30th Sunday - Humility the visible sign of a real relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What is this Gospel passage about?  Is it only an admonition to be humble and not be arrogant?

I think that there is something much deeper here, of which humility and arrogance are the visible signs.

What it comes down to is about having a real authentic experience of God: of God’s love, of God’s mercy, of God’s nature...which means we are saved.

What Christ desires for us truly, is to know the Father as he knows the Father, and then our lives are truly free!

See, the pharisee who exalted himself, who followed all the rules and regulations, had, at best, a superficial relationship with God.

The tax collector has the real relationship with God. He is the free one.

How about us?

There is an ancient heresy, called pelagianism that was condemned in the 3rd or 4th centuries.  

Basically it says that Jesus was great role model, and as long as I do X,Y and Z, follow his example, I can save myself.

Unfortunately this heresy pervades to this very day.  This is the attitude of the of the pharisee.  

He did this, he did that, therefore He is a good person, and he deserve good things.

Any of this sound familiar?  I pray the rosary every day, I go to mass every sunday, and first friday.  I put my 2$ in the collection plate every month, therefore I deserve this and that from God.  I deserve to get into heaven.  

Or those other ones, pray this novena exactly like as is described, and God will grant your prayer.

That is the subtly of pelagianism. God, at best becomes the capitalist; quid pro quo, we give the currency, he gives us the product.

Is that the God that Jesus Christ reveals, and gave his life for?

Is this the Father that Jesus wants to truly know?

Jesus reveals God’s infinite love, infinite mercy.

Jesus’ death and resurrection are calls to place our absolute trust in this God.

Jesus reveals that very core of our identity, the very core of our being, who I am truly am, who you truly are, is from and with God the Father.

There is absolutely nothing I, you, anyone can do to make God love us anymore, nor any less.

This is the experience of God that the tax collector had.  He knew that he was a child of God; and he knew that all love all mercy comes from the Father.

I hope that all of us are open to this same God.

Humility is not a virtue that we can fake, nor is it something that we can simply do.

It comes from the reality, of knowing and experiencing first hand the love of God.

And that ought to just overwhelm us.

http://www.universestars.com/personal-humility-people-interaction/

I cannot force that on anyone.  All I can do is try to help any of us open ourselves.

One way to open ourselves is to understand that there is absolutely no reason for any of us to exist.

Scientist report that the conditions for our universe to even materially exist had to be sooooo correct.  If gravity had been just a bit too high or too low, this could not have happened.

And that this universe is so freaking old, over 13,000,000,000 years old and sooooo huge...

The fact that even you and I exist as we do...that my parents knew each other, fell in love, married and had me and six others...and that despite having the same DNA me and my siblings are unique from each other….

And here I am, with you.  Because God wants me, God wants you.  Nothing I have ever done merits that, deserves that.

God wants it.

We signify this each and every Eucharist.

God, the Son becomes very real, from the Father, through the Holy Spirit, in the bread and wine.

Nothing we do makes this happen. Only God makes this happen.

Therefore the mass, the rosary, the prayers, the giving,

all become responses to the love of God.

We do these to respond to the mercy of God.

They become messages “Father,  I love you!”

It will change all that we do!  It free us in all that we do.

Will we believe that God loves us?

What will be our response?