Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
In Sunday’s Gospel reading Jesus tells of the Pharisee and the sinner praying in the Temple. (Luke 18:9-14). The sinner was honest with God humbly confessing his sins and asking for God’s forgiveness. The Pharisee, on the other hand, prayed with himself telling God, or more likely himself, all the good things he had done. Yes, he did offer thanksgiving when he said: I thank God I am not as this man but essentially he prayed to a mirror image of himself as Father Michael put it.
No doubt we all have mirrors in our houses somewhere. What image do they reflect? I often look into the bathroom mirror and wonder who the white haired old man I see there is and ask myself why he has come to live with us. Thinking of the Pharisee praying to his own mirror image let me ask, are we honest in our prayers? Take, for instance, the prayer Jesus taught us. Thy kingdom come, we pray, but do we really mean it? “That’s too much for me to handle, someone else will have to deal with that.” Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. “If you think I am going to forgive her you are quite mistaken! She started it I did nothing wrong! It’s she who should come to me to say sorry!” Give us this day our daily bread. “Well, I need it I deserve it. I pay my taxes.” I want, I need, I demand, I have done nothing wrong. Doesn’t this all sound rather similar to the way the Pharisee prayed? One element that is missing here is the humility shown by the sinner in Jesus’ parable. But also missing is the grace of charity, a love for our neighbour. After all, even a simple smile or word of encouragement would help God’s kingdom to come and how hard is that? Or, what prevents you from taking the first step to reconcile the argument? Again, haven’t you enough bread already? Why not share what you have with those who have not? Yet by adopting these apparently simple ways we will be the mirror in which people will see a reflection of God.
3 Comments
Steve Givens
13/8/2018 03:22:13 pm
So spot on...I keep coming back to the idea of humility, for it is humility that reminds us that all this "life stuff" is not about us and our accomplishments...it is about God and his gifts to us, about God working in and through us.
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Peter
14/8/2018 10:00:25 am
Thanks Steve. I read somewhere recently that Jesus' rejection by his own people (John 1:11 ) reflects our reflection of Him. Something to think about ?
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Peter
14/8/2018 10:01:44 am
Sorry, I should have written "our rejection of Him" Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
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