Thirtieth Sunday October 28, 2007

Sirach 35:12‑-14, 16‑-18 Ps 34 2 Timothy 4:6‑-8, 16‑-18 Luke 18:9‑-14

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner

Eating his Christmas Pie.

He put in his thumb and pulled our a plum

and said: “What a good boy am I.”

1. This nursery rhyme reminds one of the Pharisee in our Gospel today: What a good boy am I. I am a good Pharisee who fasts, who prays, who does not commit adultery. I am not like the other guy at the end of the Synagogue who is a sinner. AT first sight, the Pharisee is a good guy. He is also confident, he recognizes the talents and qualities that he has received - something you and I can emulate. But then like putting salt instead of sugar in the making of a cake, he spoils everything by comparing and putting down a fellow human being: The Publican who stands at the back of the Sacred Space.

2. The passage from Luke’s Gospel is in the final glide path. Jesus is heading towards the Baptism with which he is to be baptised. All his teaching has a reference to the final things: eschaton. The Picture of the Pharisee and the Publican does not fit into this eschatological picture. In fact the famous parables like the Good Samaritan, the Rich Man and Lazarus - do not really deal with the Final Judgment (even though we find Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham and the Rich Man in Hell). These parables that are found only in Luke, have to deal more with healthy moral and religious ideas. These parables deal with how we must relate to our fellow men and women.

2a However, Jesus does not merely teach us of the final things: Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven. He embodies in himself these final things. To know and to accept Jesus is to have Life Eternal right now and in the world to come. This parable becomes a part and parcel of his eschatological message.

And so we go back to the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Jesus is not saying that the Pharisee was wrong for fasting twice a week, paying his tithes on his whole income, not merely on what is tax deductible. Jesus is not praising the Publican for his sins: if he happens to be a usurer and a cheat. This parable does not deal even with pride although at first sight it may seem to do so. We go deeper, it refers to

-how we relate to God

-how we pray to God

-how we relate to our fellow human beings, who are made in the image of God.

-how we relate to our fellow Christians who form with us: the Body of Christ.

3. Paul will pick up this theme in his letter to the Corinthians. 1 Cor 12:12. Paul will speak of different parts of the body each have a vital role to play for the good of the whole Body. We cannot discard or scorn certain parts, like the Pharisee scorns the Publican. Paul tells us in 1.Cor 12:23 “those parts we think aren’t worth very much are the ones which we (must) treat with greater care.”

The Pharisee and the Publican go to the Synagogue to pray. Synagogue is the Greek work which means “place where people meet”. The Pharisee turns the Synagogue into his own Temple to sing his own personal praise. The Publican changes the synagogue into a Sacred Space where God is given the praise and honour due to God.

Therefore, we re-read our first reading from the Book of Sirach. It gives us great hope and courage.

The Lord does not favour the rich.

The Lord hears the cry of the oppressed.

The Lord listens to the widow and the Orphan.

Then when we get discouraged at the time, the Lord seems to take in answering our prayers, the Book of Sirach gives us hope. We are assured that our prayers will not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will our prayers withdraw till the Most High responds. The Lord will not delay.

We find that Responsorial Psalm, like the prayer of the Publican is the one of faith: since the Lord hears the cry of the poor, we will bless the Lord at all times.

It is with this courage, like Paul we live out our Christian lives to the full. Like Paul we will pour out our Christian Life as a sacrifice, as a libation -

to the praise and honour of a God who has loved us from before all time.

to a God who will show us God’s face as God did to Abraham.

Like Paul we will finish the race. We will keep the faith. It is true that as we journey towards our final goal, we will falter, we will sin but we will not give up hope as the last lines of the Responsorial Psalm tell us:

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;

and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;

no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.

"DISCOURAGED?"

As I was driving home from work one day, I stopped to watch a local Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home.

As I sat down behind the bench on the first‑-baseline, I asked one of the boys what the score was. "We're behind 14 to nothing," he answered with a smile.

"Really," I said. "I have to say you don't look very discouraged."

"Discouraged?" the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. "Why should

we be discouraged? We haven't been up to bat yet."

When God hears the Cry of the Poor, when God redeems the lives of his servants... then we know we haven’t been up to bat yet, and there is oodles of room for hope.