St Charles Borromeo
  • HOME
    • Sunday Page
    • Give
  • About
    • Mass Times
    • Bulletin & Calendar
    • Lent Schedule
    • Holy Week
    • Contact
    • Staff
    • Ministries and Committees >
      • Pastoral Council
    • Finances
    • Liturgical Ministries Schedule
  • News
  • Faith
    • Baptism
    • First Communion
    • Confirmation >
      • Confirmation Retreat 2023
      • Confirmation Sponsor
      • Confirmation Name
    • Synod 2023 >
      • Respond
      • Responses
    • Reading the Bible Rebelliously
    • The Lasallian Way
    • Spiritual Growth Challenge >
      • Lent 2023
      • Gun Violence
      • Essential Elements >
        • Essential Elements - Results
      • Personal Journey in Faith
      • Christian Practices
      • Finding LIfe's Purpose
      • Racial Reconciliation
      • Care for Creation
    • GIFT >
      • GIFT Prayer
      • Past GIFT Programs
  • Word
    • Lenten Evening Prayer
    • Voice of the Community >
      • Reflections
    • Homily
    • Children's Liturgy of the Word
  • Justice
    • Care 4 Creation >
      • Understanding Natural Gas
    • MACG Summary Report
    • Racial Justice
    • Local Resources
    • Renter's Assistance
    • Food Insecurity
    • Utilities Assistance
    • Care For The Elderly
    • St. Vincent de Paul >
      • Who We Are
      • WHAT WE DO
      • GET INVOLVED
      • GIVE
      • GET HELP >
        • FOOD HELP
        • FINANCIAL HELP
      • NEWS

Homily

Give Ourselves Over to God's Mercy

10/27/2019

0 Comments

 
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 27, 2019
Leif Kehrwald
Whenever, I hear a Bible story that involves a Tax Collector, I am reminded of when my sons were grade school age, and there was a time when our older son would come home from school and pick on and bully his younger brother. At first, we didn’t pay too much attention – ordinary sibling rivalry. But the behavior persisted and even intensified . . . and it was always right after he got home from school. 
During this period, we had a family ritual at the dinner table of telling “stories about Jesus and his friends.” Most nights, Rene or I would tell a gospel story, in our own words, as best we could remember. It was our effort to introduce our sons to the Bible and beckon them into our faith practice. 
 
So, we became concerned about how our older son was treating his younger brother. We sat down with him to talk about it. We asked, “What’s going on with you to behave this way toward your brother? It’s not like you. It’s not your nature.”
 
Turns out, he was being teased and bullied by a kid at school, which made him feel small and powerless. So, he would come home and bully and tease his brother so he could feel the opposite—big and powerful. Amidst this conversation, Rene had the wisdom and foresight to simply tell the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector (which you will hear next Sunday). She told the story in a manner that Zacchaeus was a bully, cheating his fellow Jews out of extra taxes and getting rich. Then, he met Jesus, and changed his life from greedy, stingy bully to generous friend. 
 
Well, this was one of those rare moments when our parental efforts hit the mark, and the story Rene told touched his heart, and he went right to his little brother and apologized and made up with him. And, with a bit of help from his mom and his teacher, the bully problem at school was solved as well. 
 
Today, we hear the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. And is designed to show us how to pray, and how not to pray. 
 
Whenever Jesus tells a parable, there is always one or more characters with whom we are expected to relate, or identify with. In today’s Gospel, it’s clear we should pray more like the humble tax collector than the self-righteous Pharisee. 
 
Yet to Jesus’ audience, and to the original readers of Luke, that would have been a questionable challenge. They would have looked at him, thinking, “Um, really? You want me to be like a tax collector instead of a pharisee?”
 
Let’s take a look at the two characters.
 
Pharisees were persons of upright standing, fully engaged in the life of the Jewish community, and highly respected. They were religiously active and faithful, financially generous, openly pious, and willing to take the lead on whatever needed to be done for the synagogue. If anything, they knew how to pray.
 
