SUNDAY READINGS - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
FIRST READING: Sirach 35:12-14; 16-18. The Lord is the judge, and with him is no partiality. He will not show partiality in the case of a poor man; and he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. He will not ignore the supplication of the fatherless, nor the widow when she pours out her story. He whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted, and his prayer will reach to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and he will not be consoled until it reaches the Lord, he will not desist until the Most High visits him, and does justice for the righteous, and executes judgment. And the Lord will not delay.
EXPLANATION: This wise man has some very solid instructions today, on the justice of God, who deals equally with all men and has no favorites. He answers the prayers of all, but the oppressed, the orphan, the widow, the ones who can least help themselves, are always his concern. The best prayer is that of loyal, willing service. The prayer of the humble man will be answered.
The Lord is the judge: God treats everybody with absolute justice. Unlike the potentates of this earth, he has no favorites. Each one will get what he deserves, there is no reward for the undeserving.
not . . . man: He is slightly partial to the cries of the weak who are the oppressed, the orphans, the widows, for they are more in need of his special help. They have no earthly protectors.
He . . . accepted: The man who keeps God's commandments willingly, out of love for him, and does his will daily, deserves to have his requests granted. His loyal service of God is a continual prayer reaching to heaven. The prayer of the humble: The prayer of the humble man, who admits how unworthy he is of God's attention, will be heard. We have a very striking example in today's Gospel of the prayer of the proud man and that of the humble sinner.
Most High . . . him: The Lord will answer all sincere prayer. Being justice itself, he can treat nobody unjustly. He will allow nobody to suffer beyond their strength. He will always be on the side of justice and truth. He cannot be deceived by false pleas as an earthly benefactor can, nor will he ever, turn a deaf ear to those truly in need of his help.
APPLICATION: This wise and pious Jewish writer of the second century B.C. had some very instructive advice for his contemporaries on the qualities which prayers of petition should possess. His advice is still of great value for all of us. Whilst there were truly pious Jews whose prayers were acts of adoration of God, praise for his infinite goodness and mercy and thanksgiving for his manifold gifts to men, the vast majority turned to God only when they needed some temporal favor.
Sirach reminds such people that God is a God of justice, that is, that he will give to each according to his merits. Unlike earthly judges or rulers, he will not be bribed. He will have no favorites. The man who has ignored or forgotten him while all his temporal affairs were prospering, cannot and should not expect a divine intervention when adverse fortune hits him. Nor will he depart from this strict justice even though the petitioner is weak (in health or worldly possessions) through his own fault. But where the petitioner is in dire need because of circumstances beyond his control, as is the case of the oppressed, the orphan and the widow, God will come to his aid.
The prayer of the humble man whose purpose in life is to serve God in all his goings and comings, in all his day's work, will always be heard. His prayer will "pierce the clouds and reach heaven." For "God judges justly and affirms the right." The prayer of the true lover of God, of the truly humble servant of his Lord, will be that God's will may be always done, even if, as may be, that will of God entails earthly sufferings or trials for himself.
In the light of what this inspired man of God has told us today, we would do well, all of us, to have another look at our life of prayer, or at what part prayer plays in our life. For far too many of us, prayer means asking God for something when we are in need. The more important parts of prayer, adoration, praise and thanksgiving, are almost, if not entirely, forgotten. How many people who would claim to be good Christians, say "thank you, God, for giving me another day," when they wake up in the morning? How many of us show our gratitude for having health, for having enough to eat, for having a roof over our heads? As long as their earthly life runs along smoothly, and while they have good health and a reasonably comfortable life, God is forgotten by many.
When misfortune strikes, however, they suddenly remember that there is a God who is omnipotent. He can and he should come to their aid immediately, they think. Should he? The Just God judges justly. He gives to each according to his merit. If I have forgotten God, except for the casual attendance at Sunday Mass to avoid mortal sin, all through my years of prosperity, can I in all decency expect him to take notice now of me when something goes wrong?
Do you mean then, that we must be always praying to God! That is all right for nuns or monks who have nothing else to do! We have the cares of the world to attend to, we need relaxation and recreation after our hard day's work. Your answer is in today's lesson: "he who serves God willingly is heard." Your day's work, if offered for the honor and glory of God and your day's recreation as well, are prayers pleasing in the sight of God. God never intends us to spend our days on our knees. He intends us to be up and doing, earning our daily bread honestly but joyfully, for each day's work performed in justice and with the intention of doing our duty, thereby honoring God, is a day nearer to heaven.
Those who act in this simple but at the same time sublimely Christian way can approach God with the utmost confidence, if and when the trials they meet in life seem beyond their strength. Their prayers will "pierce the clouds and reach heaven" and when they receive their answer, they will quickly return to say a sincere "thank you" to their just and loving Father who is in heaven.
SECOND READING: 2 Timothy 4: 6-8; 16-18. I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
At my first defence no one took my part; all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the word fully, that all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
EXPLANATION: In his three pastoral letters to Timothy and Titus, St. Paul often quotes his own life and sufferings to encourage his disciples and successors to persevere in their apostolic labors. He now feels that his earthly life is nearing its end but he has full confidence in God, his just judge, who will give him his eternal reward.
