Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday - 9th March 2024
Abbot Paul • March 8, 2024
One spiritual exercise we can all practise in Lent, and it’s anything but a penance, but then Lent isn’t just about penances, is to thank God for all his many wonderful gifts to us, gifts that can be spiritual or material, human or otherwise. What greater gift has God given us than his own friendship and love, made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave his life for us by dying on a cross that we might have our sins forgiven and so live in God’s presence for ever in the light and beauty of heaven. He has also given us human friendship. What more wonderful than to be loved by our friends and to love them in return? The deeper and stronger our love for our friends, the deeper and stronger our love for God and for ourselves and, dare I say it, for our “enemies”, those we have difficulty in liking or accepting or even putting up with. Jesus himself called his disciples friends. As Our lord extends the hand of friendship to us, let us extend the hand of friendship to others. What better Christian Lenten penance could we find to improve our own lives and the life of the whole world?
Today’s Gospel passage from Luke, (Lk 18; 9-14), is one of the best loved parables of Jesus, that of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It is one I always turn to for consolation when my sense of sinfulness and worthlessness gets too much for me. Jesus is probably addressing this parable to a group of Pharisees. They prided themselves in keeping the law in every detail. They also mercilessly criticised those who could not live up to their standards. It’s best we read the whole story. “Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’”
The Pharisee is full of himself. He reminds me of those people who come to confession only to tell you everyone else’s sins but their own. No half measures with this particular Pharisee: he’s more than a cut above the rest of society and especially that wretched tax collector, standing some distance away. He, on the other hand, doesn’t even look up to heaven, but beats his breast and says, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. Kyrie eleison.” Jesus has no doubt as to who goes home at rights with God. If we humbly recognise and confess our sins, he is telling us, God won’t punish but forgives us. God looks with loving mercy on those who are humble and honest. Not only that, but looking ahead to the kingdom, God will exalt the lowly and humble the proud. This is what Our Lady says in the Magnificat, “He scatters the proud-hearted and raises the lowly.”
Lord, we thank you for your mercy and love. Help us to recognise our sins and weaknesses and come to you for forgiveness and every blessing. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Kyrie eleison.
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