One of the things we have to do as Candidates to the diaconate is write a reflection (not a Homily yet!!) and when we lead night prayer we have to reflect on the coming weekends Gospel. When I remember I will post them here. This was for Tuesday October 18, 2016.Luke 18:9-14 Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity -- greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ 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.”
Bear with me as I’d like to begin this reflection with a prayer. “Heavenly Father, thank you for making this reflection far better than any reflection ever, thank you for making it that much better than everyone else, Amen”.
I’m kidding of course but do we ever really think like that? Are we ever arrogant in our faith or prayer life? Who are the people that we assume we are better than? … That we are above? … What is our posture at Mass after receiving the Eucharist? ... Are our heads bowed, humbled in prayer? … maybe instead we are watching everybody else receive and condemning them with our thoughts?
The Pharisee in this Gospel had a list of things others did wrong, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, tax collectors. Do we have such a list when we pray? Do we thank God for making us not like that divorced person, not like that person struggling with drug addiction, not like that Yankees fan? The Pharisee had another list; a list of what he has done so well, fasting and tithing to help justify himself further. Do we keep such a list as well? It’s ok to know what we are doing well but it’s not ok to use those things to make ourselves better than others, higher than others. The Pharisee wasn’t in the temple giving true thanks and praise to God, he instead was there to give praise to himself.
Reading the words of Jesus we can easily see how we should be. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted”.
Just this weekend God saw an area where I needed humility. The past couple of months several people have been coming up to me after Masses where I was the lector telling me what a great job I was doing, how they look forward to seeing me up there. This was getting into my head a bit and inflating it too much so God put me in my place, let me know he’s in charge. Sunday morning I woke up and went downstairs at 7:20 am. Not a big deal, made my coffee, sat down for Morning Prayer. Suddenly my phone alarm went off. I checked it to see what it was for. It was reminding me I had to Lector at the 7:30 Mass. Needless to say when I walked into the sacristy I had to humbly ask for forgiveness from my Pastor Fr. Kevin.
As always Jesus likes to flip things around for the folks of the New Testament and for us as well. Be humble. Show humility. Humble, from the Latin word Humus (not to be confused with that delicious dip like substance from Egypt), in this instance humble’s meaning is ground, literally on the ground. The lowliest point your feet are currently on. We need to be grounded in humility. It is the heavenly virtue that God has given us to be in direct opposition to the deadly sin of pride. If we are humble we cannot be prideful. Pride leads us to sin but humility keeps us from sin.
The tax collector, in direct contrast to the Pharisee knew he was a sinful man, He wouldn’t even look towards God in heaven. Instead, beating his breast he begged for mercy. His prayer was more than just thoughts, it was physical. It was sincere. His sincerity is why he went home justified.
We must realize, like the tax collector, who the director of all of our prayers and actions and gifts are. It certainly isn’t ourselves. No, it is God. I’m teaching the Teen Timeline to our Confirmation students. It’s 8 DVD’s 45 minutes long each and one thing struck me to the core that Mark Hart says in all of this. Mark states that everything we have and all that we do is a Gift from God. All but one thing: our sin. Our sin is the only thing we truly own. If you ponder that for a moment it’s very hard to be prideful! We must always remember this, especially when we pray for if we want our prayer to be effective then we must be humble when praying just like the tax collector!
As we pray and go further down the road of this ministry that God has called us to we need keep the words of John the Baptist forever in the back of our mind: “He must increase; I must decrease”. This attitude is one of true humility and will help our focus in ministry, in prayer and in all aspects of our life. Our focus should be on the needs of others, not others faults and failings. Our focus needs to be on how we can help the greater good of the Church, not the greater good of ourselves. Our focus needs to be Jesus Christ. When we focus on him everything else comes clearly into view.
Pope Francis put it far more eloquently than I ever could when he said “Looking at Jesus we see he chose the path of humility and service. Rather, he himself is this path. Jesus was not indecisive; he was not indifferent. He made a decision and followed it through until the end. He decided to become man and as a man to become a servant until his death on the Cross. This is the way of love, there is no other.”
The next time we are at Mass and we pray Through My Fault, Through My Fault, Through My Most Grievous Fault remember the Tax Collector as we strike our breast but more importantly remember humility.
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