If you haven’t had a chance to read the America Magazine interview of Pope Francis, I have included the link here. It is a wonderful insight to our Pope. (http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview) One of the things that struck me the most was when the reporter asked him: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” The pope answered, “I am a sinner.” Well if the Pope is a sinner, what does that make me? Our Pope has inspired me to come clean…I too am a sinner!
Photo: dwellingintheword.wordpress.com
I will spare you the long, drawn out story, but when I was younger and in Junior High, I was hanging out with a group of boys that I should not have been. Long story short, I gave in to peer pressure and ended up stealing something from a store. The boys I was hanging out with showed me how to do it, and I did it and didn’t get caught. However, I was filled with an immense amount of guilt. And I remember praying to God that night asking for forgiveness. But then I made the mistake of trying to justify my actions. I prayed, “At least I’m not like my buddies who do this all the time.”
And that’s the problem: we always justify ourselves and our actions, just like the Pharisee in today’s Gospel. (Luke 18:9-14) I’d pray, but I’m too busy working. I’d go to church, but I have soccer. I’m not that bad of a person…not as bad as some people I know. Let’s face it: we all have a little bit of the Pharisee in us!
Instead of trusting in God, we trust in ourselves. This mistake earns us the name: the self-righteous. We fail to see our need for God and his mercy. Those who are self-righteous need others to look down on. It’s all about feeding their egos. This results in severing the ties between God, self, and others.
The parable contrasts two ways of praying. Although the Pharisee seems to be addressing God in his prayer, he is really talking to himself. He used the word “I” four times. He is the center of his own prayer. God, who is the focus of all genuine prayer, is completely missing. The Pharisee thought that what made him pleasing to God was his own virtuous activity and that he wasn’t like the rest of humanity who did not duplicate his good deeds.
But Jesus said, no, look at the tax collector. He trusts not in himself but in God. And in humility, he begs for mercy and pleads for forgiveness, and he does not contrast himself with anyone else. That’s how we should pray.
Jesus is pointing out the difference between exaltation and humility. When we are engaged in ego-centered, self-exalting prayer, this alienates us from God and neighbor. We cannot acknowledge God as the source of every positive action in our lives when we make everything about us! It also cuts us off from our neighbor because in our minds, we are judging those who are not as righteous as we are. In other words: putting down others is necessary in order to raise ourselves up!
We need to minimize the Pharisee within us! We need to get over ourselves! We need a conversion of mind and behavior in order to receive the Good News. What we need is a new way of praying! Our prayer needs to arise from a consciousness of dependency on God and solidarity with one another. Scripture says that God hears the prayers of those who come to him. And God’s response will be just, right, and timely. (Remember, it’s God’s time-not ours!)
Our challenge today is to raise our prayer of thanksgiving to a higher level of humility. I ask you to reflect on the words of this prayer:
“O God, I thank you that I am like the rest of humanity. I thank you that like everyone else, I too have been shaped in your image, with a mind to know and a heart to love. I thank you that, like everyone else, I too was embraced by the crucified arms of your Son. I too have him for a brother. I thank you that you judge me, like everyone else, not by my brains or looks, my clothes, the figures of my bank account, the size of my house and the model of my car, but by the love that is your gift to me.”
“I thank you for letting me see that there is a little of the Pharisee in me, that I too have this very human yearning for something that sets me apart from the rest. If I am to thank you for making me different, let it be because through your mercy, I am different from what I would have been without you. Thank you, Lord, for making me so splendidly the same as everyone else, because it means I am that much closer to your Son. Keep me that way, Lord, and … always be merciful to me, sinner that I am. Amen!”
