It’s so easy to be like the Pharisee in Luke’s Gospel, who thanks God because he, the Pharisee, is not like the rest of humanity -- he is not greedy,
dishonest, adulterous… It’s so easy
to be caught up in our own self-righteousness, in our own self-centeredness;
it’s so easy to point out the bad in others and, in so doing, to separate
ourselves from God, as if we were superior to sin. But as Jesus points out to those who were convinced of their own
righteousness, it is the tax collector, the man who recognizes his own
brokenness, his own sin – O God, be
merciful to me, a sinner – who knows his own need for mercy; it is the man
who is open to God, to God’s mercy and compassion in his life, who can then be
compassionate and merciful to others.
Jesus’ message to the self-righteous is grounded in
traditional Hebrew Scripture. In the
Book of Sirach, the Lord is a God of
justice: God identifies real need,
and hears the cry of the oppressed,
as well as the prayers of the one who
serves God willingly. Psalm 34 is clear:
The Lord hears the cry of the poor,
and is particularly attentive to those who own their own sin, who know their
own need for salvation: the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and
those who are crushed in spirit. In
his Second Letter to Timothy, Paul, writing from prison, likewise knows that,
although everyone deserted him, the Lord stood by him and gave him strength. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
Jesus says, and the one who humbles
himself will be exalted.
We are all in need of God because we all know sin. We are human; we are broken. Yet, if we own our own brokenness, we too can
open to the power of God’s mercy and compassion to transform us, to redeem our lives, to be our refuge. Is God listening? Certainly, so long as we are listening as
well, open to the transformative compassion and mercy of God in our lives.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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