By contrast, tax collectors were bullies and traitors. They were fellow Jews working for the Romans, extorting tax levies by any means possible. Whatever amounts they didn’t have to hand over to the Romans, they kept. Some tax collectors became quite wealthy, like Zacchaeus. And when it comes to prayer . . . not a clue!
 
Jesus holds up the Pharisee, whom everyone knows as a person who does everything, and does it right, as NOT the person to emulate because he does it only for himself. His prayer is not directed to God at all, but rather a prayer of praise to himself. Further, he flaunts his influence, stature, and air of superiority. And therein lies his only satisfaction and reward. 
 
Better to emulate the repentant tax collector, who knows he must change his ways, but is caught in a trap between the Romans and Jews, and honestly and sincerely does not know what to do. And so, in his prayer, he cannot even lift his eyes to the heavens. Head bowed in despair and remorse, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
 
Of course, there is something of the Pharisee in us as we so easily compare ourselves to others. But there is also something of the tax collector in us, when we recognize our weaknesses and powerlessness—even over our ability to change—and give over to God’s mercy.
 
In reality, both characters can teach us something about the way we pray. 
  • Pharisee: Who do I honestly praise in my prayer, God or myself? Do I sincerely give God credit for the good that occurs through me, or do I take the credit myself?
  • Tax Collector: Does the mercy I pray for, and the repentance I seek, really lead me to change, to stop exploiting others, to seek reconciliation with those whom I’ve hurt?
 
A sincere and prayerful reflection on these questions will lead us back to the beautiful, rich, and poetic prose of our first reading from Sirach . . .
The LORD is a God of justice,
 who knows no favorites.
 Though not unduly partial toward the weak,
 yet he hears the cry of the oppressed.
The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds;
 it does not rest till it reaches its goal,
. . . and challenge us to accompany our prayer with works for those in need in order to bring true these words of Sirach.
 
In 1965, Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who lived a cloistered life of seclusion, prayer, and solitude at Gethsemane Monastery in Kentucky, made a rare excursion into Louisville, and had a significant aha, conversion moment on the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district. He wrote, “I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.” 
 
And in clear contrast to the self-centered and self-righteous prayer of the Pharisee, Merton uttered, ““Thank God, thank God that I am like other persons, that I am a person among others!”
 
May your prayer and mine be like that of Thomas Merton. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

St. Charles Church  |  5310 N.E. 42nd Avenue, Portland OR 97218  |  503-281-6461  | stchas@stcharlespdx.org


  • HOME
    • Sunday Page
    • Give
  • About
    • Mass Times
    • Bulletin & Calendar
    • Lent Schedule
    • Holy Week
    • Contact
    • Staff
    • Ministries and Committees >
      • Pastoral Council
    • Finances
    • Liturgical Ministries Schedule
  • News
  • Faith
    • Baptism
    • First Communion
    • Confirmation >
      • Confirmation Retreat 2023
      • Confirmation Sponsor
      • Confirmation Name
    • Synod 2023 >
      • Respond
      • Responses
    • Reading the Bible Rebelliously
    • The Lasallian Way
    • Spiritual Growth Challenge >
      • Lent 2023
      • Gun Violence
      • Essential Elements >
        • Essential Elements - Results
      • Personal Journey in Faith
      • Christian Practices
      • Finding LIfe's Purpose
      • Racial Reconciliation
      • Care for Creation
    • GIFT >
      • GIFT Prayer
      • Past GIFT Programs
  • Word
    • Lenten Evening Prayer
    • Voice of the Community >
      • Reflections
    • Homily
    • Children's Liturgy of the Word
  • Justice
    • Care 4 Creation >
      • Understanding Natural Gas
    • MACG Summary Report
    • Racial Justice
    • Local Resources
    • Renter's Assistance
    • Food Insecurity
    • Utilities Assistance
    • Care For The Elderly
    • St. Vincent de Paul >
      • Who We Are
      • WHAT WE DO
      • GET INVOLVED
      • GIVE
      • GET HELP >
        • FOOD HELP
        • FINANCIAL HELP
      • NEWS