Welcome to the Catholic Influencers Podcast where we go deeper into Sunday's gospel reading to help you influence the world for Jesus. I'm Danny Sullivan.
and I'm father Rob Galea and this podcast is presented to you by FRG ministry.
Welcome back to the Catholic influences podcast. And this week, the 30th Sunday of ordinary time, we're going to go through the scriptures again as we do every week and this week we're going to go into this wonderful scripture, Luke 18 verses nine to 14. And there's this conflict. There's this, confrontation of Jesus with the Pharisees and he comes and he approaches these Pharisees and he gives them a scenario.
He gives them a parable of some sort to bring about his point, which is something that I absolutely love. Danny, how are you doing?
I'm well, thank you. How are you? I'm doing well . So let's start it. Let's read the scripture. Luke 18, 9 to 14. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Exhaustion is unjust, adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I get, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying God, he merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. But he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Beautiful scripture and a beautiful Bible verse. And remembering that we are in Luke and Luke is a Gentile who wrote from a Gentile perspective and he was frustrated. I imagine that luke was frustrated. So he brings about Jesus' frustration with the, with the devout Jews, so to speak, and that thinking that they're going to all go to heaven by the simple fact that they were Pharisees, Sadducees, that they were devout Jews.
But again, there's this confrontation, this head to head, this tension between Jesus and the Pharisees and the Sadducees saying, Hey, that just being a Pharisee or a satisy or just obeying the law does not guarantee you a place in heaven. And so again, for like the 10th time there's this parable explaining why not, why you won't get into heaven and the things that are wrong with the law and how we need to depend on God's mercy and his love.
It really feels like, you know, throughout the gospel of Luke really it was just like drilling home like Pharisees , you're not getting in just because you are Jewish. Like that doesn't guarantee you anything. And he didn't just say it once and be like, Oh, they got the message. It's like he just keep saying it and maybe they're not getting the message.
It's like he had like some pet peeve . Like he was angry, he was frustrated and he just wanted to make this point over and over. And he does, he keeps making it over and over. And he will keep making it. So throughout the whole of Luke, we're going to keep having this. So again, perspective coming into this understanding that there are these devout Jews, these Pharisees and this also this person who humbled himself. These are to be devout, to be a devout Jew meant that you obeyed the law.
And one of the laws, one of the things that the devout Jews did was that they prayed several times throughout the day like the Muslims do. And, but also like Catholics do, like people for exsample religious and priests. We have the divine office where we pray first thing in the morning or midmorning, midday, afternoon, evening and night. So we have the, what we call the office of readings or the divine office where we pray throughout the day.
But the Jews, that's where it started with the Jews would have three times of prayer at 9:00 AM 12:00 PM and 3:00 PM and the greatest, the most efficacious of this prayer would be if it was prayed in the temple. So that's what you were closest to God. And the most devout of the devout would Pilgrim all live close by the temple so that at nine o'clock, at 12 o'clock, at three o'clock, they could go and pray. And so you have these two men who went to pray.
There was the Pharisee and then also the tax collector. So both devout men then ? They're both there ready to pray, but a way, I guess why is Jesus pointing out the difference between the two? I mean, they both sound Holy. They are both devout. They both, you know, love their faith and live for their faith. Yeah. But it's not about devotion. You see, at the end of the day, it's not devotion that wins the heart of God. It's humility. It's a sincerity of heart.
And it's prayer addressed to the heart of God, not to our agenda. And so prayer is communication with God. It is speaking to God. It is loving God. It's surrendering to God. But also it's about knowing who we are before God as we do with this. So the first character is the Pharisee. These two men went to pray. And, but the Pharisee went to pray with himself, didn't go to pray to God. He stood. You see , cause to pray to God is to pray to God alone. And there's no agenda.
There's no trying to prove yourself before God. No trying to say God knows our heart. He knows everything and we don't need to say, we don't need to tell God or others how good we are, but we need to just stand before God knowing that we are always in need of him. And I've heard so many prayers, especially like in politics and not, I mean I love America with all of my heart, but like somehow because it is a religious nation while Australia is not an religious nation at all.
So we don't have during our Congress, we don't have prayers during our sporting games or anything like that. But America do. And sometimes you hear these prayers and it seems like these people of prayer are just trying to push some kind of political agenda.
Yeah. Almost like the prayers become part of their speech, where they're like, if we start our speech with this particular prayer or these words, then it will add some weight to our message of what we're trying to say to these people.
Yes. And ultimately the heart of prayer, Jesus tells us to go to your room, lock yourself in your room and address God who sees your heart and knows your heart. But sometimes these prayers are used for our own agenda. And I came across one on YouTube. I wonder if we could just play the context of this, Danii.
Yeah. So this is in America there was a Muslim woman's sworn into Congress, so you know, very exciting for them and then someone comes along and says a prayer and this is the prayer now:
Let's pray. Jesus, I thank you for this privilege, Lord of letting me pray. God that I, Jesus , are your ambassador here today, standing here representing you, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the great. I am the one who's coming back again. The one who came, died and rose again on the third day, and I'm so privileged to stand here today, so thank you for this honor.
