Homily for 30th Sunday C
(24 Oct 2010)
Fr James McTavish, FMVD
“Two steps forward and one step back”
This week a record producer called David Foster arrived in Manila, to promote a Filipina singing sensation called Charice. He was asked about his struggling days before he became a much sought after producer. He never thought of struggle as a drawback to his ambition - “I always felt like if I was making US$5 an hour as a rehearsal pianist, then I’d make US$10 an hour soon enough. And while I was playing a demo then one day I’d get to play in a record.” His closing comment caught my attention “I always felt that it was two steps forward and one step back.” A nice definition of humble progress ‘two steps forward and one step back’! It is not to be naive to the struggles but neither to let them thwart patient progress.
Now of course a more realistic humility would also give thanks to God for all our achievements as we can do nothing without him! Some people think otherwise attributing all their human success and endeavours to themselves. There is a group around the world called “Good without God” that claims its members are good and do not see a need to have God to help them in any way. Sometimes people who claim not to need or have God are in fact quite ‘godly’. It reminds me of the graffiti on the wall that read “I’m an atheist, thank God.” The Pharisee in the gospel was a bit like this in today’s gospel. He was so good already it was as if he didn’t need God (see Luke 18, 9-14). He was so pleased with his achievements to date that he had stopped moving on, stopped striving for more. He was convinced of his own goodness and made a prayer to himself (of all things!) “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous…I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.”
This Pharisee was really quite a good guy, in his own opinion, because the Law stipulated fasting once a year but he was doing it twice a week. Fr John Larrea, SDB notes that the two days the Pharisees fasted on were Mondays and Thursdays. These were market days when ordinary folk did their shopping. The Pharisees would stand in the market place with their head covered with ashes to let everyone know what they were doing. Even tithing was limited to live produce and the produce of the fields but this Pharisee gave one tenth of his whole income. In front of himself and the people he was considered the most religious of all.
Perhaps a slightly humorous insight into the pride of the Pharisees can be gained from the following writings of a Pharisee at the time of Jesus: “Thirty just Pharisees are worth more than the whole of mankind put together. Supposing God were to find only ten just people on earth: my son and myself would surely be among those ten. But suppose he found only two just people; you can be sure that my son and me would be those two. But if by chance, God found only a single person truly just in the whole of mankind, have no doubt about it: I would be that one." It reminds of the joke about the least humble man on earth. He was asked if there was such a thing as reincarnation what would he come back as. He replied “As myself of course!”
The shock in the gospel of today is that Jesus tells his listeners that the Pharisee did not go home justified in the eyes of God! How can it be, that the Pharisee, considered the just one, was not justified in front of God? Not only was the Pharisee blowing his own trumpet but also looking down on everyone else. He was criticizing the tax collector who had also come to pray in the temple. This gets a big thumbs down from God. What was the attitude of the tax collector? He 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.' Jesus told his listeners that the tax collector and not the Pharisee went home justified in the eyes of God because “the one who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself shall be exalted.” What is vital is to be humble in front of God and one another. Now humility is to be rightly understood. It is not just to sit and claim that ‘I am humble’ or to feel useless as this can be a manifestation of pride!
How can we see the pride of the Pharisee? I mean he was doing good things. Where is the pride here? The problem is not that he was not doing good things but that he could do much more! Pride stops progress because it makes you rest on your laurels, thinking that you are already there - you stop striving, stop moving ever onwards. Even some claim not to be bad Catholics because ‘they haven’t killed anyone’. Talked about aiming low! As Christians we should be aiming high! As ‘proof’ that you don’t need to move on, pride will often look for others who are apparently worse to justify mediocrity. True humility is always seeking to grow, seeking for more but pride is soon satisfied with so little. How can you explain mediocrity, being content with where we are in a self-satisfied appraisal? Pride! The fruit of pride is mediocrity and luke-warmness. Other fruits are judgment on others, being full of justifications of why we are like this and being defensive too. St Augustine commenting on how we need to keep on moving in life wrote “If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say: It’s enough, you are lost. Keep on walking, moving forward, trying for the goal. Don’t try to stop on the way, or to go back, or to deviate from it." (Sermon 169, 18)
God listens to humble prayer. We have no reason to boast in front of God. In the first reading from Sirach it says “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay.” (Sir. 35: 12-14, 16-18) When we serve the Lord challenges will come as they did for St Paul. He was deserted by all. Who alone stood by him? St Paul writes "But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom” (see 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18). St Paul was a humble man, who acknowledged the great work of God in his life and who never stopped running towards the goal.
Let us ask the grace to be humble like the tax collector – “O Lord be merciful to me a sinner”. He was saying with those words “Lord help me as you have done many times before. I am not yet perfect, I need to grow in so many ways, please help me.” The tax collector saw himself as work in progress, an unfinished masterpiece whereas the Pharisee was singing to himself that line from Tina Turner “Simply the best, better than all the rest!” May we learn to present not just our beautiful side to the Lord but also our ugly one. May we acknowledge those moments when we have gone backwards and trust in his saving grace to reorient us and move us forwards, ever onwards, to draw us out of mediocrity trusting in his grace that even if we go one step back, humbly recognizing it and working on it, the Lord will lead us two more steps forward… Amen.
