THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
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FROM THE PULPIT
THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR C
SCRIPTURE: Sirach 35: 12-14, 16-18; Psalm 34; 2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18; Luke 18: 9-14. Mt. 28: 16-20.
REFLECTION: Mission of Church.Fr. Benoit Mukamba, CSSp.
This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Mission of Christ entrusted to the Church. For many decades, Mission Sunday has come to be known to us as an opportunity to make a second collection for overseas work of proclaiming the Gospel and implanting Churches. Meanwhile, we have witnessed our Churches emptying with the passage of generations of members. We often hear from our relatives, neighbors and fellow Christians who declare that they no longer believe in organized religion; they pray alone and are spiritual. Today, mission land is now in our backyards. The empty Churches and declarations of those who longer trust in the Church awaken us to the very call and command we received when we first believed and were baptized, “go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations” ( Matthew 28: 19).
Our holiness of life should be a witness and attraction to the non-believers that brings them to Christ and his Church. Therefore, we must be missionaries to our neighbors and relatives through the proclamation of the Word and the good examples of our lives. Every occasion of encounter with someone else is an opportunity to testify about what God has done for us and with us. We have squandered too many of these opportunities in the past thinking that religion and faith are private issues. No, faith is a vital issue and sharing it, is a noble obligation of a steward or servant of God; because we have accounts to render on the last day.
Prayer, humility and readiness to suffer for Christ are important components of our lives as stewards of God’s grace and missioners to our fellow brothers and sisters. The Holy Scripture in this Sunday continue to teach us about prayer, a message that we have begun to reflect on in the last Sunday of the 29th year C. The teaching about prayer is a broad lesson and every time it comes to emphasize the same thing in different aspects or dimensions. The first reading, from the book of Joshua bin Sira (Sirach 35:15b-17, 20-22°) comes to show us what prayer carries. And it shows us that prayer brings to a person the hope of a saving God. This book refers to a historical period in which the Greek empire (Greeks) ruled almost the entire world. For the Jews, these Greeks’ authoritarian rule sought every means to erase Jewish culture and religion to bring their own Greek culture. It was a time when Judah was ruled by oppression and all kinds of injustices. It is during this period that the Jews remember the Torah and return to devote themselves to it in prayer. They renewed their commitment to the Covenant, a covenant in which God identified Himself as a God close to all who cry out to Him. The reading reveals that God listens to the prayer of a humble person, a helpless person, someone whose only refuge he has is to him as they were during that difficult time. Prayer raises the hopes of a desperate person.
The Gospel (Lk 18:9-14), itself comes to show us how should we approach Almighty God during prayer? Jesus gives the example of two people who went to the temple to pray, one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. These people already represented two kinds of people in society. The Pharisee are a group of those who considered themselves holy, those who know everything about prayer and about God. When he arrived at the temple he began to boast that he is not like other sinful people and is so because of the many good things he does. The tax collector represented a group of those who acknowledge their sinfulness and God’s holiness and mercy. When he arrived he did not even move forward but remained behind beating his chest to ask for repentance. Of these two men, Jesus says the one who prayed best is the tax collector. He prayed well not only because he acknowledged his weakness before God but also indulged in prayer with humility. The tax-collector approached God with humility within him and the piety and fear of God. In this parable, the Gospel teaches us that the best way to approach God in prayer is that of humility. Praying by looking at yourself and not by comparing yourself to others nor by showing off. God doesn't need all that. All he needs to see is a heart willing to receive his grace.
