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Dear Friend, It is our common
experience in life that we are put off by people who constantly boast and
brag about themselves and their achievements. We ourselves sometimes fall
into the same trap when we place ourselves on a pedestal and look down on
others and judge ourselves superior to them. As followers of Christ we are
called to be humble, truthful and non-judgmental towards others. Have a
weekend humbly acknowledging our unworthiness and God’s goodness! Fr. Jude Botelho |
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The Book of Sirach written a little less than
two hundred years before Christ’s time, reminds its readers that God is no
respecter of personages, he listens to the humble and the poor. In a corrupt
and unjust society as the one that existed in ancient times and still exists
today, the situation of the poor was seen as totally helpless. Without
financial backing and social influence the poor would never get justice when
they were wronged. Keeping this situation in mind, the author says God will
come to the rescue of the poor, he will punish the guilty and vindicate the
poor, humbling their oppressors. In the words of the response psalm: ‘When
the poor man called the Lord heard him.’ In the second reading from
St. Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul humbly confesses that like a good athlete
of Christ, he has pushed himself and run the race, faithful to the end. He is
sure of his reward from God, who alone has given him strength and never
abandoned him. He sees his approaching death as the climax of the ’prayer of
thanksgiving’, which he has offered up to the Lord all his life long. Living on Purpose In today’s Gospel Jesus told the vivid story of two men who went to
the temple to pray, one a Pharisee the other a publican. The prayer of one
was heard but the other was rejected. One presumed he was praying while he
was actually only talking to himself and boasting about his achievements. In
his prayer, while comparing himself to the publican, he exalted himself and
judged and despised the other. In so doing he felt he was qualified to judge
others because of his ‘religious’ activities but in judging others he had
closed his heart and closed himself from God. His was no prayer and what he
said and did was unacceptable to God. The Pharisee represents those who take
pride in themselves and in their religious practices and exalt themselves at
the expense of others. The Pharisee tried to justify himself whereas only God
can justify us. The publican, on the other hand, was acutely aware of his
unworthiness and sinfulness and dared not come close to God. From a distance,
not even daring to raise his eyes to heaven, he confesses his sinfulness and
says, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” The publican, who represented people
who are despised by religious people, did not defend his actions, but humbly
confessed his sins, and asked for mercy. This man’s prayer was heard and he
went home justified before God. Jesus concluded his story stating that those
who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be
exalted. Only when we see and acknowledge our own need, our weakness and our
sinfulness is God ready to help us. Prayer with faith Dorothy Day died in November 1980 at the age of 84. Reporting on her
death, the New York Times called her the most influential person in
the history of American Catholicism. Since her death there has been a
movement to canonize her for her personal life and her work among the New
York’s City poor and destitute. In her book From Union Square to Rome
she describes her conversion to Christ. One of her first attractions came in
her childhood. One day she discovered
the mother of one of her girlfriends kneeling in prayer. The sight of this
kneeling woman moved her deeply. She never forgot it. In the same book she
tells how, in the days before her conversion, she often spent the entire
night in a tavern. Then she would go to the early morning mass at St.
Joseph’s Church on Sixth Avenue. What attracted her to St. Joseph’s were the
people kneeling in prayer. She writes: “I longed for their faith…. So I used
to go in and kneel in a back pew.” Eventually Dorothy Day received the gift
of faith and entered the Church. Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’ “Jesus in today’s gospel has two extremes of the religious society of his day, two attitudes before God. This concerns me this Sunday. In which do I see myself, the Pharisee or the publican? First the Pharisee, with his magnificent ‘prayer of thanks’: “I thank you God……..” He asks nothing for himself, and we should judge him no hypocrite: what he says, he does, and perfectly. The trouble is he knows it too well; he listens to himself praying, he is preoccupied with himself. Above all he judges others. As far as he is concerned about God, he sees him chiefly as the one who will recognize his merits. Set against this religiously observant man we have the publican. He makes no great prayer of thanksgiving; he confesses, not because he needs to sweep his conscience clear (the Pharisee has done that for him), nor to go back over his faults, but to express all the sorrow he feels for them. Finding nothing that could give him any assurance before his judge, he entrusts himself to the divine mercy: hoping to receive his very existence as a grace, a gift. When this humble man returned to his home, he and not the other was at rights with God. As Christians we know that a just man who has been justified, is saved by God, without regard for merit. Do we believe that firmly enough when we pray? The best revealer of God and of ourselves is still our prayer. - Glenstal Bible Missal Prayer of the
Anonymous Soldier of the Confederacy I asked God for strength, that I might achieve –I was made
weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for help that I might do
greater things –I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked
for riches that I might be happy – I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life – I was given life that I
might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for – but everything that
I hoped for. Despite myself my prayers were answered. I am among all men,
most richly blessed! Anoymous May we approach God on bended knees that he might exalt us in
his presence! Fr. Jude
Botelho |
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Other Sunday Homily Websites Daily Reflections Immaculate Heart Retreat Center Gospel Commentary from Ireland Daily Scripture |
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Sunday Reflections Twenty-Nineth
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