30TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

PRIDE DESTROYS, HUMILITY UPLIFTS

Jesus reveals to us in today’s Gospel (Luke 18: 9-14) what attitude earns God’s favor and what draws God’s disdain. Pride is clearly an offense while humility is a fragrant offering to the Lord.   In illustrating this, the Lord presents two characters in his parable:  a Pharisee with inflated pride, and a publican with a realistic sense of humility.

The Pharisee is the great specimen of a proud person.  Why does he not find favor with God?  First, the Pharisee is partially blind – to his own sins, his weaknesses and his faults.  All he prefers to see are his good traits, his religious observance and accomplishments. And he even thanks God for these: I thank You that I can fast and tithe, etc.

Second, the Pharisee had a clear eye for other people’s shortcomings.  He immediately notices the publican next to him during prayer: I thank you Lord that you did not make me like this publican…  In his heart, he begins to compare, to criticize, and to judge his neighbor as unworthy of God and of himself.

The Pharisee congratulates himself while disparaging his neighbor.  This is the effect of pride – blindness to one’s own sins and 20/20 vision for another’s faults.

But as we look at the publican, we discover why he immediately attracts the attention of God.  The publican knows he is a sinner, a fact known to God and known to others.  He has nothing to be proud of since both religion and society despise him.  But the publican was not blind to this truth and was not a coward in accepting and confessing it.

Above all, the publican was not blind to the mercy of God. Instead of wallowing in self-pity or rationalizing his mistakes, the man brings his misery to the throne of God, trusting his mercy, and only his mercy: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

The Pharisee exalts himself and puts down his neighbor. The publican cannot even lift his eyes, his spirit is totally crushed, and so it is God lifts who rescues him.  Such is the power of humility.  It is when one admits his helplessness that God finds the space to act subtly but powerfully in restoring a man to grace.

Humility is not fashionable today, (certainly not in an election period where candidates have to boast about their padded credentials!) Humility is not easy to embrace but it is what liberates and saves us. The one who is honestly tired about sin and desirous of change is the one the heavenly Father is waiting for.

Looking at ourselves, what figure dominates within us? Is it that of a self-righteous Pharisee who makes even God a listener to his triumphs?  Or is it that of sincerely repentant publican aware that only God’s mercy can give meaning to his life. Let us accept Jesus’ challenge to let go of destructive pride and to experience the healing effect of a humble heart.