Homily
for October 28, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Be Humble
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Gospel:
Luke 18:9-14 ". . .
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own
righteousness and despised everyone else. 'Two people went up to the
temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax
collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this
prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of
humanity--greedy, dishonest,
adulterous--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week,
and I pay tithes on my whole income.' But the tax collector stood off
at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his
breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the
latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself
will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.' "
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Today, I have family visiting and they
are here at mass
as well. It’s a little challenging to
preach in front of your family, especially your sister. She’s two
years older than me and I was the
worst brother in the world. Don’t you
tell these people anything about me, okay?
That’s the reason why, when priests are ordained, they never assign
them
to their home parish because you all know them.
As a matter of fact, in Ireland they have a national police force and
they never assign the officer to their home county. If you go on
the police force and they call
the guard up, you have to go to another county because everyone in your
own
county knows you. It reminds me of a
story. Ian’s last name is Morgan as
Rachel’s is now. My mother was a Morgan
and several years ago I went to the guard station to get an Irish
passport,
which I’m entitled to. The sergeant
looked at the paperwork and he said, “You’re a Morgan?” I said,
“I am.” He said, “You’re not the first Morgan to come
into this police station. But you are
the first one to come in under his own power.”
He might have been talking about your dad, Ian. This is a very familiar Gospel today,
isn’t it? I remember this Gospel even when I was a
child: the image of the wealthy Pharisee
and the very poor sinner, the tax collector.
In my mind’s eye, though, instead of thinking of a temple situation, I
always kind of place it in a church, St. Anne’s church. I can see
the Pharisee sitting up front,
dressed in his finest, head unbowed and I can see the tax collector,
the
sinner, coming into the church sheepishly, head down, knowing his many
sins. If I ask you the question: Who do you identify with,
the Pharisee or the
tax collector, you would say well, the tax collector is a sinner.
The first thing we do at every mass is to
admit we’re sinners. It gets us in the
right mode to worship our God. I wonder
if anyone here has ever said, “Thank God I’m not like that
Pharisee.” Perhaps we say that, or think it, or feel
it. In saying that we’re not like the
Pharisee, we become like the Pharisee.
It is a Pharisaical thing to ever
compare ourselves favorably to another
in terms of virtue, or what have you. I
hear that a lot. I hear this comparison
a lot. You hear it a lot also. Probably, like me, you are
guilty of some
Pharisaical conduct in your life.
“Thanks, Lord, for my
good job. Of course, I worked hard for the job. I stayed in
school. I worked nights so that I could put myself
through college. I wasn’t like those
others who dropped out of high school or dropped out of college and
never went
through what I had to go through to get where I am.” A
comparison. “Thank the
Lord I
have a good family. My kids are
good. They’re not perfect. They have their moments, but
they’re not like
those gang-bangers or boom-boxers or all those troubled kids.” “Thank God my
marriage is working out okay. It’s never been easy. We’ve
had our ups and downs, but not like
those young couples today who give up at the first sign of trouble.” “Thank God I
can
take a drink or two and leave it at that, not like those alcoholics or
street
people who can’t control their appetite.”
“Thank God I stay
loyal to my faith, to my church, not
like those once-a-year Catholic Christians.
They’re like the ox and the ass in the manger scene. They come
out only at Christmas.”
There’s a Pharisee lurking in each one
of us and it shows
itself when we compare ourselves to anyone else. We have a
tendency to build ourselves up by
tearing someone else down. That is
always wrong. That is
always, always
hypocritical and Pharisaical. The only
person that you and I can compare ourselves to is the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can be sure you won’t be bragging in that
comparison. The beginning of the Gospel today says
that Jesus spoke
this parable addressed to those who believe in their own
self-righteousness
while holding everyone else in contempt.
Of course, it’s not wrong to make judgments about working and family
and
social value and character issues and virtue and children and marriage
and all
those things. We are called to be good
and holy people. What we can’t do is
compare ourselves to everyone else. When
we do that, we judge them. We don’t know
their situation. Besides, that’s not our
job. If you look at the Pharisee in this
account, the Pharisee
was, really, a very good and orthodox Jew.
He was probably a good person. He
was a very honest man. He was a very faithful
man to his family. He was a meticulous
observer of the law. He said he fasted
twice a week, but was required to only fast once. He tithed on
everything he had, not just only
on that portion of income he was required to.
So, what did he do wrong? First, he had a wrong attitude towards
God. He felt God owed him for his
righteousness. The scripture says, “The
Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself:
‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like the
rest of humanity: greedy, dishonest,
adulterous, or even like this tax collector.’”
He spoke that prayer to himself.
He wasn’t even praying to God. He
was praying to himself, giving himself an excellent appraisal on his
goodness. In Luke 17, Jesus says, “When
you have done all you have been commanded to do say, ‘We are useless
servants. We have done no more than our
duty.’” His attitude to his neighbor was wrong
also. Again, he judged him. Essentially, his sin was that
of pride. As good as he may have been in his works, his
pride and his lack of humility poisoned everything that he did that was
good. Humility is the soil where all
other virtues grow. As a matter of fact,
the word “humility” is from
the word “humus”, meaning
earth, or soil. In the end, it’s really not about your
righteousness or
my righteousness, my sinfulness or your sinfulness. In the end,
it’s about God’s mercy. The tax collector knew that. He
said, “Oh, God. Be merciful to
me, a sinner.” What’s God going to say, no? Psalm 51
says, "A humble, contrite heart I
will
not spurn." I hope each of us, in our
final moments of life, can present to God a humble and contrite heart
because
you will not be spurned. We have a better
prayer in this mass than that of the tax collector, the sinner.
Eternal Father, we
offer you the Body and
Blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, in
atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. For the sake
of His sorrowful Passion, have
mercy on us and on the whole world.