30th
Ordinary Sunday (Year C)
(The
World Mission Sunday)
First
Reading: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 Second
Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Gospel
Reading: Luke 18:9-14
“GOD
DOES INDEED HEAR THE CRY OF THE POOR.”
In
an interview she gave just a few years before she died, Blessed
Mother Teresa (of happy memory) told a reporter that she required her
Sisters to spend at least one hour a day before the Blessed Sacrament
in prayer prior to beginning their daily tasks or fieldwork. The
reporter asked Mother about HER prayer - after all, readers would
surely be interested in knowing how a then living-saint prayed.
Mother simply answered. "Each
day, I spend this time in front of Jesus in the tabernacle begging
him for the grace to stay out of the way of the work of the Holy
Spirit."
The reporter was shocked. Who would ever believe that someone like
Mother Teresa would actually get in the way of God's work? We marvel
at Mother Teresa's humility.
Today
is the 30th
Sunday in Ordinary Time and it is also 'The
World Mission Sunday,'
when
we salute all those men and women who witness to the Gospel in so
many developing countries; and we ask for God’s grace to witness to
the Gospel in our homes, workplaces and communities.
Now,
prayer has a prominent place
in the Christian religious practice. The Liturgy of today discusses
some aspects of prayer and its application to life and teaches us
something about how we should pray and live. The readings tell us
that God listens especially to the sinner and the humble. Often we
wonder why God is partial in his dealing with human persons. The
First Reading taken from the Book of Sirach tells us that the prayer
of the humble man will always be answered and the best prayer is that
of willing loyal service. Sirach reminds us that God knows no
favorites except towards the poor, the powerless and the oppressed.
In his Second Letter to Timothy, we see Paul´s humility expressed in
his confidence in God´s presence and action in the face of
sufferings and imprisonment. He tells us that our entire life itself
is a prayer and we offer to God all we have including our lives. In
the Gospel Reading, from Jesus, we learn through 'The Parable of the
Pharisee and the Tax-collector'
that we should approach God in humility when we pray.
“THE
PRAYER OF THE HUMBLE PIERCES THE CLOUDS”:
Today’s
First Reading taken from the Book of Sirach tells us of God’s care
for the lowly and their prayer reaches the courts of heaven. Those
who serve the Lord can expect the Lord to heed to their prayers. The
reading tells us that our prayer life is inevitably connected with
the rest of our lives. The Lord is the judge, and within him there is
no partiality. He will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged.
The Lord will not ignore the supplication of the orphan, or the widow
when they pour out their complaints to him. The ear of the Lord is
inclined towards the needy, the poor, and those who are abandoned.
The prayers of the faithful are pleasing to the Lord and are heard
before His Heavenly Throne. But the prayers of the humble touch the
Lord and they pierce His Heart until the Most High responds by
executing judgment to bring justice to the righteous. Sirach speaks
of prayer as an arrow reaching its mark where it remains until God
takes note of it. The weak and the humble gain a hearing with God the
Almighty. When speaking of humility, it is important to understand
the proper meaning of this word. Genuine humility is the middle
ground between being arrogant and having a false humility where a
person is not proud, nor self- assertive. The Lord calls his people
to be humble and tells that true honesty reflects real humility which
is pleasing to God.
THE
PARABLE OF THE PHARESEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR:
The
Pharisees really get a bad rap in Luke’s Gospel – in fact, in
most of the New Testament. Somehow they get cast as the villains in
most of the stories they are in. The classic parable of the Pharisee
and the tax-collector which we hear today is one that is only found
in St. Luke’s Gospel, but it is yet another example of negativeness
toward the Pharisees.
Through
the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector, Jesus addresses
the attitude one should have in prayer. The ordinary interpretation
of this parable takes its cue from the opening verse. It is addressed
to those who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise
everyone else. In a strange scene, in contrasting the prayer of the
self-righteous Pharisee with the prayer of the repentant
tax-collector, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in humility before
God. Jesus again surprises his listeners by showing the tax-collector
as an example of faith, rather than the Pharisee. Remember that
Pharisees were members of a sect of Judaism active in Jesus' time and
highly respected members of the Jewish society. They taught an oral
interpretation of the Law of Moses as the basis for Jewish piety. If
anyone would be a model for prayer, a Pharisee was a likely
candidate. Yet, we see the exact opposite. Jesus offers the
tax-collector as a model for prayer. Tax-collectors were the outcast
and despised member of the Jewish society, because they were
collaborators with the Roman authorities in a system that allowed
them to line their own pockets by charging in excess of the defined
taxes. Yet, in this parable, Jesus offers the humility of the
tax-collector as a model for the prayer of a disciple. The parable
reminds us that when we pray, we must remember our need for God in
our lives. If we are too full of ourselves, there is too little room
for God's grace to work in us.
The
Pharisee
prays a false prayer of thanksgiving to God. He really just gloats of
his own personal achievements by which he believes to be just. He has
no need of God to respond to his prayer, since he has no needs
outside of what he can provide himself. His 'thanksgiving'
goes so far as to express gratitude for not being a worthless lout
like the miserable tax collector behind him in the Temple. There is
no love of God or of neighbor in his prayer. The tax collector´s
prayer, on the other hand, is one of supplication and the sincerity of
its expression pierces heaven. He recognizes his indignity and misery
before God, and considers himself a sinner. He compares himself to no
one, sure that he is the person most in need of God´s grace. He goes
away justified, which is to say that God forgives his sins and renews
him. The Pharisee saw no need to ask for justification, since he had
perfected himself.
