Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Blessed Marie Rose Durocher

Lectionary: 459

Justice is with the Lord, our God;
and we today are flushed with shame,
we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,
that we, with our kings and rulers
and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,
have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him.

Have you ever apologized and not really meant it? Sometimes expedience seems the only way out of a difficult predicament despite its obvious insincerity. 
I may do this because I have been confronted with "the facts" and I can't deny them. Or perhaps I am facing a superior authority and I back down although, "I shouldn't have to apologize because I am right!" Or maybe I realize this arguing is pointless and if we're to make any progress I should just apologize and get on with it. 
The Prophet Jeremiah, Baruch's mentor, complained about these subtle deceptions when he said, 

More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?

In today's first reading, Baruch spoke for all the people when he acknowledged, "Justice is with the Lord!" From their place in exile, having barely survived the destruction of their city, realizing their only hope is the All-Powerful, All-Merciful God, remembering how the prophets complained about the scandal of injustice in God's Holy City, it was not difficult to suppose we have offended the Lord and brought this wrath upon ourselves.
But any city of any size, and especially a capital city with foreign emissaries, merchants and travellers with their slaves and strange gods, is rife with corruption. The poor, widowed, orphaned and disabled flock to Jerusalem because their rural communities could not or would not provide for them. They overwhelmed its charitable resources and present a sorry spectacle to pilgrims. Despite its sacred status, Jerusalem was a polyglot city with many gods and many languages; when it was wasted by foreign armies it was easy to suppose God had punished it for its obvious evil. 

...we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him.

Did the people around Baruch, for whom he spoke, acknowledge their guilt as readily as he confessed it? When they bowed before the Lord with ashes on their heads, weeping and rending their garments, were they truly sincere? Am I truly sincere when I confess my sins and do the prescribed penance? Who can "understand the human heart?" 
This much we know, Jesus suffered and died for our salvation. He has more than made up for our insincerity and irresolution. He has atoned for the sins we acknowledge, and those we don't, and those attitudes and actions we never supposed were sinful. 
By our daily prayers we stand within his Sacred Heart with supreme confidence in the efficacy of His Sacrifice.