In all of today’s readings, we see how deeply connected the Lord God—our Father, our Saviour, our Sanctifier—is to those who are brokenhearted, who are lowly, and who trust in his providential care.
In the first reading from the Book of Sirach, we hear that, "The Lord is a God of justice who knows no favourites. The Lord is not deaf to the wail of the orphan. He hears the cry of the oppressed, nor is he deaf to the cry of the widow when she pours out her complaint. The one who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens. The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds."
My brothers and sisters, how important it is to adopt a humble attitude when we approach God. Humility is not easy, but it is one of the major virtues that allows us to live our Christian life in a way truly pleasing to God, making our prayers more efficacious—more likely to be heard by him.
In fact, one of the reasons we go to the saints as Catholics is precisely because we humble ourselves before God, recognizing our unworthiness. And so we ask someone who already sees him face to face in heaven to put in a good word for us—to place a petition there or to offer him a praise on our behalf.
But to practice humility, brothers and sisters, is to remember that when God listens to our prayers—especially those asking for greater humility—he doesn’t simply send us humility. He sends us opportunities to practice humility.
How many opportunities did he send to Saint Paul! In today’s second reading, from his Second Letter to Timothy, we hear how many chances God gave him to grow in humility. Saint Paul says, “At my first defence, no one appeared on my behalf, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.”
There, in those words—“May it not be held against them”—we see how Saint Paul took this moment of abandonment and turned it into an act of humility, asking the Lord to be merciful to those who had deserted him.
Then we hear in the Gospel about two men who go up to the temple to pray. One is a broken man—a tax collector—and the other, a Pharisee. The tax collector does not even feel worthy to lift his eyes to heaven. He stays at the back of the temple. The Pharisee, on the other hand, takes up his position and, as the Gospel says, “spoke this prayer to himself.” Interesting—it does not say that he prayed to God. It was as though he was praising himself.
Listen to his so-called prayer: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector over here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on my whole income.”
We can hear the lack of humility in that prayer, and how self-centred it is—focused not on God, but on himself. But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast and prayed, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
Look at the focus of his prayer: “O God, be merciful.” Not, “Look at how great I am,” or, “See how well I’m fulfilling my duties.” As Jesus told us elsewhere, when we do what God asks of us, we are only doing what we ought to have done in the first place. We should rather say, “I have done only what was my duty—I am an unworthy servant.”
And so, God listens to the humble prayer of the tax collector rather than to the proud, self-centred prayer of the Pharisee.
Brothers and sisters, let us take the example of Saint Paul and of the tax collector, who turned their gaze toward God in moments of brokenness, who called out to him knowing that he is a tender and merciful Father. For indeed, we are his sons and daughters, and his love for us is beyond compare.
May God bless you—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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