Reflection by Fr Herman Hengel
First Reading Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18
Second Reading 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18,
Gospel Luke 18:9-14.
What was wrong with the Pharisees prayer?
There is no sense of the need for forgiveness, no sense that there is space for improvement in his life. He tells God how good he is – he is not like that tax collector. ARROGANCE:
The tax collector prayed: “Lord, I am a sinner”. He starts from spiritual poverty. Remember the first of the beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel: ”How happy are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Happy is the person who admits that he needs help, and especially God’s help, and forgiveness and mercy and grace.
What the Pharisee did in his life was good. But he compared himself not with the holiness of God, which he was called to imitate – “Be holy as I am holy”.
He compares himself with another human being – we do that too sometimes. Thank God I am honest, unlike some people I know, don’t gossip, don’t commit adultery. Young people, who are still working on maturity, are inclined to want to belong to a group, to be accepted, to act tough, cross boundaries.
We can always find people, compared to who we are morally superior in some way... and we can end up smug and self satisfied
In other words we stand before God not in need of more Grace, not in need of God’s help, not appreciating how far we have yet to go.
Spiritual maturity, spiritual growth comes when we compare ourselves NOT to our neighbour but to Christ.
When we look at ourselves in the light of Christ and his readiness to forgive, His obedience to Father, then we see a different picture.
It is important that we strive to imitate Christ and not settle into a spiritual arrogance or a spiritual complacency that comes from comparing ourselves to others.
The Church can become pharisaic. I remember as a young person in the Netherlands and in Australia, We belonged to the Catholic Church. We had the Pope, we were not like the Protestants, let alone non believers. There is nothing wrong with being a Catholic, but looking down on others...???
