Radical Prayer

GOSPEL Cycle C

Luke 18:9-14

"Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.' But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

My sisters and brothers in Christ,

We continue to hear the teachings of Jesus about how to pray and how God responds to our prayers. It is a very simply and straightforward teaching and yet it is not always easy to understand. When we pray, we often want results. When we pray, quite often we get no results that we can understand—unless we live by faith in the Lord. God listens to every person. What a person has done and what a person has really make no difference to God’s listening to us. On the other hand, the state of our hearts and our response to God makes a huge difference. Most of us who listen to homilies such as this are actually serving God willingly, at least in some aspects of our lives. The challenge is to serve God willingly in every aspect of our lives. The challenge is to become truly holy, set apart for God, in all that we do and all that we are.

The Gospel today, from Saint Luke, is sort of a commentary on this. Perhaps too often we find ourselves satisfied with our present level of service to the Lord. Or we find ourselves stuck at a particular level of service to the Lord. We must become like the tax collector, willing to cry out to the Lord and to ask for mercy on us. Our hearts must become aware of how much more God can be in our lives. From that awareness of what God might be for us, surely we can cry out to the Lord and ask for His mercy. For example, we can ask ourselves if we really want to give our lives completely to God’s service. We can let our hearts dwell on the impossible sufferings of those who live in various parts of our world—and see if our hearts break with compassion. It is not so much about how we feel but about our sensitivity to the Lord’s work and our sensitivity to those who serve the Lord. It is about being aware of the sufferings of others and being willing to serve them, at least in prayer. The tax collector knew that he needed God in a very radical way. Do we need God?

Our world is heading to disaster and we are part of it at times. Do we recognize the need to live by faith and to pray always? May the Lord transform us so that we serve him willingly and with joy!

Abbot's homily from the Monastry of Christ in the Desert.