Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

Title

The One Who Humbles Themself Will Be Exalted

Outline

1 The watchword of our time is that no one has sinned who is seeking their own self-fulfillment

Our self-fulfillment is the measure of success

The other person or group is at fault

Accusations of guilt are simply power plays

That makes reading Hosea 6 almost nonsense

“Come, let us return to the Lord” - who is trying to manipulate us with this

“for he has torn, that he may heal us” - it is not really God, if there is one, but the politics of the other

“Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;” - sounds like self-alienation, taking one’s cues from some power group in society

“I have hewn them by the prophets” - means that the group the so-called prophets belong to is trying to control us

In such a society a word from God cannot be heard, repentance is impossible because the self is the point of reference, and failure is blamed on a group of others

2 But there is a “Christian” or “believing” version

In the parable the Pharisee thinks that he is in great shape before God

He is not a notorious sinner, one rejected by society, to which biblical list he adds the tax collector

He has proper Temple piety, fasting twice a week for past destruction and desecration of the Temple (never commanded by God, but a reasonable “sacramental”)

He is following divine piety rules as interpreted by his group (tithing)

The fact that he does not love his neighbor whom he does not believe keeps the rules does not cross his mind, for he is fine by his reference group’s definition

He would blame Israel’s subject position on the “sinners” like the tax collector

Repentance is impossible - he stands before the sanctuary thinking he is praying to God, but is only praying within himself

There are more than one Catholic versions of this

3 What the Pharisee does not realize is that he is actually helping the Tax Collector

We do not learn of any particular sins that the tax collector is confessing

Perhaps it is only that he is a tax collector

But he knows that he is sinner, for people like the Pharisee make that clear to him

He has not responded with defensiveness, but with humility and repentance

He may not know what to change, but God reads his heart and knows he is ready to alter anything God puts his finger on

Meanwhile he stands a long way from the sanctuary and has a humble posture, like Francis and Benedict say should be true of friars and monks

Such people flocked to Jesus - you can find them in the back and sides of many churches

Jesus says that the tax collector is the one who is justified, “for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

4 Well, Sisters, it is easy for us to become the Pharisee, to slip into that position

You could be doing everything that the order requires - prompt at the bell, meticulous in poverty, perhaps even “putting a fence around the” rules

I could be exacting in my liturgy, careful to observe my Liturgy of the Hours, simple in my lifestyle - my bishop having no complaints

But we can look down on others, judging them as our inferiors, each in our own context and perhaps both over against many laity

They, on the other hand, humbly struggle with their demons, so to speak, longing for holiness, like the drunken monk on Mt Athos

They leave church or chapel justified, rather than us, for “for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Readings

First Reading

Hosea 6:1-6:

1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;

for he has torn, that he may heal us;

he has stricken, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

3 Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;

his going forth is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes early away.

5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,

I have slain them by the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.

Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Ho 6:1–6.

Gospel

Luke 18:9-14

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Lk 18:9–14.

Notes