“Two steps forward and one step back”
This week a record producer called David Foster arrived in Manila, to promote a Filipina singing sensation called Charice. He was asked about his struggling days before he became a much sought after producer. He never thought of struggle as a drawback to his ambition - “I always felt like if I was making US$5 an hour as a rehearsal pianist, then I’d make US$10 an hour soon enough. And while I was playing a demo then one day I’d get to play in a record.” His closing comment caught my attention “I always felt that it was two steps forward and one step back.” A nice definition of humble progress ‘two steps forward and one step back’! It is not to be naive to the struggles but neither to let them thwart patient progress.
Now of course a more realistic humility would also give thanks to God for all our achievements as we can do nothing without him! Some people think otherwise attributing all their human success and endeavours to themselves. There is a group around the world called “Good without God” that claims its members are good and do not see a need to have God to help them in any way. Sometimes people who claim not to need or have God are in fact quite ‘godly’. It reminds me of the graffiti on the wall that read “I’m an atheist, thank God.” The Pharisee in the gospel was a bit like this in today’s gospel. He was so good already it was as if he didn’t need God (see Luke 18, 9-14). He was so pleased with his achievements to date that he had stopped moving on, stopped striving for more. He was convinced of his own goodness and made a prayer to himself (of all things!) “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous…I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.”
This Pharisee was really quite a good guy, in his own opinion, because the Law stipulated fasting once a year but he was doing it twice a week. Fr John Larrea, SDB notes that the two days the Pharisees fasted on were Mondays and Thursdays. These were market days when ordinary folk did their shopping. The Pharisees would stand in the market place with their head covered with ashes to let everyone know what they were doing. Even tithing was limited to live produce and the produce of the fields but this Pharisee gave one tenth of his whole income. In front of himself and the people he was considered the most religious of all.
Perhaps a slightly humorous insight into the pride of the Pharisees can be gained from the following writings of a Pharisee at the time of Jesus: “Thirty just Pharisees are worth more than the whole of mankind put together. Supposing God were to find only ten just people on earth: my son and myself would surely be among those ten. But suppose he found only two just people; you can be sure that my son and me would be those two. But if by chance, God found only a single person truly just in the whole of mankind, have no doubt about it: I would be that one." It reminds of the joke about the least humble man on earth. He was asked if there was such a thing as reincarnation what would he come back as. He replied “As myself of course!”
The shock in the gospel of today is that Jesus tells his listeners that the Pharisee did not go home justified in the eyes of God! How can it be, that the Pharisee, considered the just one, was not justified in front of God? Not only was the Pharisee blowing his own trumpet but also looking down on everyone else. He was criticizing the tax collector who had also come to pray in the temple. This gets a big thumbs down from God. What was the attitude of the tax collector? He 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.' Jesus told his listeners that the tax collector and not the Pharisee went home justified in the eyes of God because “the one who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself shall be exalted.” What is vital is to be humble in front of God and one another. Now humility is to be rightly understood. It is not just to sit and claim that ‘I am humble’ or to feel useless as this can be a manifestation of pride!
How can we see the pride of the Pharisee? I mean he was doing good things. Where is the pride here? The problem is not that he was not doing good things but that he could do much more! Pride stops progress because it makes you rest on your laurels, thinking that you are already there - you stop striving, stop moving ever onwards. Even some claim not to be bad Catholics because ‘they haven’t killed anyone’. Talked about aiming low! As Christians we should be aiming high! As ‘proof’ that you don’t need to move on, pride will often look for others who are apparently worse to justify mediocrity. True humility is always seeking to grow, seeking for more but pride is soon satisfied with so little. How can you explain mediocrity, being content with where we are in a self-satisfied appraisal? Pride! The fruit of pride is mediocrity and luke-warmness. Other fruits are judgment on others, being full of justifications of why we are like this and being defensive too. St Augustine commenting on how we need to keep on moving in life wrote “If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say: It’s enough, you are lost. Keep on walking, moving forward, trying for the goal. Don’t try to stop on the way, or to go back, or to deviate from it." (Sermon 169, 18)
God listens to humble prayer. We have no reason to boast in front of God. In the first reading from Sirach it says “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay.” (Sir. 35: 12-14, 16-18) When we serve the Lord challenges will come as they did for St Paul. He was deserted by all. Who alone stood by him? St Paul writes "But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom” (see 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18). St Paul was a humble man, who acknowledged the great work of God in his life and who never stopped running towards the goal.
Let us ask the grace to be humble like the tax collector – “O Lord be merciful to me a sinner”. He was saying with those words “Lord help me as you have done many times before. I am not yet perfect, I need to grow in so many ways, please help me.” The tax collector saw himself as work in progress, an unfinished masterpiece whereas the Pharisee was singing to himself that line from Tina Turner “Simply the best, better than all the rest!” May we learn to present not just our beautiful side to the Lord but also our ugly one. May we acknowledge those moments when we have gone backwards and trust in his saving grace to reorient us and move us forwards, ever onwards, to draw us out of mediocrity trusting in his grace that even if we go one step back, humbly recognizing it and working on it, the Lord will lead us two more steps forward… Amen.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario