Homily 30th Sunday OT C,  October 23, 2022

By Franklin Fong, OFM

The readings today each give us a perspective to how our prayer life can come alive for each of us.

In the first reading from the book of Sirach we hear about God’s 

1.  special openness to receiving prayers from the weak,  the oppressed, the orphan and the widow;

2.  willingness to hear the prayers of those who have willingly served God.

In the Psalm 34 we hear of all the different ways that God will hear the

cries or prayers of the poor and how we pray with blessings and praise of our Lord.

In the 2nd reading from the 2nd Letter to Timothy we hear about how St Paul sees his eminent death and begins to recall how his past life was enriched by the many different ways that God’s presence was evident in his life: 

1. God stood by him;

2. God gave him strength; and

3. God rescued him from every evil!

Paul makes it clear that our journey of life ends with death and so that we can be at the entrance to heaven!    Clearly only when the key to St Peter’s Gate is prayer done with faith in God, that the gate opens!

In the Gospel Reading, Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector in order to teach a lesson about pride. As Jesus tells the parable, the Pharisee is not pleasing to God; the tax collector is.

In the parable, what the Pharisee says in his prayer is this: “I thank you, God, that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.”  The tax collector just prays for God to have mercy on him, a sinful man.

Now what exactly is wrong with the Pharisee’s prayer?  He likes looking down on that tax collector! And that is the worst kind of pride.   Notice that the parable doesn’t doubt the Pharisee’s truthfulness: he does have real moral excellence. And notice too that the Pharisee doesn’t congratulate himself on this moral excellence in himself. He thanks God for it; he gives God all the credit for it.

So, what is wrong with the Pharisee? He accepts that his excellence is a gift from the Lord. He just doesn’t want anybody else to have what he has. He likes looking down on that tax collector! And that is the worst kind of pride.  It is not humility!!!

True humility is seeing that every excellence you have is a gift from your loving Lord and is given to you so that you can share it with others in love and rejoice with them when they have it too.

So,  let’s  see how the three readings are connected:

•    The first reading teaches us that the prayer of the humble and the lowly are acceptable to God.  God answers our prayers by giving us justice.

•    The psalm helps us to articulate a true and humble prayer.

•    The second reading teaches us that in our desperate situation God is with us. We are not alone in our sufferings. Like St. Paul, we have to  have courage and to acknowledge his presence in our life struggles. This is prayer.

•    The gospel reading teaches us that we should be humble when we pray.

The take home message then is YES, we must pray with humility.  Remember that in the Eucharist we receive Jesus who comes to teach us that life is a matter of humble self-giving to others.  Giving to others does not exclude the strangers, or any other person,   nor the different forms of life in the created world that we live with, the trees, animals, insects, plants, and microbes !   

So, we must pray humbly and live our faith lives with humility.

So brothers and sisters of the Chinese Catholic Community,

 that is the Good News for this 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Alleluia  Alleluia !

Fr. Fong

(中文翻譯.原文以英文為準.)

常年期三十主日
鄺神父主日道理中譯本

讀經一: 德訓篇 35: 12-14, 16-18
讀經二: 弟茂德後書: 4: 6-8, 16-18
路加福音 18: 9-14

今天的讀經為我們開展了視野，讓我們了解如何活化個人的祈禱生活。

在讀經一的德訓篇中，我們聽到天主特別俯聽弱小者，受壓迫者和孤兒寡婦的祈禱；天主也願意聆聽那些甘心侍奉衪的人的祈禱。
 
在聖詠 34 篇中，我們聽到上主接納不同的祈禱方式，既俯聽窮人的哀號，又聆聽我們以感恩的心來讚美衪。
 
在讀經二的弟茂德後書，我們聽到了聖保祿宗徒如何看待他快將到來和卓越顯赫的死亡，並開始回顧他過去的生活如何因上主明顯地透過許多不同方式的臨在而變得豐富起來：

1/ 上主與他同在；
2/ 上主賜他力量；和
3/ 上主救他於危難之中！

聖保祿清楚表明，我們的生命旅程以死亡告終，得以到達天堂的大門口！很明顯，只有藉着祈禱成就了對主的忠信，就是這條鑰匙打開了聖伯多祿大門！
 

在路加福音中，耶穌說了一個關於法利塞人和稅吏的比喻，揭示了有關驕傲的教訓。正如耶穌所說的比喻，法利塞人討不了天主的歡心，税吏卻成功做到了。
 
在這個比喻中，法利塞人在他的禱告中說："天主，我感謝你，因我不像其他人，貪婪、不義、姦淫，也不像這個稅吏。我每週兩次禁食，凡我所得的，都捐獻十份之一"。而那個稅吏只是祈求上主的憐憫和寬恕，因為他是個罪人。
  
那麼，法利塞人的祈禱究竟出了什麼問題呢？他看不起那個稅吏！這就是最糟糕的驕傲。請留意這個比喻並沒有懷疑法利塞人在說假話：他的確具備了正確的道德規範。還要注意的是，法利塞人並沒有慶賀自己在道德上的卓越成就。他為此而感謝天主；他把這一切都歸功勞於上主。
 
那麼，法利塞人到底出了什麼問題呢？他承認他的卓越是主的禮物。他只是不想讓其他人擁有他所擁有的東西。他就是看不起那個稅吏！這就是最糟糕的驕傲。他最大的問題就是欠缺了謙卑！

真正的謙卑是看到你所擁有的每一個優點都是來自慈愛天主餽贈的禮物，你懷着大愛與他人共享主賜的禮物，並在他們也同樣擁有它時與他們一同喜樂。
 
那麼，讓我們看看這三篇聖經如何連繫起來：

• 讀經一教導我們，謙卑人的禱告是天主所悅納的。上主給我們正義來回應我們的祈禱。
• 聖詠幫助我們表達真實而謙卑的禱告。

• 讀經二教導我們，在我們的絕望中，上主與我們同在。在我們的苦難中，我們並不孤單。像聖保祿宗徒一樣，我們必須有勇氣並明認上主臨在於我們生活的掙扎之中。這就是祈禱。
• 今天的福音教導我們在祈禱時應該謙卑。
 
帶回家的信息是肯定的，我們必須謙卑地祈禱。並牢記在聖體聖事中，我們接受了耶穌，衪教導我們生命是謙卑的，願意把自己給予他人。給予他人也包括了給予我們所有不認識的人，也包括了與我們一起生活在受造世界中的不同生命形式，樹木、動物、昆蟲、植物和微生物！
 
所以，我們必須謙卑地祈禱，謙卑地過我們的信仰生活。
 
所以華人天主教會的弟兄姊妹們，這就是常年期三十主日的好消息。
 
亞肋路亞，感謝天主！