OCTOBER 27^th 2013. THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL                   Luke 18:9-14

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else.

'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get."

The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner".
This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.'

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the parable we are confronted with two contrasting approaches to prayer. One man focuses on his own actions (his fasting and almsgiving). The other man focuses on the redeeming action of God. This is the fundamental distinction between sterile and genuine prayer. Prayer is self-referential and narcissistic whenever the focus is on my action. Prayer is genuine and life-giving whenever it is focused on God’s action. Sterile, self-referential prayer can be self-deprecating or it can be self-commending. Either way it is equally narcissistic! A focus on my own problems is narcissistic. A focus on my own virtues is narcissistic. A focus on counting my virtues, of counting the number of prayers, of measuring the time I spend, of listing my faults, is the wrong focus. Any preoccupation with my action is a damaging preoccupation. Genuine prayer is totally oriented to the saving action of God. We must learn the art of allowing God to take the initiative in prayer.

Each of us has both the Pharisee and the tax-collector inside

Last week’s Gospel was on the theme of prayer – the widow who pleaded for justice day and night. This week the same theme is maintained in Chapter 18 of Luke’s Gospel, as Jesus continues to set down the characteristics of genuine prayer. Two contrasting approaches are described. One man uses many words and engages in a detailed description of himself; another man seems to be in an unfit condition for prayer and he utters just a simple phrase. The first man lives a life that is full of admirable deeds: he fasts twice a week and pays tithes on all that he earns. The second man is a publican, a profession that was notorious for its corruption and dishonesty. In each one of us there exists both of these people. When we pray, we tend towards one or other of these poles. It may be true that when we hear the parable, all of us have a revulsion towards the boastful and arrogant attitude of the Pharisee; each one of us feels an empathy towards the attitude of the tax collector. But despite this natural reaction on our part, we still replicate the prayer of the Pharisee in our own lives.

The Pharisee’s prayer is focussed on his own actions. The tax-collector’s prayer is focussed on the action of God.

The problem with the Pharisee’s prayer is not just its arrogance and self-righteousness; the problem is that it is a prayer that is self-referential. It is a prayer that begins with himself and ends with himself. The publican, by contrast, does not dare to raise his eyes towards heaven. This signifies that heaven, for him, is a presence, another being that transcends him and his narrow interests. He beats his breast and asks for pardon. In the original Greek of this text, he does not ask for mercy but for expiation. This recalls the Hebrew notion that sin had to be somehow removed before one could return to live the original covenant. The tax collector wished to be saved from that which he was living. The central feature of his prayer is that he is asking God to intervene. “Have mercy on me Lord. You, Lord, take action in my life!”

Prayer is narcissistic when it is focussed on ourselves. This is true whether the prayer is self-commending or self-deprecating. Genuine prayer places the focus on God

Prayer is a relationship with God and it ought to be totally focussed on God’s action. It is not a means of contemplating oneself, and neither should it be primarily caught up with the issues facing an individual. Sometimes we meet people who talk only about themselves. Whether they speak in a self-commending way or a self-deprecating way makes no difference. In either case their attitude is narcissistic. They fail to confront themselves with the only being that matters. In the parable the Pharisee says to himself, “I am not like the rest. In particular I am not like this tax-collector here.” The Pharisee bases his prayer on comparison with others. In a beautiful passage, the ancient Christian writer Evagrio Pontico (d. 399 A.D.), says that the root of all anger is the belief that one is in the right. And how does one maintain the belief that one is in the right? By measuring oneself against others. And how can one escape from this tendency to believe that one is in the right? By measuring oneself against God. This is the very point of Jesus’ parable: the tax collector measures himself against God; the Pharisee measures himself against those that suit him. If one does not live in a genuine relationship with God, then our prayer is a sterile joke, an exercise in narcissism. Very often we persist in empty, fruitless, joyless prayer because we have not managed to rise above our act of prayer. We need to learn the art of allowing ourselves to be found by God when we pray; of permitting ourselves to give the initiative to him; of standing in his presence and allowing all of our infinite poverty to come to the surface. In the presence of God we have the right to be poor and fragile. In the presence of God, we finally escape the need to be competitive; the need to count our virtues publicly. The interminable search for our own righteousness is of no use to anyone and of no interest to anyone. It only serves to make us cold and judgemental towards others.

The only way to conversion and transformation is the way of the tax-collector

The beginning of the passage to be read on Sunday states that “Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else.” In other words, this Gospel is directed at each one of us. In order to escape from the disconnectedness of our lives, we tend to focus on people who are “worse” than we are, people who are to be despised, people who help to make us look righteous. The parable teaches us that this way of consoling ourselves is a waste of time that leads nowhere. Do we wish to be led to a day of pardon, to a new life, to a day of conversion and transformation? The only way is the way of the tax-collector: the abandonment of ourselves into the hands of God, poor as we are.