30th Sunday Ordinary :: Op-stjoseph.org

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time 10-28-07 Scripture Readings First Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 Second 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Gospel Luke 18:9-14 Prepared by: Fr. James Cuddy, O.P. 1. Subject Matter •

The Church gives us the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in this week’s Gospel. The latter goes home justified, while the former does not. The Gospel is complemented by Sirach’s treatment of the efficaciousness of the prayer of the lowly, which “pierces the clouds” and is “heard by God”. The Responsorial Psalm also affirms: “the Lord hears the cry of the poor.” Thus the issue of the virtue of humility and its role in the life of prayer is a natural subject for this week’s homily.

2. Exegetical Notes •

Paul uses the imagery of priestly sacrifice to describe his own life and ministry. He has made a sacrificial offering of his life.

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Paul also points out that this following of Christ has led others to abandon him. Even those closest to him have failed him and he finds himself utterly alone. Framed in this way, we can easily make the connection to Christ’s own experience on the Cross.

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Luke’s formulation of the phrase “he prayed to himself” is open to several interpretations. It could be that he was praying quietly, but it could also be posited that he was the object of his own prayers, making himself into God.

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“The Pharisee’s prayer is not only self-aggrandizing; it is, on the terms of the narrative, false. The Pharisees have been declared by Jesus to be ‘on the inside full of rapacity and evil’ (11:39). They are termed ‘money-lovers’ in 16:14, and this was joined by implication to the charge of adultery in 16:8. Finally, although they justify themselves, Jesus has declared such self-exultation to be ‘an abomination before God’ (16:15)” (Johnson).

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“Four aspects of the tax-agent’s humility are briefly indicated by Luke: 1) he stood far off; 2) he kept his eyes lowered; 3) he beat his breast (as a sign of repentance); 4) he cries out for mercy. Luke makes the tax-agent different from the tax agent in two obvious respects. Rather than suggest that he is dikaios, much less give evidence for it, he declares himself to be

exactly what the Pharisee considered him to be: a sinner. Furthermore, rather than speak to God with reference to the Pharisee, he straightforward begs for mercy” (Johnson). •

The first few chapters of Luke’s Gospel indicate the premium placed on the value of humility by offering many exemplars: Mary, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Simeon, etc.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church •

2559 Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God. But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or out of the depths of a humble and contrite heart? Humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that we do not know how to pray as we ought, are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. Man is a beggar before God.

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588 Jesus affirms: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." He went further by proclaiming before the Pharisees that, since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind to themselves.

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545 Jesus invites sinners to that conversion without which one cannot enter the kingdom, but shows them in word and deed his Father's boundless mercy for them and the vast joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life for the forgiveness of sins.

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2631 The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" It is a prerequisite for righteous and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion between the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that "we receive from him whatever we ask." Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.

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2546 "Blessed are the poor in spirit." The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs. As St. Gregory of Nyssa says: “The Word speaks of voluntary humility as ‘poverty in spirit’. The Apostle gives an example of God’s poverty when he says: ‘For your sakes he became poor.’”

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities •

Theophylus: Pride disturbs the mind of man beyond all other passions. And hence the very frequent warnings against it. It is moreover contempt of God; for when a man ascribes the good he does to himself and not to God, what else is this but to deny God?

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Basil: "He prayed with himself," that is, not with God, his sin of pride sent him back into himself.

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Chrysostom: To despise the whole race of man was not enough for him; he must yet attack the Publican. He would have sinned, yet far less if he had spared the Publican, but now in one word he both assails the absent, and inflicts a wound on him who was present. To give thanks is not to heap reproaches on others. When you return thanks to God, let Him be all in all to you. Turn not your thoughts to men, nor condemn your neighbor.

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Chrysostom: He who rails at others does much harm both to himself and others. First, those who hear him are rendered worse, for if sinners they are made glad in finding one as guilty as themselves, if righteous, they are exalted, being led by the sins of others to think more highly of themselves. Secondly, the body of the Church suffers; for those who hear him are not all content to blame the guilty only, but to fasten the reproach also on the Christian religion. Thirdly, the glory of God is evil spoken of for as our well-doing makes the name of God to be glorified, so our sins cause it to be blasphemed. Fourthly, the object of reproach is confounded and becomes more reckless and immovable. Fifthly, the ruler is himself made liable to punishment for uttering things that are not seemly.

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Gregory the Great: So it was pride that laid bare to his wily enemies the citadel of his heart, which prayer and fasting had in vain kept closed. Of no use are all the other fortifications, as long as there is one place that the enemy has left defenseless.

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Augustine: If you look into his words, you will find that he asked nothing of God. He goes up indeed to pray, but instead of asking God, praises himself; and even insults him that asked. The Publican, on the other hand, driven by his stricken conscience afar off, is by his piety brought near.

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Augustine: The humble man is one who chooses to be an abject in the house of the Lord, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners.

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Theophylus: The publican feared to lift up his eyes to heaven, thinking unworthy of the heavenly vision those that had loved to gaze upon and wander after earthly things. He also smote his breast, striking it as it were because of the evil thoughts, and moreover rousing it as if asleep. And thus he sought only that God would be reconciled to him, as it follows, saying, God, be merciful.

