Thirtieth Sunday of the year October 23, 2022
Mission Sunday
Sirach 35:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
The story is told that one day Frederick the Great, King of
Prussia, visited a prison and talked with each of the inmates. There were
endless tales of innocence, of misunderstood motives, and of exploitation.
Finally the king stopped at the cell of a convict who remained silent. “Well,”
remarked Frederick, “I suppose you are an innocent victim too?” “No, sir, I'm
not,” replied the man. “I'm guilty and deserve my punishment.” Turning to the
warden the king said, “Here, release this rascal before he corrupts all these
fine, innocent people in here!” The biblical saying proves true, “God opposes
the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
Someone once said: “There are only two kinds of people in
this world – there are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good morning,
Lord,” and then there are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good Lord,
it’s morning.”” (To be quite honest: I have to say that I am definitely the
latter kind of person.)
“There are only two kinds of people in this world…”
We hear this saying fairly often.
According to author Alan Cohen, these two kinds of people
are: “those who make excuses and those who get results.”
Marlo Thomas looks at this duality a little differently. She
explains that the two kinds of people in this world are “the givers and the
takers. The takers may eat better,” she explains. “But the givers sleep
better.”
And of course, Woody Allen gives his two-cents, saying:
“There are two types of people in this world: the good and the bad. The good
sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.”
On the surface, the parable in Luke this Sunday seems to
affirm this view that there are two kinds of people in this world: those who
are like the Pharisee and those who are like the tax collector.
Prayer has a prominent place in the Christian religious
practice. The liturgy of today discusses some aspects of prayer and its
application to life. The readings tell us that God listens especially to the
sinner and the humble. Often we wonder why God is partial in his dealing with
human persons. In today’s Gospel, Jesus
tells us of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the story that shows the way to
being right with God. They both went to
the privileged place to pray. Sometimes we think that God should be listening
more to the good people who keep his laws rather than those who continuously
break them. That was certainly the attitude of the Pharisee as indicated in the
parable. Indeed the prayer of the humble
pierces the clouds and it will not rest until it reaches its goal.
The structure of this parable is striking. When describing
the Pharisee, the language all hints at height (as images for pride always do):
the Pharisee stands, he (by implication at least) looks up to heaven as he
prays, and his very language spirals upward as well as he heaps up a list of
all that he does. By contrast the tax collector has all downward words
associated with him: he is afar off, he will not look up to heaven, he beats
down on his breast, etc.
But it is also interesting to note the set-up for this
parable in verse 9: Jesus is said not to tell this parable in the abstract for
just anyone and everyone but rather very specifically is said to tell the
parable to those who were confident in their own righteousness. That makes you
wonder: did a crowd of the self-righteous gather and so prompted this parable
or was Jesus so keenly aware of this tendency to self-righteousness that he
knew that no matter when he spoke this parable, it would be heard by plenty of
people who fit the bill?! I suspect it is the latter! And therein lies a lesson
for us also today!
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 to all sinners except the proud. It is not that God will not
forgive the sin of pride but that the proud man will not ask for God’s
forgiveness. Therefore we must be on guard
against this dangerous and destructive vice. It is dangerous because it can
destroy us once it enters our life. It is destructive because it destroys all
the good virtues we practice and all the good works 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 because a proud person practices religion and virtues for his
self-glory and not for God. The Pharisee in the parable proves this fact. He
only boasted of his good works and did not pray at all. Further, he spent his time criticizing the
person next to him and refused to accept him as his own brother.
This Sunday is set aside to think about our Mission to the
world and is a reminder to us as to who we are and what we have to do. The
mission comes directly from Jesus to his disciples to go out to the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to all creation.
Pope Francis in his message for World Mission Day 2022, has focussed on
the theme: “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). In his message the Pope
reflects on three foundations of “the life and mission of every disciple”. The
first, he said, is “the call of every Christian to bear witness to Christ,”
calling it the “heart of Jesus’ teaching to the disciples.” He considers a
second foundation of the Christian mission: “to the ends of the earth.” He
turns to the third foundation of mission: “You will receive power from the Holy
Spirit”.
Happy Mission Sunday
The difference between the Pharisees n the tax collector is beautifully stated by Fr. Anush. It opens our eyes to the good n the bad, as well as virtue n vice. it also highlights on pride n humility as well as our selfish n selfless motives. God demands humility and an acceptance on the part of the sinner that he is guilty which God forgives as his conscience is clear. We should work for God’s glory and not for our selfish motives.
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