Lent - Day Twenty Four - The Proud and The Humble

Gospel	Luke 18:9-14 ©

The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified.

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’

It is hard for me to put into words just how hot the desert can be.  The sun is unrelenting in its attention to you. You do not really sweat because as soon as your body forms the sweat it evaporates without effect. The sand gets into everything.  If you have the slightest hole in a sack at the end of the day besides what you yourself placed in the sack you will find sand.  We use the sand to clean our dishes - it does that very well.  It is a little known fact that Saudi Arabia imports camels and sand from Australia.  I know, its like the Eskimos importing ice cubes.  But it is true. Don't tell Benjamin, my camel but camel meat is a staple in Saudi Arabia and the world's largest herd of wild camels happens to be in Australia.  As far as importing sand, the sand from down under possesses special qualities that the Saharan sand does not have and it is used for sandblasting.  Again I have to see if you want beachfront property but do not like the noise of the ocean, this horrible but beautiful desert is the place to come.  Here you find your place in the scheme of things. Spending hours in the hot sun with your only view being the ass of the camel in front of you gives you time to reflect on who you are. The Master said it best.  First, he read the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple. Then he went on and said:

"So, brothers, we have two men in the temple.  Being in the temple is a good thing, a laudable thing.  It is an action that pleases the Father.  But in our case, one of the men is filled with pride and tells the Father just how much he does for Him and how he cannot be compared to the miserable sinner behind him.  The Pharisee made a good beginning in coming to the temple but the lost it when he spoke with such pride of all the things he had quote, done for God unquote."

"What made him think that God had any need of his fasting or tithing or refraining from unseemly conduct?  Fasting and other works of self-mortification are not for God.  He takes no pleasure in the suffering of His people, but He does commend them for their efforts to subjugate their bodies and minds to God's will.  The actions of the Pharisee were useless because of the pride he took in completing it.  He thought that the mere actions made him better than others while that was far from the truth.  Mind you, the Father still loved the Pharisee but the Pharisee loved himself and admired himself more than he loved and admired the Father."

"The tax collector, now what can we say about him? He had a more humble view of himself and knew his life needed many changes to become a whole man, that is to say, "Holy."  He entered the temple for some reason.  Tax collectors did not spend a whole lot of time in the temple.  They spent their time collecting money and going to parties. So, our man, for some reason, felt compelled to come to the temple.  Perhaps he had a change of heart and was wanting to repent. We don't know what inspired him to come on this day but when he came he knew his place. He remained far off, in the back of the temple and he would not even raise his eyes.  He poured out his soul to the Father with the simple words, "God be merciful to me a sinner.""

"Every person has dignity.  Every person from the Queen of England to an untouchable privy cleaner in New Delhi is dignified by the fact that the Father loves him with an unquenchable love that cannot be described with human language. But the one truth that all of us have to learn is that the sum total of a man is what God sees him as, nothing more or nothing less. God's vision of you is true and He sees all down to the depths of the farthest reaches of your soul. So, remember that God can say "I AM" and only He has the right to say "You are."

Holy Thursday / Maundy Thursday

DaVinci's painting of the Last Supper looks nothing like the one at the left. He has the apostles and Jesus sitting at a very ordinary table  that  you might find in a well appointed home perhaps in Italy in the middle ages. But our picture shows how the Jews were to eat the Passover meal. They were to eat like free people, reclining at table. The Seder was a meal that was to celebrate the freedom from slavery that God gave to his chosen people.  One of the most important lessons that was given to us at this Last Supper took place before the more solemn moments we will talk about later, but it too was a solemn moment. 

The people of Judea lived in a dusty climate. They wore sandals and the dust and dirt of the street would dirty their feet. The lowest servant of the house would be tasked to wash the feet of the guests as they arrived. It was both a thoughtful gesture and it served to keep the house clean.  A lad did not go and tell his father that his ambition was to be a foot washing servant.  This was not a job that one would aspire to. So imagine their surprise when Jesus took up the pitcher and bowl and towel and began to wash the feet of his disciples.  To them Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah that the nation had been waiting for.  He was their teacher and their lord.  For him to was their feet was am affront to his dignity. But Jesus often did things that they did not understand so they meekly acquiesced to this strange thing.  The Jesus got to Simon Peter, the appointed head of their merry little band.  Peter had a lot of faith in Jesus.  He got out of a boat and walked to Jesus on the water and he was fine until his faith kind of left him for a moment and Jesus had to rescue him.  Today, at the most holy meal of the year for the ancient Jews, Jesus was stepping down, in Peter's opinion from a place of prominence to the lowest place a person could be, from God to a foot washing servant.  When Jesus came to Peter, he refused to let the Lord wash his feet. Jesus said to him that what he was doing Peter would understand later. Peter for his part stayed obstinate and kept his feet tucked behind him.  Jesus then told Peter if he did not allow this, Peter would no longer be a disciple. Peter, you have to love him for his exuberance, realized what he had to do and allowed Jesus, God on earth, to wash his feet. Jesus then delivered his mandate that we should wash the feet of others and that the greatest among them should serve as the least just as Jesus, the Son of God had done.  The meal continued. 

Then Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it and said, "This is my Body." They took and ate it  He then took the cup of wine and said, "This is my blood."  They each drank from the cup.  He then said "Do this in memory of me."  They now understood what Jesus had done. They gave us the New Passover which would be their legacy to pass on to all other believers.  The things they had heard along the Sea of Galilee now made sense. They would have the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ to feed them and keep them through the countless generations that would pass before Christ returned in glory. 

The ritual of Passover mandated that four cups of wine be shared. After the third cup a song was sung, the Great Hall El - which was Psalms 113 to 118.  After that a fourth cup would close the Seder but it was at this point that Jesus changed things. He arose and they went out into the night , heading for the Mount of Olives.  We will cover more of this tomorrow when we discuss what happened of Good Friday. 

Catholics call today Holy Thursday and Protestants call it Maundy Thursday. Maundy means Mandated. Jesus on this date mandated that we Christians wash each others feet. It also means that we are to be loving and kind.  We should fall over each other not to get to the position of power but we should fall over each other in doing acts of kindness to one another and to those outside of the Christian community.  

Today, as we enter into the Sacred Mysteries of Holy Thursday let us remember Jesus, the Son of God, stooping low to wash the dirty feet of the Apostles.  With this example we should be proud to serve one another.