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Chrysostom: The inflation of pride can cast down even from heaven the man that takes not warning, but humility can raise a man up from the lowest depth of guilt. And if humility though added to sin has made such rapid advances, as to pass by pride united to righteousness, how much swifter will be its course when you add to it righteousness?

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Thomas Aquinas: A spiritual uplifting is promised to those who practice humility, not that humility alone merits it, but because it is proper for man to despise earthly uplifting.

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Aquinas’ Treatment of Humility (STh II-II, 161): Humility tempers and restrains the mind, lest it tend to high things immoderately. But while it is contrary to humility to aim at greater things through confiding in one’s own powers, aiming at greater things through confidence in God’s help is not contrary to the virtue. (This is where humility and hope come together.)

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Gregory Palamas: Virtue has the power to raise up and restore those sunk in the depths of evil, and easily to lead them back to God through repentance and humility. The tax collector, in spite of his profession and of having lived in the depths of sin, joins the ranks of those living upright lives through a single prayer, and that a short one at that. He is relieved of his burden of sin, he is lifted up, he rises above all evil, and is admitted to the company of the righteous.

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Gregory Palamas: Why does humility raise us to the heights of holiness, and self-conceit plunge us into the abyss of sin? It is because when we have a high regard for ourselves, and that in the presence of God, he quite readily abandons us, since we think we have no need of his assistance.

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars •

If you’re looking for a saint who exemplifies the virtue of humility, knock on any door of the halls of heaven. But a word might be said here about the true humility of the saints. A common element in the lives of many of the beati is the saint’s self-identification as the most wretched of sinners. The modern reader scoffs at such a seemingly bogus claim. After all, many of them knew during their lifetimes that they enjoyed an extraordinary relationship with God. To count oneself as a miserable sinner seems to be contradictory and disingenuous. But it is the saint who, owing to his own exceptional relationship with the Lord, knows best the greatness of God. While acknowledging his own sanctity, he sees that holiness in light of the majesty of God. The saint, better than all others, knows his own littleness and sinfulness precisely because he sees it in relation to God’s grandeur. Thus no contradiction can be said of the saint who considers himself or herself as a terrible sinner.

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St. Juan-Diego described himself as “a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf.”

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St. Joseph of Cupertino, abused by family and religious communities alike, continued to submit himself to the will of God and remained faithful to the graces that the Lord was pleased to shower upon him for his entire life. What humility we can see in the one whose life was a brilliant light for the faithful, but who nevertheless kept the light veiled by order of his superiors for many years. (You might as well throw St. Pio into the discussion as well.)

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI •

“It is clear that human beings alone cannot save themselves. Their innate error is precisely that they want to do this by themselves. We can only be saved – that is, be free and true – when we stop wanting to be God and when we renounce the madness of autonomy and selfsufficiency.”

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“The Lord’s love knows no bounds, but man can put a limit on it. What is it that makes man unclean? It is the rejection of love, not wanting to be loved, not loving. It is pride that believes it has no need of any purification, that is closed to God’s saving goodness. . . . Today, the Lord alerts us to the self-sufficiency that puts a limit on his unlimited love. He invites us to imitate his own humility, to entrust ourselves to it, to let ourselves be ‘infected’ by it. He invites us – however lost we may feel – to return home, to let his purifying goodness uplift us and enable us to sit at table with him, with God himself.

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“It was Mary's humility that God appreciated more than anything else in her. We think of the Holy House of Nazareth, which is the Shrine of humility: the humility of God who took flesh, who made himself small, and the humility of Mary who welcomed him into her womb; the humility of the Creator and the humility of the creature. Jesus, Son of God and Son of man, was born from this encounter of humility. God was captivated by Mary's humility, who found favor in his eyes.”

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“The humble person is perceived as someone who gives up, someone defeated, someone who has nothing to say to the world. Instead, this is the principal way, and not only because humility is a great human virtue but because, in the first place, it represents God's own way of acting. It was the way chosen by Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant, who ‘being

found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.’”

7. Other Considerations •

Examples of false, or misguided, humility abound in the world. Aquinas treatment of the virtue in STh II-II, 161 is both clear and rich in homiletic insights to complement this week’s Gospel. For example, when he affirms that humility helps a man to restrain himself from tending to high things immoderately, St. Thomas makes a key distinction. He says: “While it is contrary to humility to aim at greater things through confiding in one’s own powers, aiming at greater things through confidence in God’s help is not contrary to the virtue” (161, 2, ad 2). This is where humility and hope come together.

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When all else fails, remember the words of Dame Edith Sitwell: “I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty, but I am too busy thinking about myself.”

Recommended Resources Pope Benedict XVI, Benedictus, Edited by Peter John Cameron, O.P. Yonkers, NY: Magnificat, 2006. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, The Steps of Humility. Cambridge,MA: The Harvard University Press, 1940. Father Canice, Humility: The Foundation of the Spiritual Life. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1951. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, Vol. 3 of the Sacra Pagina Series. Collegeville, MN: The Litugical Press, 1991.