30th Sunday in Ordinary Time "C"

Salvation is God's free gift to us

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time "C"

Deacon Kevin Reid

Brothers and Sisters once again in Luke's Gospel Jesus is talking in this parable about the Pharisees who were a people WHO had set them selves APART from the rest of their society, they had started their movement some six centuries before Christ during the Babylonian exile.

While they were in exile a group that was familiar with the laws of Moses took it upon themselves to organize the teaching of the "MOSIAC LAW".

Since there were no priests available they took it upon themselves to do the job of interpreting the Scriptures and organized their worship into their daily lives.

This changed the way that people looked at things when they returned from the exile, now there was an authority of a "living tradition". that the law was not something that was just carved just in stone, but rather that it MUST be lived EACH AND EVERY moment, and then applied to all day to day situations.

This new idea was that this could be done not just by the priests but also by the laity. This was a radical change that had taken place, it was recognizing that life it self is organic, moving and not static.

It was in itself a radically great idea that lost it's way in the six centuries that it took for Christ to be born, the Pharisees started believing that they were better then others because "THEY WERE THE ONES WHO GOT IT, and nobody else did.

They had become self righteous and arrogant, a seductive and a dangerous form of self deception had taken root.

Perhaps it once again was Satan who was at work sowing the seeds of distrust, pride and fear. Let us remember that bit was Satan in the garden who had told Adam that he could be just like God, and that he would not die.

The original ideas had been complicated and the ideas that sprang out of this deception ignored the laws that were written onto the hearts of all men, not just these slaves of this new thinking that had taken root, this bondage to the written law, had separated them from these so called "Others".

It had convinced them that they could lay all of these heavy burdens on others with the intention to "MAKE THEM BETTER".

More like themselves, friends it his a seduction that knows no Boundries, we still vilify others and think that WE have all of the answers, and all of the solutions as well.

This idea of self justification was very popular, among the SCRIBES and the PHARISEES they became like the Publican in today's Gospel convinced that it was their own actions that had saved them from the fate that these "others" would surely receive.

They became so obsessed living in the written law that it had began to separate them from both God and Man.

In essence they had become not justified but were in a State of Sin, it wasn't that they were consciously trying to sin.

In the midst of their misguided actions they were separating themselves from both God and Man, not unlike the Corrupt Judge in last weeks Gospel who cared not for God or Man.

They were so convinced that THEIR actions would save them and that it would not even be God who would be part of the solution.

My brothers and sisters once again Luke is showing us that the way of man is different from the way of God, once again there has been a reversal of fortune. God is the BOTH the Source and the Supplier of Grace, we just need to be in right relationship with Him and also with each other to be open to receive what he freely gives.

Certainly a way to be open is ton open a channel to dial in to those graces, in today's gospel the difference is plain to see. Both The tax collector and the Pharisee are in prayer but one is a prayer of supplication for mercy and the other is a Litany of why he SHOULD not be denied.

How we come before God in prayer is how we will either open ourselves to him and his divine Mercy like the tax collector or perhaps we will be more like the Boastful Pharisee talking at God rather then talking with him.

Sincere prayer is a dialogue, in today's first reading the wise old Sage Ben Sirach is instructing his students and us here today to come humbly before God, to petition the Lord with prayer and that the Lord most High will LISTEN.

We here Paul near the end of his life saying to his Beloved follower Timothy that "I have competed well, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"

Good friends will we one day be able to at the end of our lives be able to say the same, that we too have given our best, that we too have kept the faith, that the Lord most high is the source of ALL that is good in our lives,that we have like Paul been poured out like a libation to be taken home to our heavenly place.

Christ teaches us that only when we are in right relationship with each other and with God can he justify us, that all good that we receive is a GIFT that is freely given and not one that one we should ever expect, like some spoiled child.

My friends this is a slippery slope that we can easily lose our own footing on, if we allow ourselves to think that we are better THEN those OTHERS better then those SINNERS.

Remember that we are never called to be judges, for Christ has taught us in Luke's Gospel that there is only one judge, there is room for each of us to be a living witness to the TRUTHS of the Gospel, to help him to lead others to him so that they too might be saved.