Jesus, God, for those that came before us, like George Washington and Valley forge and Abraham Lincoln who sought after you and Gettysburg Jesus and the founding fathers and independence hall Jesus that sought after you and fasted and prayed for this nation to be founded on your principles and your words and your truce. God, forgive us, Jesus. We've lost sight of you.
We've forgotten you, God in our country, and we're asking you to forgive us, Jesus, that your promise in your word says that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek your face and turn from their wicked ways that you'll heal our land. Jesus, you are our only hope. God. I pray for our leaders, speaker Turzai, leader Cutler, governor Wolf, president Trump. Lord, thank you that he stands beside Israel, unequivocally.
Lord, thank you that Jesus, that we're blessed because we stand by Israel and we asked for the peace of Jerusalem as your word says God. We ask that we not be overcome by evil and that we overcome evil with good in this land. Once again, I claim all these things and the powerful mighty name of Jesus, the one who at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus, that you are Lord in Jesus name. Amen. So we just heard this prayer, which is a wonderful prayer.
It's a sincere prayer.
Yeah. There's lots of beautiful messages in there. It seems like it's something that you could say that we belong to God and this belongs to God. This is amazing. But the thing is context. You see, can you imagine this woman just warning , who's a Muslim woman and she's sitting right there in front and this person is just battering. Um, in a sense. So with the faith that we will always belong to Jesus. Which is great, which is fantastic.
We do and we have always belonged to Jesus, but I cannot help but question whether that prayer was a preaching to this woman as opposed to addressing the heart of God. And the heart to heart prayer to God.
And you know, we are called to proclaim our faith, you know, being unashamed of our Christian faith. But we're called to love our neighbor and respect our neighbors as well. And I don't know if this exact moment in the context as you were saying father Rob is, you know, giving this woman dignity of this incredibly like, you know, monumental moment in her life.
And the almost saying, thank God we are not like this woman who is a Muslim. And again, this is not to say that we should compromise our faith or anything like that, but the context just, really pierced my heart and just started to think, wow, this is crazy. Yeah, what's the motivation and why pray that prayer?
Why wasn't there a prayer for her and for her wisdom that we could work together, that we could love one another, that together we can proclaim and bring about the love of Jesus through our different faithes. But there was none of that was just like a battering Ram , towards this woman. But anyway, I'm sure this person is a wonderful person and I'm sure at the end of the day know their heart, but this reminded me of the Pharisees prayer very much.
And one thing that I noticed about the Pharisees prayer that every sentence or every you know start of a new prayer began with "I". So it was not that it was, you know, him kind of telling God how good he was, but it was him. And then, you know, he was standing up in front of everyone and it was him telling everyone how good he was. And it was not a prayer directed to the heart of God. But it was a prayer directed to himself. Like, I do this and I do this and I am better than anyone else.
Self-affirmation in a sense, like thank God I'm not like any of the others. But then there's also another thing that comes out with this thing of the Pharisees. And he brings out thank God that I fast thank God that there was only one day , the Jews had to fast. And that is the on the feast of atonement. But on other days they had the option on like, I think it was a Tuesday on a Wednesday. They could fast.
These were the market days, but when they did fast, generally the Pharisees would go out, paint their face, white, whiten their face and wear disheveled clothes. And that was maybe the idea was so that people won't offer them food and we'll then know that they, they are fasting. But it became about being known and about, look how good I am. Look how I fast, look how devout I am. And this is again, where he would go. He was over above. He was a person of devotion.
He stood before God and he did do the right things. Fasting is good, is good. Giving tides is good, but not to find security in that, not to find righteousness in that you see righteousness comes from God and God alone. And even with his tight , he talks, thank God that I give and many people gave 10%. That's what they were quiet. But Pharisees gave 100%. They gave everything they had and that's great.
But at the end of the day, what are we seeking God's favor thinking that we're going to win heaven because of doing these things, especially boasting about these things. And I think that comes back to who Jesus was talking to. He's speaking to the Pharisees and to the Sadducees . And he's saying like you won't just get heaven automatically like you, that's not what you deserve or what you're guaranteed just because you are doing these good things. Like it's about more than that.
It's about your own heart and the motivation of your heart. But also , um, something that this Pharisee lacked is that love of neighbor as well. Like he's saying, thank goodness I'm not like this tax collector, but Jesus saying like they're not guaranteed hell because they're a tax collector either.
Yeah. And so they went to be despised. Actually Jesus is saying, Hey, this guy has something you don't and that is the humility. And so this is what Jesus is talking against he's saying, when you go to pray, don't go to him form God. And others of your goodness depend be like this tax collector who's the second character here. And he wouldn't even lift his eyes. He was just so overcome by his weakness, by his brokenness. And he says this, he says, be merciful to me a sinner.
The translation, some translation has heavy . It has been merciful to me. The sinner of all sinners . I'm the biggest sinner that exists. And this reminds me of a quote or of a prayer that mother Theresa used to say. She used to say, of all the sinners , I'm the greatest. I'm the biggest sinner . And it's not that she would have sinned more than anyone, but because she's been given more than most, more grace than most.