Also,
while the Pharisee started his prayer “with
head unbowed,”
the tax-collector “would
not even raise his eyes to heaven.” Their
posture reminds us of the story of a haughty lawyer who asked an old
farmer, “Why
don't you hold up your head in the world as I do? I bow my head to no
one.”
The farmer answered, “Sir,
see that field of grain? Only those heads that are empty stand
upright. Those that are well-filled bow low.”
So first and foremost, we are to approach prayer in a spirit of
humility. This the tax-collector did but the Pharisee did not.
The
cutting edge of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is
Jesus’ astounding conclusion: “I
tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former. For whoever
exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will
be exalted.”
The conclusion alone is of interest to us: the tax-collector went
home justified.
The word is important, the just man is one whom God makes just; he
receives God’s favor, not because he is already just, but because
in his humility he believes that God can be merciful to him and
forgive him his sins. Jesus in the parable did not condemn the
Pharisee for his life–style and religious observance; He condemned
him for his self-righteous attitude as reflected in his prayer: “O
God, I thank you that I am not like the
rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or even like this
tax collector....”
Obviously, the Pharisee was extolling himself before God. In spite of
this many in the audience of Jesus would have expected God’s grace
should go to the Pharisee and would have been shocked to hear the
justification of the tax-collector. Indeed we are not the judges of
who is justified and who is not. Forgiveness and justification are
divine gifts which God bestows
on his chosen ones. What is expected of us is the submission of the
tax-collector and await mercy of God.
So,
how are we to pray? First, we approach God with all humility. Then we
attribute to Him whatever good we have done, thanking
Him for giving us the grace to do so. As to our sins, we are to place
ourselves completely in His mercy which is His alone to dispense and
which we can never merit. Jesus is teaching us to follow the example
of the tax collector in life as well as in our prayer. He wants us to
acknowledge that everything we are and have came from God. And if we
fall into sin, it is not solely because of human weakness but also
because of our failure to run to God for help. One holy person, on
seeing someone enslaved by his lust, exclaimed, 'But
for the grace of God, there go I.'
In other words, we are saved not because of our own merit but because
of God's mercy. This is what the Pharisee and we often forget but
which the prayer of the tax collector was able to capture. Thus even
if He only asked for mercy, he ended up justified before God. With
the tax collector as our model, we can begin by making his prayer our
own: “God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Then we will not only receive God's mercy; we will also end up
justified before Him.
HUMILITY
OF ST. PAUL:
In
today’s Second Reading from
the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy, we find examples of Paul’s
humility. Paul knows his nothingness. When he says that the time of
his departure has come, he is stating the fact of his proximity of
death. His death was imminent and his departure from this life and
his return to Christ was certain. He was already in his prison and in
chains in Rome. Through his words, he was not seeking pity, nor was
he boasting of all he had done in the Holy Name of Jesus. On the
other hand he had offered everything he had to God, his money, his
scholarship, his work, his time and now his life. Paul now tells them
that he has fought the good fight, he has run a good race, and he has
kept the faith. Though Paul had Luke with him and he expected Timothy
and Mark to come the place of his imprisonment, he feels abandoned
much like Jesus. Nevertheless, Paul is very confident that Jesus is
with him and will bring him safely to the heavenly kingdom. Comparing
his life to that of a race, where a person looks for victory, Paul
says that he had persevered and guarded the deposit of faith. The
work that he had performed in his life time was not his work but the
work of God that was manifested through him by the power of the Holy
Spirit in the name of Jesus. Death for him is an act of worship, a
libation, an act of freedom and a launching into eternity.
CONCLUSION:
Humility
moves God, while pride is repugnant to him. One
of the lessons of today’s readings is that “God
does indeed hear the cry of the poor”
- the humble of heart who truly know that they depend on God for
every good thing and that their happiness and success is nothing more
than a participation in the perfection of God. In the Eucharist, we
see how God, in His majesty chooses to remain with us under the
humble appearances of bread and wine, even though nothing of bread or
nothing of wine remain in the Eucharist. Christ chose to communicate
himself to us under the most basic and humble of means - the one food
common to all cultures: bread. And yet, it is no longer bread for us,
but the living body of Christ. Our Lord sits in this tabernacle and
in tabernacles like it day after day and hour after hour thirsting
for our love. He is so humble and pure and so vulnerable for our
sake. With a God so humble, how can we not return his humility by
learning humility in our own lives, especially in our prayer.
May
we thus approach our Lord in humility when we pray - fully
recognizing our sinfulness and our inadequacies and our shortcomings
and yet fully trusting in His infinite mercy and compassion and
desire for our sanctity. An awareness of our sins, too, can help us
in our lives to be far more compassionate and understanding towards
others in their sinfulness and weakness. In the depths of our
sinfulness we must never lose sight of the God who is always standing
by, ready to come at our merest signal. We must also realize that all
good gifts come from God and our humility requires that we give God
credit for them and share them with others. On this Mission Sunday we
can thank God for the many gifts with which he has blessed us
personally and as a country. But we are reminded that those blessings
have been given to us to share with those who have far less than we.
As we pray for our country and the missions we ask the grace from God
to give us the spirit of humility and sharing so that we bring to
people the merciful love of God. And this is the Good News of today.
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