An attitude of humility and dependency on God! A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write a letter to the Lord requesting for the $100. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to the Lord, USA, they decided to send it to then President. The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill, as this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $5.00, and sat down to write a thank-you note to the Lord. It said: Dear Lord, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington, DC and as usual, those jerks, politicians deducted $95. I am not going to speak to you about politicians and the corruptions but an attitude of gratitude in prayer. What is our attitude to God and prayer?
For me prayer is an intimacy or closeness with God and an expression of my relationship with God. Today’s readings talk about the attitudes that one must have when in prayer. Let us look at the first and the gospel readings which present two contrasting scenarios. In the first reading we are told, “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds” (Sirach 35:16). In the gospel reading, the Pharisee’s prayer did not achieve its purpose because he came to prayer to exalt himself rather than to be humble before God. Thus, today we are going reflect on how to come before God and how not to come before God.
Three practical implications for us today!
1. Jesus invites us to come before God as a community and never as a solitary person. In all of scripture, there is an integral relationship between prayer and community. The Old Testament context of prayer is always the community. The most well known example in the New Testament that comes to my mind is Jesus teaching his disciples that when they come to the altar they remember that another person has something against them, they must first reconcile before they can offer their gifts (Mt 5:23-24). Jesus also taught us that the forgiveness of our own sins depends on our own forgiveness of other people’s sins (Mt 6:15). The problem with the Pharisee in today’s gospel reading is that he expressed before God how he was unlike the rest of humanity. He said, “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity…” The Pharisee was bent on emphasizing his independence from the community, his ability to stand on his own. If on the contrary he had identified with community, he would have found himself carrying the burden of his community. Even when we come for personal prayer, in our heart we bring before God not just our own self but rather the whole world, every person in it, indeed all of creation. In our being we feel the sins of other, the pains they carry, and the joys they experience. Prayer can never become a tool for spiritual pride when we pray as a community.
2. Jesus invites us to come before the Lord in poverty and not in our pride. In the scriptures, the virtue of being poor or poverty is often extolled. Mind it, I am not saying misery is extolled in the scriptures, but rather poverty. Jesus, for example, embraced poverty. Poverty can embrace many dimensions of human life. In the scriptures poverty is not limited to economic poverty but also includes the poverty of the human condition. Poverty means becoming lowly and humble-minded. From this perspective, we can better appreciate the first reading where Sirach says, “The prayer of the lowly pierces the cloud” (Sirach 35:16). Poverty refers to an intellectual insight that tells us that the human condition is one of spiritual depravity. It is the realization of the fact that as human beings we are inherently weak and that we need God. The tax-collector, in today’s gospel reading, was not a poor man economically. Tax-collectors made relatively good money in Jesus’ times. But his poverty is shown in his prayer, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Lk 18:13). The opposite of poverty is seen in the prayer of the Pharisee. His prayer was hardly a prayer; it was an example of pride, arrogance and self-indulgence.
3. The humility and dependency on God! The Pharisee defines himself by what he is not and then by what he does (fast and pray). God justifies the tax collector because he is humble to believe that he can be forgiven what are likely very real sins. The humility and dependency on God is found on the cross. The greatest example of prayer is the Cross. On the Cross Jesus said to the Father, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” But he prayed that prayer, as he brought all of humanity before the Father. He prayed that prayer, embracing and taking upon himself the depravity of the entire human race. He prayed that prayer, after forgiving the very people who put him on the cross. There was no pride, no arrogance, no self-indulgence but rather only the cry of a lowly soul. And because of that prayer, not only did Jesus stand justified before God (Lk 18:14), but his prayer justified all of us before God. In very practical terms, to pray is to transform ourselves into the image of Jesus on the Cross.
Every Eucharist is a commemoration of the perfect prayer of Jesus on the cross. Here at the altar we join ourselves with the prayer of Jesus. This is the greatest prayer!
