Oct 24, 2025

30th Sunday: Who prays the best?


(By Orlando Mendoza)


Luke 18: 9-14


-----------------------------------------
Almighty ever-living God

increase our faith, hope and charity,

and make us love what you command,so that we may merit what you promise.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you 

in the unity of the Holy Spririt,God, for ever and ever.

(Collect of Mass)

For the last four Sunday’s Jesus has given us a kind of mini- catechism on prayer in the Gospels we’ve heard.  He teaches us to pray with faith, even as small as a mustard seed (Lk 17: 5-10).  That we must pray with gratitude in our heart, like the one leper returned to Jesus (Lk 17: 11-19). That we must be persistent in our prayer like the widow who pesters the heartless judge (Lk 18: 1-8) and today we hear that we must pray with humility before God, like the repentant tax collector in (Lk 18: 9-14).

The lesson of today’s story from Jesus is obvious.  Don’t be proud in our prayer before God but humble as we pray. We are called to admit the truth about our lives, about the choices we’ve made, about the words we’ve said, or some action I committed, or the constant habit that I feel I always must be right and so I tend to question or disagree with everyone who doesn’t see things my way. To know our limitations and our gifts and to admit where I fall short is fundamental to our prayer before God. We pray with honesty and come before God as we are.

The parable presents a common trait of the Gospel writers who present Pharisees in a negative light, knowing how Jesus confronted them.  They seem to be the constant bane of Jesus in his call for integrity.  Yet, in fact they were likely closer to Jesus’ own teaching than distant from it. Our Lord did not criticize the basic content of their teaching but rather how they themselves did not live up to what they taught yet presented themselves in a way that would appear otherwise in their display of hypocrisy.

So, the scene is powerful in its right context.  When Jesus states, “the two men went up to the Temple to pray,” he refers to what the folks of his time would understand.  This was no private visit to a Church; the two of them alone, one in front and the other in the back.

The Temple was a busy, noisy, crowded space so those who prayed did so in full view and earshot of others.  One would not pray silently but out loud so others could hear.  The Pharisee is boasting of his perfection and certainly some could hear well what he was claiming. As Jesus states, he “spoke this prayer to himself.”  As such, it was more to draw attention to himself than to bring honor to God by his spoken thankfulness: Thanks that I’m not like the rest of humanity! So, in essence as comical as it sounds, he was praying to himself.

The population generally looked to these gate keepers for both example and leadership. They dressed in a certain rich and beautiful robes and clean manner; they carried with them, attached to their outer garments, symbols of the Jewish faith – maybe we could say a kind of religious habit.

Yet, in the laws of diet and cleanliness, Sabbath regulations, and other burdensome legalities, and the near slavish following of it, they exaggerated the importance of such man-made laws to the detriment of the sacred law of love, humility, and charity which God asked of his people in the original Covenant.  The Pharisees suffered from too much emphasis on external appearance which created a kind of spiritual blindness to the deep relationship of love that God was seeking. So, we hear of their self-aggrandizement, their superior righteous attitude, and self-righteous judgment of others.

As he boasts his prayer before God, while adjusting his halo properly, he claims that all his righteous success was of his own making.  Yet, we know that in humility we admit that all good in our life is gift from God above. Virtue is God’s business as we respond with an open heart to his grace within us.

By contrast an equally unpopular figure appears, a tax collector.  Generally despised by the population for their greedy way of collecting taxes and the Roman occupiers they represented.  Now, unlike the Pharisee, here’s one guy who couldn’t possibly recognize his sin.  Yet, to all who heard this story for the first time, he became, like the Good Samaritan, the one who got it right! As he spoke in his way, “Lord, have mercy on me,” others may have heard.  He names no one else; he doesn’t even call out his specific sin but recognizes that the choices he has made and the direction of his life is not of God.

His prayer was simple, deeply sincere, humble and truthful.  His only desire, as he “stood off at a distance” from the Pharisee who stood and proudly proclaimed his goodness, the tax collector “would not even raise his eyes to heaven.”  He prayed from his heart: “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”  It wasn’t what he had done right, but how he prayed that mattered.