I . . . sacrificed: Wine and oil were poured out as part of the Jewish sacrifices (Nm. 28: 7). It was also customary to pour out wine as an offering to the Greek and Roman idols. Paul means that he is about to give his life as a sacrifice for the Gospel of Christ, as he says in the following verse: "the time of my dissolution is near."
I have fought the good fight: He often uses metaphors from the Greek sports arenas. He has boxed bravely and won. He has run well and has earned the prize.
I have kept the faith: He has lived in and for the faith of Christ. He has fulfilled the vocation given him when converted on the road to Damascus, some thirty years previously.
laid up . . . righteousness: The victor's crown placed on the heads of winning athletes.
Lord . . . day: On the judgment day he will receive his award from Christ, and not only he, but all who have been loyal to Christ and his Gospel will likewise be rewarded.
righteous judge: For Christ is just and he has promised eternal life to all those who are loyal to him.
at . . . first defence: He was evidently abandoned by all his friends when he was brought before the Roman judges. Although he felt this, he prays that God will not blame them for it.
Lord stood by me: He had Christ to help him and give him the courage to proclaim the Christian faith to the pagan Romans. This was an opportunity to make Christ known to the Roman world through their judges, and through the throngs that gathered in the capital for his trial.
I was rescued . . . lion's mouth: He was evidently released at this first hearing and saved from death. The lion's jaw may be a metaphor for death or it may be taken literally: Christians and other condemned prisoners were thrown to the lions in the arena to entertain the pagan Romans.
save . . . kingdom: He is quite confident that God will be on his side until he calls him to himself---to his heavenly kingdom.
To him be the glory: He ends with the well-known doxology.
APPLICATION: What a wonderful thing, what a source of courage and consolation it would be for us, if we could, like St. Paul, say on our death-beds: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"! There are few followers of Christ in the history of the Christian Church who did, and suffered for the faith of Christ, what Paul did and suffered. He was exceptional even among exceptional saints. Then of course, his was an exceptional vocation. The Risen Christ appeared to him while he was on his way to persecute and arrest the Christians of Damascus, having already done great damage to the infant Church in Jerusalem. That appearance, and the words of Christ, turned a fanatical adversary of the faith into an ardent Apostle of Christ. He devoted every moment of his remaining thirty years to bringing the knowledge of Christ and the good news of the Incarnation, that act of infinite love of God for men, to the Gentile world.
We cannot and we should not hope to imitate him in death, as we did not, nor were we called on, to imitate him in life. That, however, does not mean that each one of us could not repeat his words of courage and confidence on our very ordinary death-beds. There are outstanding saints in heaven, and it will be part of our eternal happiness to meet them and admire them, or maybe rather to admire the omnipotent God who was able to make such saints of them. Let us never forget that there are, please God, millions of ordinary saints in heaven, men and women like ourselves, who were not called on to do anything very extraordinary here below, but who lived the ordinary Christian life well. That last word "well" is the secret of their success.
These citizens of heaven have got there through the grace of God and through living their hum-drum daily Christian lives as God wished them to be lived. Because they lived each day as faithful Christians, keeping the laws of God, accepting the rough with the smooth, measuring their daily actions with the yard-stick of eternity, they could (on the day or night that God decided to call them to himself) say with St. Paul: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." With that same assurance as St. Paul, they could expect the reward which the just judge had in store for them.
Most of us have the wrong idea of what a saint is. We hear only of men and women who lived lives of severe mortifications, men and women who were completely detached from all that this world has, who never seemed to have any earthly interests or joys. There were some such people and they are now in heaven. But they are a tiny minority. Heaven is for the Toms, Dicks, and Harrys, as well as for the Pauls, Patricks and Teresas. If not, Christ and Christianity would be sad failures!
No, heaven is for all of us. Getting there is much easier than what our pious literature would suggest. Judging by the legends that hagiographers collected or invented most of their saints were born not made. The facts are otherwise. These men and women became saints because they lived Christian, but at the same time, human lives. They did not spend their days gazing heavenwards, with hands joined in prayer. They did an honest day's work, and earned their livelihood. They were not always weeping and bemoaning the sins of the world and their own. They were instead full of joy and were the most cheery of companions. The great reformer of the Carmelites, St. Teresa of Avila, who lived a strict life of poverty and personal mortification, is said to have uttered the prayer: "May God protect me from sour-faced saints!"
Granted that heaven is for all of us and granted that most of us are not called on to do anything extraordinary in life, we are called on to live our very ordinary day in a Christian manner. Each ordinary day that we offer to God, and live for him, as well as for our own earthly necessities, brings us a day nearer to the death-bed on which we can truly say with St. Paul : "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." The rest I can safely leave to the good and just God.
GOSPEL: Luke 18: 9-14. Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank thee that I am not like the other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
EXPLANATION: In today's parable our Lord, very emphatically and tellingly, reproaches the Pharisees for their exalted opinion of their own sanctity. They were continually boasting of their good works and of their strict observance of the law and they openly despised all others who did not do as they did.
