TEXT: The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke 18:9-14

Do you think to yourself that you are a great saint in holiness and righteousness in God?

Are you in love with yourself to such an extent?

Truly, we are all worthless servants, when we come down tot he point of our own worthiness before the HOLY HOLY HOLY Triune God.

What was the reaction of righteous Ezekiel, righteous Isaiah, righteous St. John, when they were given that Beatific Vision of the Thrice Holy One?

When we come before God, our hands are empty, beloved.

We are sinners saved by grace through faith and it not of ourselves, not of works, lest anyone boast!

Ephesians 2:8-10

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
9 it is not from works, so no one may boast.
10 For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

Yes, God has prepared in advance that we should live in them, as new creations in Christ -- (II Corinthians 5:17).

Yet, there are some who persist in the delusion of their own grandeur in their own eyes.

God is not impressed, beloved.

The Saints were always impressed by their own unworthiness and their own humility always came to the front of their thinking, because when confronted with the Perfect One, we are humbled in the statement we humbly must make with the Saints in Luke 17:9, 10 --
 
9 Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
10 So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’"

When it all comes down to where the rubber meets the road, are we the essential element in the plan and purposes of God?  Or, is it the grace of God that works through us and with whom we cooperate, because God gave us the graces to cooperate with in Christ?

Is not our Lady a Mediatrix of graces to us as well?

WE NEED God’s Grace to function.

Therefore, When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do."

THAT is HUMILITY.

Therefore,

9 He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
10 "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity-greedy, dishonest, adulterous-or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
13 But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

What is this we hear, beloved of Christ?

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

This is HUMILITY that SPEAKS loudly in the ears of God.

The Jesus Prayer is the primary example of such a desire and state of the soul in humility before our Lord Jesus Christ.

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

Bishop F. Sheen spoke of a man who was dying who wanted little of God and fought God almost up the very end.  When death came closer, Bishop Sheen, who had visited the atheist daily spoke to the man of a prayer that he must pray to be heard of God.  The prayer was, "My Jesus, Mercy."
The man died.

Bishop Sheen asked of the man’s dying moments.  This prayer was on the former atheist’s lips when he died. -- My Jesus, Mercy.

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

My beloved in Christ, it is MERCY WHO LISTENS to the humble heart of one who prays -- ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

Jesus said --

14 I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

May our Lady assist us in this grace of Humility.



Deus et Sanctissima.