To be justified means to be in right relationship with God; to be in proper Covenant order and goodness before God.  True humility is the key here it seems. Like the tax collector we are taught how to pray with honesty and humility. “God, this is who I am, with all my faults, sins, and blemishes.  I haven’t been what you call me to be so I ask in all humility for your mercy, that I can start again.”

The tax collector didn’t grovel or think of himself as worthless.  Yet, he was realistic and honest about his own sinfulness and accepted responsibility for his less than virtuous behaviour.  This is true conversion and a prayer that is heard and answered by God.

What an ideal application for the sacrament of Reconciliation.  When we go to confession we stand before God not as the Pharisee but as the tax collector.  Honestly admitting our sin, out loud but heard only by the priest, we know that this truthful assessment of my life choices will receive God’s mercy like the leper, like the tax collector and we move forward with new hope.

So this leaves us with rich lessons on prayer over the last several Sundays:  pray with faith, no matter how small. Pray with gratitude in your heart for blessings received.  Pray with persistence and don’t give up.  Pray with humility and realism before the loving God of mercy and redemption. So Faith, Gratitude, Persistence and Humility.


Oct 18, 2025

29th Sunday: Don't give up!

 

"Pray always without becoming weary"

Luke 18: 1-8

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101925.cfm

Let us pray:

Almighty ever-living God,

grant that we may always conform our will to yours

and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever. 

(Collect for Mass)

Persistence is an admirable virtue.  How do we not stand in awe at a trained, Olympic level athlete.  Or a vocalist who sings with beauty and power. Or an artist who through discipline and training produces a work of art that remains as impressive as the day it was first seen?  Or someone with a serious health condition who seems to overcome adversity by the sheer force of their will. Maybe we admire them and wish we could have that level of determination ourselves. How much more the tenacious force of one who approaches God in prayer.

This Sunday we hear about prayer and about prayers of petition and the determined persistence that is so essential. While there are many styles of prayer such as liturgical, contemplative, devotional, private and public, a rich treasure given to us in our Catholic faith, it seems no style of prayer is more familiar to Christians than prayers of petition or intercession.

When we go to pray it is far more common to ask for something or to ask on behalf of someone else.  We pray for health, our children, our sick relatives, for healing, for a good job, for our children who no longer attend Mass, for good weather, for safe travel, etc.  I’m sure this all sounds familiar.  But, when you think about it, that’s an awful lot of “Give me what I want, or think is good for me.”

So, if ever Jesus told a parable with a smile on his face our familiar Gospel story this Sunday from Luke, I think would have been it.  Picture the scene he paints.  An uncaring judge sits arrogantly at his bench and openly admits his shamelessness towards God and people: “. . . neither feared God nor respected any human being.” There isn’t much good about someone like that.

And persistently at his bench and entering his courtroom repeatedly is a widow, dressed in dark shabby clothes but undeterred in her demands for justice: “Render a just decision for me against my adversary,” she demands with bold courage.  Now that’s chutzpah!  She had lost her husband and his property was mishandled, though it belonged to her: she is determined to get her rights. Apparently, however, the widow’s pleading is ignored, and she has no money to offer the judge, yet she persists determinedly.

The judge she stands before is shameless in his attitude, is overcome by her persistence in what he must have imagined was seen as an obnoxious woman who threatens to inflict physical harm on him.  He says: “I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.” - Before she punches me in the eye if I don’t give in to her demands.  You can see Jesus smile at thought of the scene he describes and likely his audience as well as they considered the woman who threatened the judge.

So, to once and for all remove her from his courtroom, despite his cold heart, the judge grants justice to the widow. Due to her unrelenting plea, prayer we may say, he granted her constant request.

As odd as this story seems, it holds a valuable lesson for us about how we are to pray.  Remember, Jesus told this parable to his disciples: “. . . about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.” If the crooked judge gave the woman her right due, would not God, who is far more compassionate and interested than the judge, give more and more frequently what his children ask of him? As Jesus finishes, he adds a twist: “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.  Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night?” If such a corrupt judge grants a request, however outlandish the widow acted, wouldn’t a benevolent God answer the prayers of those who ask him?

