THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR"C"

Cycle “C” :Luke 18, 9 – 14

It was the week before Christmas, and the shops on the main street were fairylands of attractive gift-items. A woman shopper noticed a little boy bare-footed and dressed in rags, pressing his nose against the glass of a shop window. She caught hold of his little hand and took him into the shop. She made him take off his rags and dress himself in new clothes and shoes. Back on the street, she wished him a Merry Christmas.

The little fellow suddenly asked her, “Are you God’s wife ?”  “Oh no,” replied the woman, “I am only a child of God.” And the boy said, “I knew you would be some relation of his.”

Don’t we all want that joy of being and feeling like a child of God. Spiritual pride robs us of the spontaneous and natural joy of being a child of God. Its focus is the self and not God. It is preoccupied with what others think. Self-centredness wants attention, thrives on recognition and demands affirmation. The Pharisee of today’s Gospel is a perfect specimen of one suffering from this. Oblivious to self-deception, he focuses his prayer on himself. Anxious that God might not appreciate fully what he does, he reminds him of his spiritual achievements. He is especially proud of the frequency of his fasts and the 10% he donates from his salary. He was a model of righteousness.

We humans are so easily deceived and mistaken in our assessment of persons and things. True wisdom, the Book of Sirach (first reading) tells us, comes from God. How different his ways of judging are from ours ! Jesus’ caricature of spiritual hubris is wonderfully insightful. It takes a brave person to identify any of the these traits within our own makeup. The problem with the Pharisee was that he misunderstood God’s grace; his misunderstanding prevented him from praising and thanking God for his love and mercy. Instead of seeing God, he only saw a mirror. He felt smug and satisfied as he reflected on how much he was pleasing God, when actually he was only pleasing himself. He failed to grasp the fact that we cannot please God by our own clout – we are powerless to put ourselves right with God. If we are honest, we have a natural aversion to this truth. We like to feel that somehow we have earned or merited God’s grace and blessing.

The truth is, however, that we are justified and made right with God only through the cross of Jesus who offered himself as a living victim totally pleasing and acceptable to the Father. It is by his cross and resurrection that each one of us is made righteous. What we do, on out part, us to praise and thank God for sending his Son and beg him to take over our lives completely, and we must stand firm in that faith that in Jesus our relationship with God is made right.

The Pharisee did not know how to cope with a God who loves. His God was a task-master who maintained a register of good works in one column and evil works committed in another; and we’d better watch out for that balance sheet at the end. All God wants is an open heart, a heart that he can take hold of and occupy and relax in, a heart through which he can work and save the world. There’s where our co-operation comes in.

The tax collector, on the other hand, would be well known as an opportunist and a thoroughly corrupt character. Not a sentimentally self-effacing person we have made of him, but quite likely a tough fellow who could drive a hard bargain. He had the reputation of being the “bad guy”. But when the two men come out of the temple, it is the “bad guy” who comes out at rights with God. We must not imagine that the intent of this parable is to condone moral weakness. We may sympathise with weakness but not condone it. For instance, our prayer should not be:

 “Lord, I am eternally weak,

eternally leave me that way.

Eternally forgive me,

save me anyway.”

While confessing our weakness, we must also reject mediocrity. We must not allow the much too easy spiritual accommodation of sitting with the publican and staying there. When we come out of church we must be better people.

How healthily disturbing this can be for the cosy self-image we so often create and the disparaging judgements we so hastily pass on others, The good news is not so “good” for our self-centred ego, but we shall grow in Christian maturity only in the measure in which we truly open ourselves to hear and act on the good news.

PRAYER: by Roger Hurding. (psychotherapist)

Lord Christ, I thank you for your love so strong

May that love flow through me to others

May I be patient when change comes slowly

May I be kind when life seems harsh

May I be gentle when others feel bruised

May I be humble when things go well

May I be peaceful when anger rises within

May I forgive when wronged

May I rejoice when the truth is discovered

Love never fails, but I do

May I hope when things seem hopeless

May I persevere when the way is hard.