Prayer is the loving communion we all share with God. Jesus embodied and shared that loving communion at the heart of prayer. He tells a parable of a Pharisee and a tax collector in this Sunday’s Gospel to exemplify his witness. Jesus tells the parable to explain the difference between his own witness of prayer and that of hierarchs like the Pharisee. It was the difference between loving communion and conceited supremacy.
When the Pharisee said: ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity,’ he wasn’t addressing God but saying self-centered words we’ve all uttered. At one time or another, I somehow get to thinking I’m better than other people. I think I’m not as greedy as a capitalist, not as racist as a white supremacist, not as impure as an adulterer. And yet a capitalist is a human being, as is a white supremacist, as is an adulterer. My labeling them as something other than a human being is its own admission of my conceited supremacy. It prevents me from seeing the dignity of each person and the kindness, humility, or love they also express. My bringing each to prayer is an embrace of the loving communion we share. It is more likely any action I then take to change the harm they do will be loving and therefore creative.
If I regard myself as anything other than a sister or brother in Christ to those who share this life with me then I’m ignorant of the loving communion we all share with God.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, keep us always in prayer with the rest of humanity.
Question: What are the breaks in communion I perpetrate and what can I do to change that?
October 27, 2013 Gospel Luke 18:9-14 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time / World Mission Sunday