We must pray with trust and persistence that God indeed cares for us, unlike the uncaring judge, and will indeed bestow good things, justice, upon us.  Faith means that we must be undeterred in constantly going to the right source; to the one who looks upon us with mercy and love, rather than seek for our true needs elsewhere.

The judge was no friend of the woman, that’s for sure, and she knew that.  Yet, she consistently badgered him and finally wore him down with her unfailing desire to receive what is right and good. 

Our first reading from Exodus offers a similar scene of persistence, that of Moses at prayer as he stands watching the battle between Amalek and Israel.  Moses stands at the top of the hill as Joshua engages the enemy in battle.  With hands constantly raised in prayer to God, Israel would win.  The battle lasted all day, Moses’ arms grew tired, so Aaron (his brother) and Hur prop his arms on two rocks so they would remain raised in constant prayer – Israel won the battle and justice was won.  Like the widow, he never gives up, he pleads persistently to God for what was good and right.

What does the posture of Moses teach us about prayer?  He knew who God was, so he raised his hands wide and tall in a kind of reaching out.  The traditional “orans” position before God in prayer, as you see the priest who stands at the altar with his arms raised as a prayerful gesture lifting the prayers of the Mass and the people to God.

What does the posture of the widow tell us about prayer?  That before God we are bent over and pleading, like a poor beggar who knows that she was powerless before the judge but that he held the power that could change her life.  So, she persists with courage and faith knowing that despite his uncaring attitude, she would eventually find relief.

In other words, God is big, wide and open and we are small and always needy.  If we can see ourselves and God in that light when we pray, we have a prayer that is always heard. Even when the odds seem to be starkly against us, even in the face of great injustice and drifting with no clear answers, we can learn to be like the widow in our prayer. And the lesson is learned not by God but by us.  The attitude of persistence reminds us to rely more completely upon God and surrender our own ego centric views.

Yet God is not uninformed about our lives. Our persistent prayer is a response to a God of love who urges us in his direction.  Through prayer, and particularly a constant rhythm of a spiritual life, we are moved and changed as our lives point more to God and less to the things of this world for satisfaction. As St. Agustine teaches, God does not always answer our prayers immediately but through time and our persistence, he expands our heart to receive more and to learn greater trust in him.

As we gather for our Eucharist, let’s take note of how we pray.  Do I beg before God in humility with a grateful heart for all he has given us, primarily his own Son?  Let’s believe that if we are upset by what seems to be a ship drifting with no port to dock, by our prayer and faith we can bring that ship safely in. All we have is gift given to us; may God teach us through our prayer that at the heart of it all is a deeper trust in the One who is the source of all things.

 

October 18: St Luke, Evangelist

Oct 10, 2025

28th Sunday: Saying "thank you"


"He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him"

Luke 17: 11-19

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101225.cfm

In this age of medical miracles, antibiotics, pain relievers, cancer treatment, open heart surgeries, organ donors, vitamins, cures and potential cures and vaccinations for many diseases that threaten us, it may be very difficult to imagine a society with none of those medical advancements and protections. We would be helpless victims of just about anything that would endanger our health. With no knowledge of bacteria, infection, and how the human body works, we might well become fatalistic. If you’re terminally ill, that’s it. Your time is up. Those afflicted with physical or mental disabilities, would be labelled as punished for some wrong they must have done. For a moment, imagine such a society.

If we could, we would walk in the world of Jesus’ time. The familiar story in our Gospel this Sunday reveals both cultural prejudice and the outward boundaries which Jesus’ challenged the society of his time.  These poor individuals afflicted with some sort of skin affliction generally termed leprosy, literally were shunned from both society and from worship so they essentially belonged nowhere. And Jesus walks in that same boundary between Samaria and Galilee knowing exactly why he is there.

The story names leprosy as the disease these unfortunate souls, these “ten lepers” suffered with. Would you like to be identified by the condition you suffer rather than by your name or your humanity?  No longer would you be John or Mary being treated for cancer. Now you would be “those cancerous ones” or “those cancerites” or some such dehumanizing identity.  Such a label might cause more pain than the disease itself. Such was true in the time of our Lord.

