| The Lord is close to the broken hearted; those whose spirit is crushed he will save |
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on Sunday, 28th October, 2001 (30th Sunday - Year C) Intorduction Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Church reminds us today that the thing of greatest importance is how we stand before God. When we say in the prayer, may we do with loving hearts what You ask of us, we mean that doing God's Will lovingly and generously is the spark of recognition before God. Because we do fail at times, let us call to mind our sins and ask the Lord for pardon, light and strength. Homily Dear Brothers and Sisters, Ours is a religion of contrasts. The Gospel has just given us a picture of two people standing in prayer before God, a rich, pompous Pharisee and a humble, hesitant tax collector. Too often we can make judgements that we stand righteous before God, that our deeds support us and that we have nothing further to worry about. In prayer we can spend our time justifying ourselves, making comparison with the greed or injustice of others. Our Lord is very quick to condemn this attitude, which is so full of self. The tax collector is exactly the opposite, he did not even try and make any judgements, but simply said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Surely the point is that he let God do the judging and recognised that the one thing most important was how he stood in God's sight. In the words of the First Reading, the one who wholeheartedly serves God will be accepted, his petitions will carry to the crowds and the Lord will not be slow on their behalf. We should remember that the only group that Jesus ever condemned was the Pharisees. The external appearances are what Jesus condemned as whitened sepulchres, which contrasted with the death and uncleanliness within, is surely a challenge to each of us. Only God knows our inner heart. Only God knows our struggles on the one hand and our self-deception on the other. What Jesus condemns is pride because it makes us centre everything on ourselves. With the Pharisees that pride was so ingrained in their hearts that they could never seek forgiveness and that is why Our Lord was so strong in stating the truth. Instead of thanking God for the many gifts he had given them, they almost demanded thanks from God for being such pious and good people, avoiding injustice, adultery, fasting often. They paid their temple dues, not for the honour and glory of God, but for their own glory. They demanded the first places. One thing that we can learn from the sin of the Pharisees is that, while God does not approve of any sin, his mercy and forgiveness are available to all except people who are proud and self-centred. It is not that God cannot or will not forgive the sin of pride, but that the proud person will not ask for God's forgiveness. Obviously, if we are so caught up in ourselves that we do not notice others, we do not reach out to them, then we see how insidious and destructive this sin is. Charity and true love of God cannot exist in a proud heart. The beginning of a true conversion is to stop and think, where do I stand before God? Why do I act in this way? What is my real purpose? Is it to contribute genuinely to others or to draw others to me? There are a few telling questions. Do we like others to see us when we are doing good or do we do that in secret? Do we give just as generously to charity when no one will know about what we give? Do we take our place among the rank and file in parish activities or do we feel offended if we are not the leaders? Do we try and find excuses for other people's failings, or are we only ready to excuse our own? The challenge for us today is the two men in the temple. One full of himself, boasted to God of his many works. The other humbly just beat his breast and asked for mercy. Yet this second man left the temple forgiven, the other returned home a worse sinner. If today we have things of which we are ashamed the words of the Psalm, "the Lord is close to the broken hearted; those whose spirit is crushed he will save", are a reminder to us that awareness of our faults is the first step towards the mercy of God and to being the instruments of that mercy and welcome to others. + Denis J. Hart, Archbishop of Melbourne. |
