Homily Year C Week 20

 Homily 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Theme : Go to Jesus, he forgives and forgets everything, He is merciful. " Seek his mercy seek his sacraments move closer to your God, he is waiting for you

I was a married man for thirty nine years and came to understand in that time that I am and was often a sinful man.  I often sinned against my wife, oh not big sins, but those constant little ones that placed her further down my list of priorities or a casual,  even if sometimes unintended, hurtful word, a slight Perhaps my greatest sin was being more wrapped up in my own life and not sharing or asking her about her issues.You know that assumption that my life is more important that yours and I need you to listen to me.

Sometimes I would be become aware, often by receiving the cold shoulder from her, about my sins against her . Then my strategy was , when I had wronged her or sinned,  to come home and share with her my upset about someone who had hurt me or been disrespectful to me that day . I did this to elicit sympathy, or at least to distract her from her upset with me. So instead of sharing my awareness of my own faults I would talk about someone else who had, in my opinion, greater faults than my own. I thought that in the reflection of this other persons faults I would be seen as a better husband.

It was very much like  going  to a doctor when you are ill,  and then telling  the doctor about another person’s illness. After all no  doctor would not be able to treat your symptoms if you complained about someone else’s illness and did not tell your own symptoms. If you were to do that you would go home again just as sick as when you went to see the doctor. 

Strange as that may seem it is precisely what happens in the parable that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel . The Pharisee and tax collector both go to the Temple to pray. However the Pharisee, instead of presenting himself humbly before God asking for God’s help and grace, lists the faults of others, and complains also about the tax collector praying nearby. “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.” 

Therefore it is no surprise when we hear that the Pharisee did not go home justified after his prayer in the temple. We might think the Pharisee came to God with the right attitude since he fasted twice a week. While the Jewish Law or Torah decreed fasting only once a year on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), as the years went by Jewish piety added more fasting. But these additional fasts were not to repent sins. Instead they were fasts to ask God for a favour or protection from calamities. They even fasted to prevent bad dreams or to understand how to interpret dreams. So the Pharisee’s fasting was not repentance.

On the other hand the tax collector goes to the temple in repentance. Even his body language displays his repentance: he stood away at a distance, did not raise his eyes and he beat his breast. But it is above all in his prayer that we see his repentance, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”  Unlike the Pharisee, he did not try to conceal who he really was or put on a mask to hide his real self from God. He came to God as he was. Therefore God met him where he was and lifted him up and went home justified .

The Pharisee and tax collector received from God what they deserved. The Pharisee came to God complaining about others’ sins and did not go home with the peace of God in his heart. On the other hand the tax collector came before God in complete humility, admitting who he really was, and went home at peace with God. The tax collector is really living the first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” He is poor in spirit. He is just like another tax collector, Zacchaeus, whom we will hear about next Sunday, who humbly meets Jesus in a spirit of repentance and is also saved.

Throughout Scripture we see God coming to those who know of their need of God. The first reading today from Sirach reminds us that God does not have favourites and he hears the cry of the oppressed and even that, the prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds . 

In the second reading, Paul is also poor in spirit before God. Paul knows he will soon be martyred so he says he is already being poured out as a libation . A libation of wine was poured over sacrifices so Paul is indicating he knows his life will end in the sacrifice of martyrdom. All Paul’s witnesses abandoned him when he had to defend himself. So he is left with only the Lord , to be with him. He wrote in our second reading,

“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.” St. Paul too is living the attitude of the tax collector. He has no masks.

What about us? Surely the Lord is saying to us in the parable that we have nothing to fear in approaching him, just as we are. In fact, it is the correct way to approach God because otherwise we block God out from our life. 

Let us humbly admit our nothingness before God and our dependence on God like St. Paul. It is when we realize that we have nothing, ...that we are ready to receive God’s grace...Humble repentance before God opens us to God’s grace. It is such humble repentance that also gives us the grace to receive the Lord’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That sacrament is a beautiful way to meet the Lord and go home peaceful again like the tax collector. 

Let us not be too proud like the Pharisee, but humble like the tax collector, so that we can make frequent use of the sacrament , so as to go home peaceful again , like the tax collector. 

Sin is glamorized in the secular world, listen to the lyrics in popular music  or even some of what we are hearing about in  electoral races which often are  about legalism, of not breaking the law versus moral action. Look at TV shows where we glamorize both sin and secular life styles... but sin is sin and needs to be repented of. 

The Glamorizing of sin in media is closing the door  for many to God. Instead the Lord is waiting to fill us with his grace, forgiveness and love, if only we come before him in humble repentance saying like the tax collector, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” 

For the same reason we begin every Mass asking God to forgive us and again before receiving Holy Communion we say, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and I shall be healed.” The Lord is waiting to fill us with his grace, forgiveness and love, if only we come before him in humble repentance saying like the tax collector, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” 

As we near the end of the liturgical year...my goodness we are not long until advent, I have a new homework assignment for you. Reflect on your desire to be closer to your Lord and Saviour...Jesus Christ. Reflect on how you might become closer to him, how it will help you? how it may begin your journey of preparation for the coming of Christ .  Christmas is about the return of our saviour and advent is the time we spend to prepare ourselves. So what will you do to prepare yourself. Join prayer ministry, pray for the needs of the parish and the community. The good news , you can do this from the comfort of home. Just commit to daily intercessory prayer. As we work together to move closer to God, Satan will attack us in our weakness, he will seek to exploit division to offer us the easier course. So as we strengthen our communal call to Christ we need your prayer as this is the only guarantee of success in the kingdom  

As well take a chance , go back to confession/reconciliation and open yourself to Christ's healing presence in your heart.  Christ is calling you to a closer relationship , is calling you to journey with him. We may tire of asking God for forgiveness but remember God never tires of forgiving ...In Cannon Law a priest must always respond to a request for the sacrament of reconciliation. This is how important the sacrament is... Go home today and reflect on those things that have moved you away from Christ and then return to His sacrament of Reconciliation. Let’s make Father busy before every mass by seeing Christ in him when we ask for forgiveness. As Pope Francis says "Sin is a wound and it needs to be treated, healed."... He further  says in his recent encyclical " That the Name of God is Mercy" Go to Jesus, he forgives and forgets everything, He is merciful. " Seek his mercy seek his sacraments move closer to your God, he is waiting for you

Go to be forgiven.