Our readings this Sunday open with a similar story about Naaman, a man of great influence, who on the word of Elisha the prophet plunged himself in the waters of the Jordan river and was cured of his leprosy. In fact, his flesh, “became again like the flesh of a little child.” While the healing is significant, Naaman’s reaction is even more so. He was filled with overwhelming gratitude and wanted to offer a gift to Elisha who refused to take the gift because he rightly saw that such healing came about through God’s work alone.  It is the God of Israel who would heal Naaman and there is where the gratitude should be directed.

Likewise, it seems that those afflicted all had a sense that Jesus could cure them; they believed in him on that level.  They went to show themselves to the priest according to custom once cured and along their way to the Temple, they were cured.  Yet only one returned to give thanks, the Samaritan, the foreigner who would not be allowed in the Temple precinct, came back to give thanks to Jesus.   His faith in Christ was more than just a surface level of request.

There was also the question of which temple to return to?  Being a Samaritan, they would not be allowed near the Jerusalem temple but would go to Samaria where the Gerezine temple was located. The temple built by the Samaritan peoples and claimed by them to be the only true one.  So, which temple should he go to?  

He recognized what Jesus had done for him, the new life a kind of resurrection experience that he now had and was so moved to gratitude for what Jesus did for him.  How he was saved from a dead-end life no longer in the stigma of sin but in the new life of God’s mercy.

Yet, even more, Jesus is now seen as the new Temple where all are welcome and invited to for healing and wholeness.  Whether the one in Jerusalem or the one in Samaria, does not matter.  He returns to the true Temple of God, Jesus himself, to offer thanks. It is our coming to Christ, our faith in him, that will cure the leprosy of sin we all find in ourselves.

At the word alone of Jesus, those afflicted set out with complete trust.  We see it in the healing stories when he says: “be healed, rise and walk, receive your sight, Lazarus come forth, this is my Body, this is my Blood, and your sins are forgiven.”  Such words ring deep in our hearts knowing, as the Samaritan man in our Gospel came to realize, that faith in Christ Jesus is where our lives need to be centred.  Simply his word alone is all that is needed.

Powerfully, we are also reminded that this healing ministry of Jesus was not alone something of his time.  But that work continues in the sacramental ministry of the Church.  Through the sacraments of Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick and the Holy Eucharist we encounter the living Christ who comes to us as the divine physician as it were, to gather us together in a community of trust, thanksgiving and healed people

So here we might ask, what is my leprosy?  What afflicts me that moves me to turn to God for help?  What wound or sin do I carry that continues to be a burden in my life?  It might be physical, emotional, or spiritual emptiness.  Whatever forms our leprosy may take, and we all are afflicted, we must bring that before Christ for healing and help. 

So, where that leaves us is to recognize how in the Church Jesus continues this same ministry of grace and mercy.  We hear: “I absolve you from your sins," "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," "Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit," "Through this holy anointing may the Lord free you from sin", "This is my Body, this is my Blood.”

These are the powerful words of Jesus spoken in the sacraments and in particular in that great, central sacrament of thanksgiving, the Holy Eucharist.  Christ comes to us in a substantial presence and invites us to lay our concerns on the altar for offering.

When is the last time you felt truly grateful for the Mass?  The Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that if we had true faith, we would be crawling up to Communion! Such an image emphasizes the profound, undeserved gift of our Lord given in the Eucharist that we should be so overwhelmed by what Christ has done for us that we would symbolically approach him with heads bowed, hands held out and return to our pew with one giant “Thank you” on our lips. As priest I must constantly remind myself of my own unworthiness to stand at the altar and bring Christ to all.

Yes, gratitude for gift given, for his grace, and for who Christ is for us is seems to having a new birth in many people these days.  The events of the past few months, terrible shootings and violence as a solution to disagreements, has no place in a civilized society.  People are beginning to turn to Christ again but in so many areas, it is still lacking these days. Let us turn that around and truly be grateful and humble servants of the Lord from whom all good things come. That is a faith that will save us.

May your grace, O lord, 

at all times go before us and follow after

and make us always determined 

to carry out good works.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit

God, for ever and ever.

(Sunday Collect)