30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents a parable about righteousness and humility, and a question about both. He presents two people, a Pharisee and a tax collector, one who enjoys his prayer so much that he wants to share it with everyone, even going so far as reminding God at how great a pray-er he is, and all of the great things he has done, which incidentally, were not even necessary in the Mosaic Law. In fact, he did not have to fast twice a week, he not even have to tithe to the degree in which he did, all he was doing was, in essence, appeasing his conscience and convincing himself that he was destined for Heaven.

While he was busy showing off his prayer, in the distance, there was a tax collector in the back of the temple, his eyes cast down, unable to even look up, beating his breast, pleading mercy for his sins.

Two people at prayer but, indeed, only one person praying.

This is why throughout our readings, especially in our Gospel, a common thread exists, a thread that is not only important but also incredibly necessary when praying, and that is, quite simply, humility, for without it prayer then becomes nothing more than talking to God about ourselves with no desire for God to talk to us about Him.

Because, all prayer, whether we recognize it or not, has instilled within it a desire for God to form us, a desire to have such an intimate relationship with Him that our conversation is not mere everyday conversation but something more, it is, as many saints called it, love speaking to love.

But, in order for that to happen, we need to fully abandon ourselves before our Almighty Father, hiding nothing and holding nothing back, not trying to fill the time with mere words, but approaching Him in humility, in trust, in truth and in faith. Falling to our knees, knowing who we are and how we stand before God and being completely, brutally and thoroughly honest with Him. For, it is He who knows us better than we know ourselves.

St. Mother Teresa put it well, she said: “Humility comes when I stand as tall as I can, and look at all of my strengths, and the reality about me, but put myself alongside Jesus Christ. And it's there, when I humble myself before Him, and realize the truth of who He is, when I accept God's estimate of myself, stop being fooled about myself and impressed with myself, that I begin to learn humility. The higher I am in grace, she says, the lower I should be in my own estimation because I am comparing myself with the Lord God.”

This is why when we approach God, as St. Paul reminds in our second reading, we are to pour ourselves out like a libation, emptying ourselves of ourselves before Him, because then He not only works through us but, indeed, fills us with His grace.

Perhaps the best example of this was a priest I met many summers ago at a program for priestly formation. He had a couple of jobs, but the one in particular that stood out to me was as the exorcist of a major metropolitan city.

I remember we had a great conversation about exorcisms, how it happens, how they know if a person is possessed, and the typical questions one may ask of someone who is tasked with such a challenging job. However, when I asked him how he prepares, it was his answer that has stuck with me ever since. He said: “I fast, I pray, and have others pray for me, but most important of all, during the actual exorcism, I get out of the way.”

It was probably the most profoundly simple pieces of advice I had ever heard, but one of the greatest examples of how we are to live as Christians and how we are to approach God in prayer. That in order to do such a great thing, he had to let himself be the lowest thing, that in order to, literally, cast out demon, he had to become the mere conduit through which God works, the mere vessel of His grace.

This is, indeed, why humility is so necessary, because pride, as the Pharisee demonstrates, prevents us from seeing beyond ourselves, from truly approaching God, so that it becomes we, ourselves, who create the obstacle to Him. Yet, when recognize that, in the words of St. Josemaria Escriva: “Humility is born of knowing God and knowing oneself,” we will see that we can never know ourselves unless we know God, and we can never know Him unless we approach Him as we are, in openness, in truth and always aware of how vulnerable and how reliant we truly are upon Him.

Because, by doing so, we will always be able to live in true humility and understand well what Christ says: “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Lord, if you will (Sundays and Solemnities)

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