditions. We fight for them like lions, behaving like a bull in a china shop, trampling upon a delicate dignity & sensitivity of our sisters & brothers.

That is why the last Synod of Bishops called all of us in the Church to RELATIONAL CONVERSION.

Without it there is no Church, there is no evangelization. There are only “pastoral programs” & ideologies – the religion transformed in a banner or – much worse – a stone!

Equally essential feature of a true religion is revealed to us in first reading. This feature is FREEDOM!

God offers freedom to his people enslaved in Egipt, & this experience – experience OF LIBERATION – is to be for them: the beginning & principal (an arche) [„it shall stand at the head of your calendar”], memory & the heritage passed to next generation: „This day shall be a memorial feast to you, which all your generations shall celebrate”. First Freedom, then commandments. To fulfill God’s Law one has to be free! To accept freedom coming as a gift from God’s side.

This truth is beautifully passed to us in a Jewish traditional exegesis of Exodus 32, 16 (concerning the tablets received by Moses from God on the mountain of Sinai): „The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved [harut] on the tablets”. Tradition says: „Read not harut, engraved, but herut, freedom, for there is none so free as one who occupies himself with the study or Torah”.

Do the people have the same experience – of most perfect freedom – when they face our teaching? And when they are brought by the Holy Spirit to our communities?

Do they feel liberated? Or enslaved?

Being subjects or object?

„It is for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” – this is the starting point of Christian proclamation (the kerygma) – without it – again – there is no Church & no evangelization!

This is very beautiful Word of God for today. Beautiful and important. Also challenging & scrutinizing. But who is ready to accept IT may say: AMEN.