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‘The Humble Man’s Prayer Pierces the Clouds’
What do you give the person who has everything? It’s the sort of question that comes up every year as we start thinking about Christmas again. Those annoying people have everything so they need nothing, which means you can’t surprise or delight them with anything because they already have it.
It’s a bit like that with the Pharisee in the Gospel today. God can do nothing for him because he doesn’t admit of any need. He is a self-made man in his own eyes. He has done it all himself: “I did it my way”, and his prayer amounts to boastfully listing his achievements before God so that God has nothing to add.
If he has no weaknesses, God cannot strengthen him, if he has no wounds, God cannot heal him, if he has no sins God cannot forgive him. Of course, he does have all these needs but since he doesn’t acknowledge them he doesn’t let God in. He, in his own mind, is saying, in effect, that he has no need of what God has to offer and while his words look and sound like a prayer, they really only amount to an arrogant boast: “Look at me; see how perfect I am, and all achieved by my own efforts”.
If we are sincere in wanting to let God into our lives, we must first be aware of our weaknesses and our need for his help, that alone and unaided, we can do nothing. This is the true meaning of humility: knowing our need of God and God will respond to the prayer of the humble person, like the tax collector in the story. As the first reading puts it today, ‘the humble man’s prayer pierces the clouds’.
How does one approach the celebration of the liturgy? Whether it might be coming to Mass on Sunday, approaching the healing mercy of God in confession or the anointing of the sick? After the Preparation of the Gifts, in which the bread and wine are presented to God, the presider prays a prayer quietly – “With humble spirit and contrite heart may we be accepted by you, O Lord, and may our sacrifice in your sight this day be pleasing to you, Lord God.” Although a private prayer of the presider it is prayed in the plural form. This prayer is similarly found in the Psalms – “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps 51:17) –and in Isaiah “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Is 66:2). All of us have our struggles and challenges of life, it is not always easy sailing. So we turn to a higher power – God – for his aid and grace. This same disposition is found with the tax collector in today’s Gospel – “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”. The Pharisee may have been a good observer of all things ‘liturgical’, but there lacked an inner disposition of invoking the mercy of God and depending on him. In most celebrations of the liturgy, there tends to be a penitential rite where we acknowledge our sins, which helps us to prepare to celebrate the sacred mysteries. When we approach the celebration of the liturgy, we are approaching the light, which shines the darkness of our lives. We do so not in a spirit despair, but as the Entrance and Communion Antiphon reminds us “Let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice; turn to the Lord and his strength; constantly seek his face” and “We will ring out our joy at your saving help and exult in the name of our God”.
Note: These hymns have been chosen from different sources.
All ye who seek a comfort sure (CFE31, L212, LHON127, TCH133)
Blest are the pure in heart (CFE88, L908, LHON174, TCH208)
Just as I am (CFE339, TCH119)
My God, accept my heart this day (CFE495, L872, LHON497, TCH244)
My soul is longing for your peace (CFE505, L950, LHON490)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
