30th. Sunday Year (C)
(Sirach 35:12-14, 16-19; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke
18:9-14)
Human pride -- a somewhat
ludicrous overflow from the primordial hubris of Satan -- was at the root of
the sin of Adam and Eve. I say a
somewhat ludicrous imitation or version of that original catastrophe, because,
following its lead, Adam and Eve:
Started to build and
could not finish the task!
With an overweening
self-esteem and outrageous desire for self-exaltation, they gave credence to
the supreme Liar, by trying to grasp for themselves likeness to God, at the
instigation of his promise to Eve, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.
Those were indeed devilish
words for they evoked in Eve what she could not personally cope with; therefore
she spoke with Adam who, like his wife, also found himself unable to appreciate
what was happening to them both: they found themselves desiring what they could
not believe God would ever give them and mistrusting His will to understand
them in their temptation and trial. The
beauty of God attracted them but they could not conceive the measure of His
goodness, because of the disorder they were already experiencing in their hearts
after having listened to Satan’s proposal so very alien to their native being (they
knew it, they had sensed it!) and yet so attractive to their pride. And so, yielding to that fatal attraction, they
allowed themselves to be seduced by Satan, who thus become their chosen lord
and master.
Therefore, the wisdom and
majesty of God would once again have to confront fallen Lucifer, hiding now
behind a hostage-taken mankind!
And God would also need to find
and rescue mankind anew by showing His wondrous beauty and infinite goodness in
human form this time: Son of God become Son of Man -- an Infant born of a
virgin – where divine Goodness is most attractive to men. And there it was too that He would defeat and
destroy Satan, through the virtue of humility and the practice of obedience,
where His divine Power would be made unrecognizable for Satan’s hubris.
We can say, therefore, that lack
of trust in God is ultimately a manifestation of inordinate ego-centrism:
either that which is directed outwards in aggressive self-assertion and which
we generally call human pride, or that which is turned inwards in perpetual
solicitude for, and anxiety about, self.
It highlights a fault-line in
human nature as we have received it from Adam and Eve: men and women of all
ages and all climes – be they important or non-entities, strong or weak,
knowledgeable or ignorant, rich and successful or apparently poor and worthless
– are subject to it and can be tempted and even led astray by it to such a
degree of pride and self-love which would make them either intolerably superior
and disdainful with regard to others, or else cripplingly anxious for
themselves, fearful and hesitant in all things: thus alienating them from God
and frustrating harmony with their fellow humans.
Our heavenly Father is
infinite in holiness, power and goodness, and He wants to give us a share in
His own eternal life, joy, and glory. To
achieve that He has willed to give His own Son to us, for us, the Son through
Whom He also endows us with His Holy Spirit to work within and with us, so that
we might indeed come to gradually experience and appreciate a little something
of the glorious destiny He has prepared
for us. Before such sublime wisdom --
shot through with divine goodness and compassion -- human self-love is clearly shown
in the horror of its sinfulness: for our arrogant pride will not readily admit or
humbly accept God as supreme Lord, whilst our anxiety and fearfulness cannot
believe in, and will not trust, His infinite goodness as our loving Father.
Let us now see how the
Pharisee prayed to so wonderful a God and Father:
God, I thank You that I am not like other men --
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all
that I possess.
Notice that he addresses God
first and then puts Him aside as a sort of bystander, whilst he concentrates
his whole attention on himself and on his feelings for others, especially for the
tax collector nearby. He is not praying
to God so much as proudly detailing his own personal performance and public
awareness and appreciation. In fact he
is not praying to God personally at all, he is speaking to, addressing, Him as
an important Pharisee; and the few words he directs to Him are merely
rhetorical and conventional, the ‘politically correct’ language of a man of God
such as he believes himself to be; and after having fulfilled his religious obligation
with those few words ‘God I thank you’, he becomes as all men are, though,
indeed, far prouder than most, especially with regard to the humble
tax-collector nearby.
Our Pharisee is not even
truly thanking God for enabling and guiding him to ‘fast twice a week’ and
‘give tithes of all he possesses’, for that would, indeed, have led him to understand
somewhat better, and perhaps even feel a measure of compassion for, the
tax-collector and all ‘such people’. As
it was, his words to God were nothing more than ritualistic assertion of his professional
commitment and success; whereas his personal commitment is shown most clearly
in his vehemence against society as a whole, and against the tax-collector
individually who happened to be praying so disgustingly close to him in the
Temple of God!
