Fr Eugene Lobo, SJ –
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
God has blessed us abundantly and in plenty. He continues to pour out his abundant blessings on us. At the same time, he invites them to be close to him and pray to him. Prayer has a prominent place in 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.
Today’s First Reading taken from the Book of Sirach tells us of God’s care for the lowly and their prayer reaches the courts of heaven. Those who serve the Lord can expect the Lord to heed their prayers. The reading tells us that our prayer life is inevitably connected with the rest of our lives. The Lord is the judge, and within him, there is no partiality. He will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. The Lord will not ignore the supplication of the orphan, or the widow when they pour out their complaint to him. The ear of the Lord is inclined towards the needy, the poor, and those who are abandoned. The prayers of the faithful are pleasing to the Lord and are heard before His Heavenly Throne. But the prayers of the humble touch the Lord and they pierce His Heart until the Most High responds by executing judgment to bring justice to the righteous. Sirach speaks of prayer as an arrow reaching its mark where it remains until God takes note of it. The weak and the humble gain a hearing with God the Almighty.
In today’s Second Reading from the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy, we find examples of Paul’s humility. When Paul says that the time of his departure has come, he is stating the fact of his proximity of death. His death was imminent and his departure from this life and his return to Christ was certain. He was already in his prison and in chains in Rome. Through his words, he was not seeking pity, nor was he boasting of all he had done in the Holy Name of Jesus. On the other hand, he had offered everything he had to God, his money, his scholarship, his work, his time, and now his life. Paul now tells them that he has fought the good fight, he has run a good race, and he has kept the faith. Though Paul had Luke with him and he expected Timothy and Mark to come to the place of his imprisonment, he feels abandoned much like Jesus.
In today’s Gospel, we have the strange example of a Pharisee and a tax collector in the context of prayer. The Pharisee and we clearly have evidence to prove he is the “good” person. He carefully kept the Law of the Jews and the Commandments of God. He faithfully observed the obligations of a good Jew: he prayed, he fasted, and he gave alms. In fact, he was very generous in his attitude towards God. He fasted twice a week while a religious Jew had to fast just once a year. The law commanded tithes of farm produce profits but the Pharisees tithed on everything he possessed. His righteousness considerably exceeded the standards prescribed by the Mosaic Law. And yet, God was not happy with him because he was a totally self-centred person. He thanked God with the words expressing that he was not like others, especially the terrible tax collector who had come to the Temple to pray. He was telling God how fortunate God is having secured such a pious generous person like the Pharisee.
If we look at the tax collector as pictured in the Gospel and he is certainly a sinner. The Tax collectors were considered as social outcasts. They were considered robbers for Rome. The tax collectors collected tax money from their own community that was oppressed by the Romans and kept a good share for them. Here we have one such who did not observe the Jewish law. Like any other tax collector, he too was a swindler and extortionist. He really was a sinner before the world but God loved him and continued to love him. Jesus says that when the tax collector left the Temple, he did so as a friend of God, whereas the Pharisee went away without the experience of forgiveness. The Parable tells us that even though the tax collector was a sinner, he confessed his sins and sought forgiveness from God.
The ordinary interpretation of this parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector takes its cue from the opening verse. It is addressed to those who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise everyone else. The parable itself uses the characters of a Pharisee and a tax collector but the message is not directed especially against either the Pharisee or the tax collector as such. Most of those who read the parable are conditioned to criticize the Pharisee as a proud, self-righteous, egoistic person and praise the tax collector as a humble person. In fact, the Pharisee is not self-righteous and he does what a good Pharisee is supposed to do. The tax collector on the other hand was a collaborator with the enemies of the land. The mistake of the Pharisee is that he seems to credit his religious and personal success to himself.
Luke in today’s Gospel tells us that no matter who we are, the only authentic prayer any of us can utter, is the one voiced by the tax collector. Even then there is no guarantee of righteousness. Here Jesus speaks of simplicity and humility. He says that all who humble themselves will be exalted. In the Gospel of Matthew, we have the words of Jesus that whoever becomes humble like the little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, we heard how the Pharisee considered himself as righteous and condemned the tax collector.
During his life on earth, we do not hear any harsh word of Jesus except against the Pharisees. Jesus did mix with them yet he spoke strongly of their behaviour. In Matthew, a full chapter is devoted to Christ’s condemnation of Pharisees and Scribes. He calls them white-washed sepulchres, persons who form laws but not observe, and so on. In the parable of today, he speaks of them as self-righteous persons. One thing we learn is that while God approves of no sin, his mercy and forgiveness is available for all sinners who in humility turn to him. For it is only the Mercy of God, given as a gift to us for our sincerity, which brings us into His presence, bringing us salvation, for our God is merciful and He loves mankind. “The humble man’s prayer pierces the clouds.
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.
Bill was a notorious and troublesome boy in the class. The Teacher was always finding it hard to control him and it was disturbing the whole class. She was sad. One day as the boy entered the class he found the teacher writing something in shorthand and the boy asked her out of curiosity, what she was writing. She told him quietly that it was a prayer. The boy asked her whether God knows shorthand and she said God knows everything and reads every heart. As she looked at the board the boy took the letter and hid it in his book. After several years when Bill was a successful man when he looked through his past materials found this note and out of curiosity took it to the office to translate. The clerk told him that the note said: Dear God I am finding it difficult to control Bill and he disturbs me. Please touch his heart. He is capable and he can be very good or very evil. Bill had tears in his eyes. He knew the prayers of his teacher were heard. He warmly remembered his teacher who had prayed for him and for his conversion.
This Sunday on the 23rd of October we are celebrating the 85th Mission Sunday. Annually, World Mission Sunday is celebrated on the last but one Sunday in October. 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
World Mission Sunday is annually organized by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In one of his messages for the World Mission Sunday, Pope John Paul II had explained that the offerings that will be collected on this Sunday are destined for a common fund of solidarity, distributed in the Pope’s name, by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith among the missions and missionaries of the entire world. It is the most precious service that the Church can render to humanity and to all individuals who are seeking profound reasons to live their life to the full. This same invitation, therefore, resonates every year during the celebration of World Mission Day. Every year the needs of the Catholic Church in the Missions grow – as new dioceses are formed, as new seminaries are opened because of the growing number of young men hearing Christ’s call to follow Him.