Prayer-Humility-Pharisee and Publican

HOMILY SUNDAY 30 – C

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

(Sirach 35:15-17, 20-22; Ps 34; 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14)

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A member of the Mafia approached a priest one day with a request to do a funeral for his brother who was a known crook. He offered a huge sum of money to the priest if he would say only good things about his brother and gloss over his crimes. The priest hesitated, got an idea and then accepted. During his homily, he said simply that this man, compared to his brother, was a saint!

The Lord hears the cry of the poor. Have faith, be humble, and the Lord will hear your cry.

The readings today are focused on that quality that was so close to the heart of Jesus, humble faith. In the first reading we hear the faith-filled prayer of the humble person pierces the clouds. The psalm refrain reminds us over and over that the Lord hears the cry of the poor. And in the gospel, it is the sinner, the tax collector, who experiences the mercy and forgiveness of God and is justified, while the Pharisee prays to himself and goes home unchanged.

The word “humility” comes from the word for earth, “humus”. Put simply, it means simply knowing and living the truth about one’s self. Humility and self-awareness are very closely connected. There is usually some pain involved in being truly humble, but it is a life-giving pain as humility opens the door to healing and growth.

The Twelve Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous calls for a great deal of humility. Step One revolves around the painful truth that one is powerless over something in one’s life, that one’s life is unmanageable. Step Four demands enough humility to face the truth, do a searching and fearless moral inventory of one’s own life. Step Six asks that we go deeper inside to discover, name and get ready to let of our defects of character. And Step Ten asks us to do all this on a daily basis. Truly humility is at the center of the healing power of the Twelve Step program.

As a young priest in a northern mission, I learned a life-changing lesson about humility from a sparrow!  Saturday evening, as I was preparing for Sunday mass, I noticed that a sparrow had gotten into the church. I wondered how I could possibly get this sparrow out of the church, when I had an idea. I waited until dusk, put the porch light on, opened the door and encouraged it with a broom to fly out. The battle raged for about 5 minutes, with the sparrow flying into everything else but the open door. Finally, it landed exhausted on a ceiling rod. I stepped up on a pew and put my finger behind the tiny legs of the puffing sparrow. I then lifted it up and walked out of the church carrying the sparrow, when suddenly it got back its wind and flew away.

It struck me forcibly that perhaps we are like that sparrow, each in our own spiritual cages of doubt, stubborn self-will, false pride, resentment, self-pity, guilt and fear. Not understanding the depth of God’s love, we try to get out of that spiritual cage by our own efforts and just make it worse for ourselves, ending up trying to go through the roof of the cage which is addiction. All we have to do is let go, be humble, admit the truth, hit bottom and we will find a little door there that is always open called humility.

Later that week, someone gave me a little booklet called “This is Exciting”. It was about a pastor who found Christianity easy as a young person. Then after becoming a seminarian, tried to be perfect, Christianity suddenly became very hard. I could identify with that because I was struggling with a lot of discouragement and disillusionment in my priesthood at that time. Then the author of the booklet wrote he discovered that Christianity was neither easy nor hard. Curious, I turned the page to read that it was impossible.

Suddenly, all kinds of lights went on and I understood that I was trying to do the impossible. I was doing my will in God’s name, trying to do it all my way with my own strength. All I had to do was surrender, let go of my own will and self-directed efforts, and let God take over. I felt liberated, like a great load had been taken off my shoulders. In a sense I was born-again, through the virtue of humility.

Corbin Eddy in his commentary offers some interesting insights on today’s gospel. He writes that comparing ourselves with others, for better or worse, is not what life is all about. Living out of our own strengths, confessing our own sins, rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn: this is what life is about. In the end, we all have our own unique strengths and weaknesses that we can take into our relationship with God as self-acceptance.

In faith, we understand ourselves to be unique manifestations of the wonder of God, made in the divine image. Having this attitude enables us not to compare ourselves with others but to relate to God with gratitude and to others with respect. In the presence of God, we can recognize our own limitations and just be ourselves, forgiven sinners. Grace is to be aware of this wonderful truth and to go home justified.

The Eucharist we celebrate today is above all a very humble meal making present for us the merciful, accepting and compassionate love of God that heals the humble and empowers them to go out, not to fix things, but to simply share with others the Good News that God has already redeemed them and through faith and love, they can now share in that amazing grace.

So remember, the Lord hears the cry of the poor. Acknowledge your need humbly, and experience the merciful and justifying power of God.