30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 23, 2022
/Spiritual Arrogance and True Humility
Luke 18: 9–14
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Music Meditations
- Kyrie Eleison—Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Matt Maher
- O Lord I Am Not Worthy (In YouTube it says: Catholic Gregorian Chant, but it is really just a traditional Catholic Eucharistic hymn)
- Lord, I Need You—Chris Tomlin
- Amazing Grace
Opening Prayer
Lord, keep me centered on you and not on my goodness, my accomplishments. Teach me not to judge others in comparison to myself, and teach me to be generous in praise of others. Give me humility and pureness of heart.
Companions for the Journey
A Big Heart Open to God: an interview with Pope Francis (from America magazine)
Editor’s Note: This interview with Pope Francis took place over the course of three meetings during August 2013 in Rome. The interview was conducted in person by Antonio Spadaro, S.J., editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal. The interview was conducted in Italian. After the Italian text was officially approved, America commissioned a team of five independent experts to translate it into English. America is solely responsible for the accuracy of this translation. Father Spadaro met the pope at the Vatican in the pope’s apartments in the Casa Santa Marta, where he has chosen to live since his election. Father Spadaro begins his account of the interview with a description of the pope’s living quarters: The setting is simple, austere. The workspace occupied by the desk is small. I am impressed not only by the simplicity of the furniture, but also by the objects in the room. There are only a few. These include an icon of St. Francis, a statue of Our Lady of Luján, patron saint of Argentina, a crucifix and a statue of St. Joseph sleeping. The spirituality of Jorge Mario Bergoglio is not made of “harmonized energies,” as he would call them, but of human faces: Christ, St. Francis, St. Joseph and Mary.
Who Is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?
I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.
I ask Pope Francis point-blank: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” He stares at me in silence. I ask him if I may ask him this question. He nods and replies: “I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.” The pope continues to reflect and concentrate, as if he did not expect this question, as if he were forced to reflect further. “Yes, perhaps I can say that I am a bit astute, that I can adapt to circumstances, but it is also true that I am a bit naïve. Yes, but the best summary, the one that comes more from the inside and I feel most true is this: I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.” And he repeats: “I am one who is looked upon by the Lord. I always felt my motto, Miserando atque Eligendo [By Having Mercy and by Choosing Him], was very true for me.” The motto is taken from the Homilies of Bede the Venerable, who writes in his comments on the Gospel story of the calling of Matthew: “Jesus saw a publican, and since he looked at him with feelings of love and chose him, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” The pope adds: “I think the Latin gerund miserando is impossible to translate in both Italian and Spanish. I like to translate it with another gerund that does not exist: misericordiando [“mercy-ing”]. “That finger of Jesus, pointing at Matthew. That’s me. I feel like him. Like Matthew.” Here the pope becomes determined, as if he had finally found the image he was looking for: “It is the gesture of Matthew that strikes me: he holds on to his money as if to say, ‘No, not me! No, this money is mine.’ Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff.” Then the pope whispers in Latin: “I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.
Prayer: I ask Pope Francis about his preferred way to pray.
“I pray the breviary every morning. I like to pray with the psalms. Then, later, I celebrate Mass. I pray the Rosary. What I really prefer is adoration in the evening, even when I get distracted and think of other things, or even fall asleep praying. In the evening then, between seven and eight o’clock, I stay in front of the Blessed Sacrament for an hour in adoration. But I pray mentally even when I am waiting at the dentist or at other times of the day. “Prayer for me is always a prayer full of memory, of recollection, even the memory of my own history or what the Lord has done in his church or in a particular parish. For me it is the memory of which St. Ignatius speaks in the First Week of the Exercises in the encounter with the merciful Christ crucified. And I ask myself: ‘What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What should I do for Christ?’ It is the memory of which Ignatius speaks in the ‘Contemplation for Experiencing Divine Love,’ when he asks us to recall the gifts we have received. But above all, I also know that the Lord remembers me. I can forget about him, but I know that he never, ever forgets me. Memory has a fundamental role for the heart of a Jesuit: memory of grace, the memory mentioned in Deuteronomy, the memory of God’s works that are the basis of the covenant between God and the people. It is this memory that makes me his son and that makes me a father, too.”
Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session…
Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall BE exalted.
Living the Good News
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?
Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:
Reflection Questions
Meditations
A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:
I re-read this parable of the Pharisee and Publican. I place myself in the events of this little story. What does the temple look like? Where is each man standing? What is the posture and manner of the Pharisee? How about that of the Publican (tax collector)? Who do I identify with more—the man who did what he was supposed to and prayed regularly, gave to the poor, and was an honest, good person, or the tax collector, who preyed on the weak and the helpless, extorting monies from them they could little afford and raking off a profit for himself? When we try to live a good life, is it hard not to be a little smug sometimes? I try to put myself in each man’s shoes. First I look at the part of me that loves and honors God and tries to be a good person. Do I unconsciously measure my goodness against that of others around me? Isn’t that a natural thing to do? Now I look at the part of me, like the tax collector, who has done some things for my own advancement that I’m not too proud of—a sleazy little lie here, a little shameless flattery there, perhaps a little subtle character assassination to top it off. Which side of me do I emphasize when I pray? I speak to Jesus about both sides of my nature and pray for the understanding to know when I’ve been wrong, for humility which does not allow for personal pride in my own goodness, and for the wisdom to know that both understanding and humility are gifts of God.
A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:
A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:
In New Seeds of Contemplation Thomas Merton said:
And now I am thinking of the disease which is spiritual pride. I am thinking of the particular unreality that gets into the hearts of saints and eats their sanctity away before it is mature. There is something of this worm in the hearts of all religious men. As soon as they have done something which they know to be good in the eyes of God, they tend to takes its reality to themselves and to make it their own. They tend to destroy their virtues by claiming them for themselves and clothing their own private illusion of themselves with values that belong to God. Who can escape the desire to breathe a different atmosphere from the rest of men? (p. 49) The saints are what they are not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else (p.57).
Think about your particular spiritual gifts, but be very careful not to be smug about them and careful not to compare yourself to someone else, good or bad. What can you do to be honest with yourself about all the ways in which you have been especially arrogant about your own beliefs or actions, and particularly dismissive of the beliefs and actions of others. Then, write your own prayer to God, thanking God for all the ways that you are like others, and thanking God for all those in your life who have been an example and a corrective to your sometimes self-absorbed, tendencies. Recall the times that you have fallen short of the ideal, knowing that God has continued to be forgiving and merciful. Then recall times that you have been harsh or dismissive in your judgement of other people or other groups. Ask God to help you do better.
A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:
Think of someone in your life right now whose actions you don't particularly admire. Try to spend some time talking to this person in an attempt to get to know her better, not to convince him of the wrongheadedness of his actions. Try to listen to this person with a truly open mind, realizing that there may be much more that this person is dealing with than you know about. Pray for unconditional love for this person.
Poetic Reflection:
Read the following poems by Rev. Ed. Ingebretzen, S.J., and Turner Cassidy and think again of the message of the story of the Publican and the Pharisee.
“In the Center of Right”
The woman taken in adultery
faces the glee of the takers—
they leap upon her
like shoppers upon the prize.She wears her fright
like the face on Veronica’s veil
as they toss their cage
of rectitude and certainty,having caught at last
the lioness smelling of blood
trapped in the heat of love.We are never safe, she and I—
unfaithful as cats in heat
in neighborhoods where dogs strain
with white, law-edged teeth.From behind her eyes, encircled,
I catch a bit of her fear;
I feel in my bones the violence
come of being wrong, cornered
in the center of right.—Ed. Ingebretzen, S.J., from To Keep From Singing
“Carpenters”
Forgiven, unforgiven, they who drive the nails Know what they do: they hammer. If they doubt, if their vocation fails, They only swell the number, Large already, of the mutineers and thieves. With only chance and duty There to cloak them, they elect and nail. The vinegar will pity. Judas who sops their silver his accuser, errs To blame the unrewarded. They guard the branch he hangs from. Guilt occurs Where it can be afforded.
—Turner Cassidy, from The Uncommon Touch
A great short story for further reading:
Flannery O'Connor, "Revelation" from Collected Works
Closing Prayer
Adapted from sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits, 2022
Lord, can I ever get rid completely of the Pharisee in me? I find it is so easy to feel superior to others in one way or another while being blind to my own shortcomings. Remind me that humility, however, is not meant to exaggerate my shortcomings and failings, but simply to trust that you understand and will help me to do better. Help me to be honest with myself and kind to myself, grounded in the reality of your love. Remind me that I am not loved by you because I am good, but because you are good. My sinfulness, failures are not reasons for doubting your love, but rather they are an invitation to marvel all the more at your loving kindness.