Notice how Jesus describes
such prayer when He says:
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
On the other hand, however, Jesus
contrasts the tax-collector’s prayer with that of the Pharisee by not only mentioning,
but even gently emphasizing, his humility before God:
The tax-collector would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed…
before finally, and most
approvingly, revealing his words of self-accusation:
God, be merciful to me a sinner!
There God is supremely
important, being recognized as all-holy and most merciful; as for the
tax-collector himself, he is just a sinner, humbly acknowledging the fact. Only two persons are pictured there and the
prayer is a truly personal bond of union between them.
Centuries earlier, the
Psalmist (Ps. 91:14) had written words perfectly applicable to the tax-collector’s
prayer:
I will set him on high, because he has known my Name
(known Who I am -- the all-holy God – and what I am -- infinitely merciful).
That was lovingly confirmed
by Jesus, Who alone knew His Father in the true splendour of His glory and fullness
of His goodness, when He went on to say:
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other.
As for the Pharisee whose
pride allowed him little more than notional appreciation of God, Jesus could
add:
Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who
humbles himself will be exalted.
People of God, whoever sets
out for a distant destination must always keep their eyes fixed on some object
that establishes the right direction: if one were to walk looking at one’s
feet, it would be impossible to arrive at the desired destination. So too in our spiritual life, we need always
to have our mind and heart, our intention and our desire, fixed on Jesus in the
Church. Of course, it might be objected
that he who does not look where he is putting his feet is asking for trouble;
and there are some who allow themselves to be convinced by such an argument and
feel encouraged to continue either worrying about themselves or else
congratulating themselves for their imagined prudence. However, the great falsehood hidden in such behaviour
is, of course, that it is not we who are going heavenward of ourselves,
but rather it is God Who is calling us and seeking to guide us: we attain the
destination He plans for us only if we trust His goodness and follow His guidance. As St. Paul said in our second reading:
The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and
preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!
Jesus wished to impress this
upon His disciples when He warned them of pressures to come that would, if they
did not take care, lead them to worry overmuch about themselves:
You will be brought before governors and kings for My
sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry
about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour
what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your
Father who speaks in you. (Matthew 10:18-21)
We all know that the apostle
Paul suffered more than any of the apostles for Jesus, and the hearing of only
a few of his sufferings and trials fills us with admiration for his steadfast
proclamation of the Good News (2 Cor. 11:24s.):
From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus
one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was
shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep.
How could he endure such
punishments and survive such sufferings?
And where did he find the courage and strength to continue his
witnessing to Christ? Listen to him
again:
By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward
me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I,
but the grace of God which was with me. (1
Corinthians 15:10)
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of
anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also
made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. (2
Corinthians. 3:5-6)
My dear people, it is not
only necessary for our eternal salvation, but it is also a much happier and
more fulfilling experience for us here on earth to delight in God, and to be
able and willing to trust and thank Him at all times and under all circumstances. No one is happier than one who is grateful, none
stronger than he who trusts in God.
Trust in God is absolutely
essential, being the very hallmark of true love. Trust in God is not, indeed, an integral part
of our human nature, it is a gift from God; but like the talents in Jesus’
parable, it is a gift entrusted to us that we can and should develop, an
endowment we are exhorted to use, work with, and profit from. We need to pray constantly for greater trust
in God, for a more instinctive and childlike reliance on Him, and we should
also seek to support such prayers by resolute endeavours to turn aside from our over-elaborate
selves more promptly, through simple and ever more whole-hearted commitment to
Him and His purposes; loving Him and doing His will, after the example of
Jesus.
As trust grows it brings
with it such a deep peace and quiet joy that one wonders how one could have
been so foolish as to have relied on, or worried about, self so much before. Moreover,
with a deepening awareness of and trust in the goodness of God to ourselves, we
can all the more sincerely sympathize with others in their faults and failings,
as we come to recognize ever more clearly where we ourselves would be, were it
not for God’s bountiful blessings filling up our emptiness and satisfying our
needs.
Dear friends in Christ,
unshakeable trust in, and heart-felt gratitude to, God the Father -- for the
love and commitment embodied in Jesus crucified and gloriously Risen, and abiding
ever with us in the grace and power of His Spirit in the Church – such love and
trust, I say, bring us and offer all believers, a fulfilment and peace beyond
anything else this side of heaven. Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD!
