October 23, 2022

Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C

Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14

On the first evening of a holiday visit with their grandparents, a young boy and his brother kneeled by their bed to do their bedtime prayers. After saying their Our Father and Hail Mary, shouting as loudly as he could, the younger boy pleaded: “and PLEASE God, I need a new bicycle and Xbox for Christmas.” “Quiet down,” said his brother. “God isn’t deaf, you know!” “Yes, I know,” he answered, “but Grandma is.” Technically, the boy was praying to God but, like the Pharisee in today’s gospel, he was doing so simply to benefit himself.

Last week, the lesson of the poor woman and the corrupt judge was to be persistent in our prayers, and God, our loving Father, would answer them. Today we hear the very next passage in Luke’s Gospel, and its lesson is that prayer, to be effective, must be approached from a proper attitude. The Pharisee was not really thanking God, although his words said he was. His attitude said anything but that, and the implication was that he was better than other people because of his status, wealth, and position. He lacked humility of heart.

What does it mean to be Christlike? I would argue that one of the best words to describe this ideal would be humility. But this is so difficult in our society, where our culture is continually demonstrating that “it’s all about me.” Listen to the Pharisee – what is he saying? “Here I am God, I’m going to let you love me, your incredible creation.” How can there be room for God in a heart so oriented? Contrast that to the tax collector, who in humbleness asks God to fill that void in himself so as to better do the will of his creator. Jesus is unequivocal about which is the proper attitude. Christ asks us to carry our cross, and to empty ourselves like he did on the cross. The tax collector meets this standard, whereas the Pharisee is so full of himself that there could not have been room for God.

In addition, the Pharisee was not only smug, but had to compare himself to someone else less fortunate than himself to gain value for his life. Instead of comparing his life to the standard that all people should use, that of God, he prefers to use a lower standard. If, during prayer, he had compared himself to a Jewish ideal, say Moses, or Abraham, or Ruth, or Esther, he would have had a completely different prayer, and asked God’s help to improve. We have the standard of Christ himself, and when we pray if we compare ourselves to him, we will always be asking for forgiveness and help, and a lot of it. We won’t fall into the trap of arrogance but will regain a sense of humility.

This Friday we will celebrate the Feast Day of two of the apostles, Saints Simon and Jude. Saint Jude is the patron saint of hopeless causes. One tradition has it that he earned this title because his actual name is Judas Thaddaeus, and because there were two apostles with the name Judas, people were afraid to pray to this saint because it might be confused with Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ. So, the tradition goes, Saint Jude is very eager to help those that ask him to intercede with God on their behalf. Saint Jude is also the patron saint of that great institution Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I would suggest that, when we pray, if we would always compare ourselves to any of the children in that hospital, all of whom have cancer or other serious disease, we would always approach our God with the correct attitude, that is a humble spirit filled with gratitude, and like the tax collector, continue to ask God for his mercy and thank him for all of the gifts that we have received that we’ve done nothing to merit.

As we continue with our Mass, let the words we are about to recite, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,” be not just a reflexive prayer of someone going through the motions, but be a true sign of our humility and openness to God, so that when we continue with “just say the word and my soul shall be healed,” it will turn into the true gift of gratitude that is one of the graces we receive in the Eucharist. Let us pray for the intercession of both Saints Jude and Simon as we try, as they did as apostles, to follow the teachings of Christ and empty ourselves to be more like him. The little boy praying loudly was banking on Grandma giving him what he wants, but let us always approach God humbly asking for what we truly need.