And so recognizing the grace you've received also recognizes how much you need to give in return. So this person came to a place of humility and brokenness in his prayers and this brokenness and this humility one, the heart of God. And broke the heart of Jesus in a sense. He's saying hey this is how prayer should be.
I think another interesting point there is as you mentioned like Saint mother Theresa and also this tax collector is that they were saying like, I am the sinner, like I am the worst sinner of the worst, but something they weren't doing, which this Pharisee was doing is comparing himself to others. He was saying like, Oh, I'm not an adult. Try and I'm , you know, I'm not unjust and I'm not a tax collector. And he was comparing himself to other people in the world.
But when you compare yourself with our standard, with the heavenly father who is perfect, then yeah, we are the sinner , the worst sinner that there was because our comparison is perfection.
So as opposed to a measure of holiness becoming other people, thank God I don't kill anyone. Thank God I don't , I'm not an adulterer . Thank God I'm not this. Yeah, that's fine. That's a measurement. You are good compared to some other people, but our measurement is not other people. We're not called to be good compared to others, but we're called to be good compared to God. Yes. And he is our measure of holiness.
He's our measure of all that is good and all that is great and all that is expected so to speak of us. So this is all really good. But we're, you know, we don't have to go to the temple three times a day to pray. We don't have to put on special clothing to let others know that we're fasting. So what can we do? Like what can we take away from this in the 21st century? Well, I think it's an attitude. It's an attitude of understanding what God expects of us in prayer.
I think the first thing, there are three things. One we've already mentioned, but the first thing is that the Gates of heaven are low. So in other words, we can't stand tall as we walk into the presence of God. The Gates of heaven are so low. That the only way you can get in is on your knees is recognizing that we need God. That is not about our pride or how good we are.
But at the end of the day of how good God is and his merciful love that allows us into the Gates of heaven and not because of our strength, because we mess up. You know, this is one thing I pray every day at the Eucharist. You know, I hold a Eucharist and I say this in Maltese. I said, [inaudible] Ash, mrs Garah . Now it's a very harsh word in Maltese which says, which we says, Lord, don't let go of me.
Not for one second because I'm going to stuff up so bad and so it's just this understanding that I stand before God, the Gates of heaven, the Eucharist holding the blessed sacrament. Not because I am good, not because I'm a priest who's better than anybody else, but I stand before God because of his mercy. I stand before God because of his just, and I just look at God and I say, God, how amazing. How amazing that I haven't been struck by lightning. How amazing that I haven't been sent to hell.
Not because again, it's that you're a worst sinnner than anybody else, but the grace that has been pulled over my life as a priest, I started to think I should be so much holier, so much greater, so much purer in my life than I am because of what I've been given. And so this is the standard of holiness is not anyone else, but it is the holiness of God. And I know that if God, lets go for one split second, I'm going to mess up. And so how we need is mercy. And this is where we approach God.
Even in the Eucharist on our knees. Lord, I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. When God holds us, says the word, then we can cause it's not our righteousness. At the end of the day, it's his. It's his blood that has covered us. And the second thing, we can't come to God despising others. Jesus says, if you have a dispute against your brother, your sister, settle that before you come to the altar . One, two .
We don't come as superior beings. We come as people in need of God's mercy .
So we kind of come before God despising others thinking that we're better than anybody else, but we're broken just like anybody else. If they had been given the grace that we have made, I imagined they'd be so much older than we are right now. Okay, so it's not about despising.
It's really important to realize that we are all sinners, every one of us. And the third thing is the thing that you brought out Danii already, and that is that we are our measure of holding to some measure of praise, not ourselves or others even. But it is God and we need to be as good as God. And that's, that's a whole lifetime journey. We're never going to be as good as God. And even when we get to face God, it is the blood of Jesus. It is the mercy of Jesus that's going to carry us there.
And that this beautiful prayer that the, the beggar, a blind beggar on the side of the road prayed towards Jesus as he was walking into town and he cried out. Jesus, son of David have mercy on me, a sinner. And this is our prayer. The Jesus prayer. Jesus have mercy on me and center and the divine mercy. God have mercy on us and on the whole world we need God's mercy. We need God's love. And this is where we come to God in prayer.
They're all really good takeaways and practical ways that we can kind of try to be like this tax collector. Try to, you know, remember our humility and who we are before God. We are a sinner and compared to him we have to strive everyday for holiness and remember that it's his mercy and his grace that will get us to heaven in that low door when we're on our knees. So that's it for today's episode.
We are nearly at the end of season two, which is a bit sad, we've just got a few weeks to go until admin begins, which is an exciting time. Where we are gonna finish out ordinary time in the church's calendar for season two.
And then we have advent and we can start something new maybe.
Oh, cool. That's exciting. If you want us to start something, you've advent let us know. Tell us what you would love us to do in the lead up to Christmas is beautiful time of the incarnation, God becoming, man, what do you want to , what do you want us to talk about and how to be silent or we can be silent. We can all wait in silence together for this beautiful, this beautiful thing in the churches calendar and in the history of the world, but a went off topic. So thank you for listening.
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