“SEEDS OF LIFE”
Sunday, 23rd October 2016.
Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time
Sir 35: 12-14, 16-18;
Psalm 34: 2-3, 17-19, 23;
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18;
Luke 18: 9-14.
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).Today’s gospel is one to which every believer needs to pay close attention. It is the story of two believers, a Pharisee and a tax collector. It is important to underline the facts that both men were believers in the same God, both belonged to the same religion and both worshipped in the same temple. Both men were active believers who participated in temple worship and said their daily prayers. But what do we see? At the end of the worship one of them went home at peace with God but the other did not. We all, believers in God, need to pay attention to this story not only to learn the secret of offering a worship acceptable to God but also of leading a life of faith that leads to justification and not disappointment at the end of the day.
Pharisees were very disciplined and devout men of religion. They were serious-minded believers who had committed themselves to a life of regular prayer and observance of God's Law. They gave tithes of all their income and not just of the required parts. When the Pharisee in the parable said, “I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income” (Luke 18:11-12) he wasn't joking. Few Christians today can measure up to the visible moral standards of the Pharisees.
Tax collectors, on the other hand, were generally regarded as people of low moral standards. Because tax collectors worked for the pagan Romans, mixed up with them and constantly handled their unclean money they were said to be in a state of ritual uncleanliness. As far as the religion of the day was concerned, tax collectors were public sinners on the highway to hell. But the tax collectors knew that the voice of people is not always the voice of God. They still hoped for salvation not on the merit of any religious or moral achievements of theirs but on the gracious mercy of God.
Believing in God does not really save anybody. James tells us that the devil himself believes in God and trembles with fear (James 2:19). The Pharisees in the gospel believed in a discriminating God who loves good people and hates bad people. So the Pharisees quickly learn to love only good people like themselves and look down with contempt on bad people and sinners like the tax collectors. Jesus told the parable against the Pharisees because they “trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt” (v. 9). The tax collector, on the other hand, trusted not in himself or in anything he had done but only in God’s mercy. Standing far off, he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (v.13). This is the man who went home at peace with God and not the self-righteous Pharisee.
Like the Pharisee and the tax collector we too come to God’s house to offer worship and prayers. Like them we too hope to go home reconciled and at peace with God. Then let us learn from the tax collector the secret of worshipping in a manner that is acceptable to God.
Firstly, we should not listen to other people or even to our own consciences when they tell us that God is so angry with us that He cannot possible forgive us. Secondly, we must acknowledge our sinfulness and entrust ourselves to the generous mercy of God which is bigger than any sins we might have committed. Finally, we promise God to never to look down on our fellow sinners but to help them in their search for God, just as the tax collector is helping us today in our search for God. Remember, God always opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The way to true holiness is humility. It is the most basic foundation of all Christian virtues. All the saints, without exception, were profoundly humble persons. It is impossible to be holy without humility. The prayer of the tax collector is the same prayer that the saints utter over and over again: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” That is why the saints, despite their avowed holiness of life, make it a point to come to the sacrament of Confession regularly. In this year of Mercy, let us encounter the sacrament of reconciliation (confession)and not doubt, not hesitate to come to the mercy of God. The sacrament of Confession truly helps us grow in the depths of humility and in the heights of holiness.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you humbled yourself on the cross, fill us with the grace of humility so that we may become pleasing and beautiful in the eyes of God. Amen