Reflections of Caritas

GOSPEL: Luke 18:9-14

BE HUMBLE!

Dear friends,

In contrasting the prayer of the Pharisee with the prayer of the tax collector in the parable, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in humility before God. Jesus surprises his listeners by showing the tax collector as the example of faith, rather than the Pharisee. Remember that Pharisees were members of a sect of Judaism active in Jesus' time. If anyone would be a model for prayer, a Pharisee was a likely candidate. In contrast, Jesus offers the tax collector as a model for prayer. This parable reminds us that when we pray, we must remember our need for God in our lives. If we are too full of ourselves, there is too little room for God's grace to work in us. A good life, like a good prayer, comes from emptying ourselves of ourselves to let God in.

We do not come to Church to be better than others. We come to Church because we believe and we are called to express our belief. We are not called to come to Church to look down on those who no longer have faith. That would make us exactly like the Pharisee in today’s Gospel from Luke! Instead, we should be asking the Lord to have mercy on us, to change our lives, to make us fully alive in Him so that others can see the presence of God once more active in our world.

Let us deepen our own faith so that we do live every moment of every day aware of God’s love, mercy and compassion. If we do that, then our faith soon becomes apparent to others, not in any offensive way, but simply being kind and loving to the people around us, “for whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted”.

God Bless,

Rev. Father Frank Kyazze