Thirtieth Sunday of Year C
Trusting-Humility That Brings Us Back to God
Fr. Udoekpo, Michael Ufok
§ Sir 35:12-14,16-18;
§ Ps 34:2-3,17-19,23;
§ 2 Tim 4:6-8,16-18
§ Luke 18:9-14
As our Lord
continues his journeys with love and service to Jerusalem he intensifies his
healing and teaching ministry to humanity as a whole, beginning with his
disciples. Today he uses the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector to
teach us trusting humility and willing services to our neighbors, particularly
the poor and the lowly.
Historically as we
know the Pharisees are those that Jesus had to face throughout his ministry.
The Pharisees were those who kept the law, or at least thought they kept the
law, while the tax collectors however were engaged in profession that some
thought extortion and dishonesty might slip in. The differences between the two
as they went up to pray is that the former thought he had everything; while the
later had a sense of unworthiness and needs for God’s grace.
In the Gospels the
Pharisees would say one thing and do another. It represents pride. It takes an
attitude of arrogance and self-justification for one to say, “I thank you
Lord I am not like the rest of humanity- greedy, dishonest, adulterous, and
even like this tax collector… I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes…; which
also reflects the way the Pharisees sees God, a manager of a company he could
bribe or go to work for. Pharisaism represents temptation of pride that
Christians would have to work hard to overcome.
What the Lord has
always required of us is an attitude of humility and total surrender to God. It
is this same tone that Ben Sira communicated to his contemporaries of the
Second Century BC: The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites. He
hears the cry of the poor not just that of the Pharisees. He listens to the
wailing of the orphan and of the widow, but not necessarily to the noise
of self-justified Pharisees. The sincere prayer of the lowly, of the poor
and of the humble, pierces the heavens. It reaches to God (Sir 35:12-14, 16-18),
who is close to the brokenhearted, and constantly hears their cry (Ps 34).
In fact, being a
new creation in Christ or getting to wear that crown of glory and righteousness
demands that every Christian, all of us, reverses our natural tendencies as
Paul had done, hinted in the Second Reading (2 Tim 4:6-6,16-18). He was once
arrogant. Paul was once anti- Christians. Paul was once a persecutor of the
Christians, the poor and the widows. But changed to become a pro-Christ and a
humble servant of the Gospel of the poor. He wrote many letters, and some to
Timothy and encouraged various Christian communities. He became all things to
all people. He was imprisoned, beaten and shipwrecked. Like Christ who went to
the cross the lay down his life for all, Paul allowed himself to be “poured out
like a libation.” During his trials only God came to his defense.
On our Christian
journeys, as Christ’s disciples, temptations abound: false sense of security
and monopoly of the truth, arrogance, self-righteous-attitude, inconsistencies
in practice of virtues and works of mercies, rejections and loneliness. In all
these, we want to be like the Publican/Tax collector and Paul, serving others.
We want to always be on our knees before God. We want to constantly and humbly
trust in his power of defense, in his tender love, and unending mercy and
compassion.
Reflection
Questions
1.
What lessons have we learned from today’s scripture
passages?
2.
What are our challenges in matters of humility?
3.
In what moments have we acted like the publican, tax
collector of saint Paul of today’ scripture readings?