A Pharisee . . . a tax collector: The Pharisee will tell us himself what he is, the poor tax collector was one of a class that was hated by most Jews, as well as by the Pharisees. The reason was that they collected the taxes imposed by the pagan Roman government on the Jews. These collectors were Jews themselves. This added insult to injury. Furthermore, the clever Roman system of getting in their taxes made it a very profitable occupation for the collector. So long as he gave the Romans the sum imposed on a district, he could collect as much as he was able. This led to many tax collectors acting very unjustly.
stood and prayed: The Pharisee is described by our Lord as standing proudly and conspicuously in the Temple. He is addressing God but not in supplication. In fact, he is telling God how thankful he should be that there are men like him on earth!
not like other men: The basic vice of the Pharisee, pride, and the ruination of all their otherwise good works.
extortioners . . . adulterers: He is showing how good he is. He has not the vices which all the others have.
even like this tax collector: He openly proclaims the tax collector to be a scandalous sinner. He evidently has not heard that calumny and detraction were sins too. He then mentioned some of his many virtues.
But . . . far off: He wanted nobody to see him.
not even . . . his eyes to heaven: He felt himself to be unworthy even to look towards heaven, a place he felt that he could never reach.
beat his breast: A sign of sorrow and regret, which some still practise when saying the confiteor.
God is merciful to me: He confesses that he is a sinner. The only hope of salvation for him is the infinite mercy of God.
I tell you, this man: Our Lord himself interprets the parable for the Pharisees and for all of us. The humble man who sincerely confessed his sins and asked humbly for God's mercy, got that mercy. His sins were forgiven him, whereas the other, the man who boasted of his virtues and felt that he had no need for forgiveness, went down from the Temple still laden with his sins of pride and uncharitableness.
Everyone who exalts himself: A second conclusion to the parable, but it belongs to Lk. 14: 11.
APPLICATION: During his hidden life in Nazareth, and especially during his public life when he traveled through the towns and villages of Palestine, our Lord met sinners of all kinds. There is not a single record of a harsh word spoken by him to any of them. In fact, he was accused of mixing too freely with them. His answer was that "it was those who were ill who needed a doctor, not those, who were in good health." The sinners he met knew that they were ill. They regretted their sins. He forgave them.
There was one group, however, and only one, against whom he uttered condemnation and for whom he foretold an unhappy ending. These were the Pharisees. In Mt. 23, the whole chapter is devoted to Christ's condemnation of them. It contains eight "woes" which he utters against them. He calls them by many unflattering names. One was "whited sepulchers, appearing beautiful to men on the outside but full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness within" (23:27). Such harshness, coming from the gentle Christ, may surprise us, but knowing as he did that pride, the first and basic sin of mankind and the root of all other evil in the world, was so ingrained in their very hearts, that they could never seek forgiveness, he stated nothing but the truth concerning them or to them.
In this parable which he addressed to the Pharisees themselves, he tells them once more where their pride will lead them. They will be excluded from the kingdom of God, because they will not admit or repent of their pride and their lack of charity. Instead of thanking God for the many gifts he had given them, they almost demanded thanks from God for being such pious people. They had virtues. They avoided serious injustices. They did not commit adultery. They fasted often. They paid all their Temple dues, but it was all done, not for the honor and glory of God, but for their own honor and glory. They told the world about it. They demanded the first places in the synagogs, and special marks of reverence on the streets. They had to be called "masters" as they claimed to represent and interpret Moses to the ordinary people.
One thing that we can learn from this sad story of the Pharisees is that, while God approves of no sin, his mercy and his forgiveness is available for all sinners except the proud. It isn't that God cannot or will not forgive the sin of pride but that the proud man will not ask for God's forgiveness.
We must all be on our guard against this insidious and destructive vice. It is insidious because it can grow in us almost without our knowing it, and once it has taken root it is difficult to eradicate. It is destructive because it spoils every other virtue we practise and every good work we do. Charity, or brotherly love, cannot flourish in a proud heart, for a proud heart is so full of self that it has no room for others. No true love of God can exist in a proud heart, for even the very acts of religion which a proud man performs, are done for the motive of self-glory and not for the glory of God. The Pharisee in this parable proves that fact. He boasted of his good works.
A few simple straight questions can tell us whether or not we are proud. Do we like others to see and hear of our good works, or do we prefer to do them in secret? Do we give as generously to charitable causes when no list of benefactors is published? Do we willingly take part among the rank and file in parish activities or do we feel offended if we are not the leaders? Do we criticize offhand those who are not all they should be, or do we thank God that we were saved from similar temptations? Do we always try to find an excuse for the failings of others or have we excuses for our own faults only? God forbid that any one in this congregation should be suffering from this, the worst of all vices. If anyone recognizes that he is, let him pray to God from the bottom of his heart for the opposite virtue, the true Christian virtue of humility, and look for every possible occasion to practise it. Let us all remember the two men praying in the Temple. One was full of himself and boasted to God and to all present, of his many good works. The Other just humbly beat his breast and asked for mercy---he had nothing to boast of. Yet, he left the Temple forgiven, the other returned home a worse sinner than when he had entered the temple.-c377
