Are you confessing with humility? Not being prideful and so righteous?
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
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.
I fast twice a week,
and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
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.’
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.”
~Luke 18:9-14
Are you confessing with humility? Not being prideful and so righteous? Today when we went to mass the deacon read this Gospel for us, then gave a homily, but he behaved just like the Pharisee in the reading did, he was judging and acting righteous and better, not like the tax collector who was asking for mercy and being honest that he was a sinner. The deacon was complaining about going to another church and people being on their cellphones waiting for mass to start. He thought this was so horrible. He was so negative and critical, not very nice at all. I thought he behaved badly, acting like he is so right and above the sinners. I actually use my cellphone for the mass readings, because the black hymnal book nor church books have the mass readings for during the week, so you need to find them on the Catholic Churches website at: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031526.cfm . Today we can still see the same thing in churches, priests or deacons behaving badly, acting like they are above others, so pious, but many are gay and greater sinners than most of us who go to church. We used to go to other churches in the area, we had the same issues with another priest, we would see him at church and he would have nothing to do with us, then we would also see him at the gym, he would ignore and avoid us, walk right by you, never look or say anything. We switched to another church that was closer to our house after about two years there, that priest was kind and loving, so much more like Jesus, he even invited us to happy hours and showed love. About three months after switching to the new church, the old priest asked us in the gym one day, he had never talked to us before, if we still went there, we said no, we switched to another church. He seemed so offended. He never could be bothered with us, but then when we switched and were honest with him, he was offended. Honest hurts I guess. A lot of priests are hypocrites and like it says in this Gospel reading big Pharisees, they do not practice what they preach. Instead of acting so upright and holy, better than others, they need to be more humble. More loving, and less judging. The deacon today came across the same way to all of us as the Pharisee did in this Bible verse. It is sad to see people representing Jesus behave so poorly, to judge, hate, dismiss, avoid, and mistreat parishioners. But it does happen, they are human too, as Jesus reminds us here, many of them need our prayers more, often times the sinner is the better person, when they can admit their sins and be honest and humble! We went to confession today after mass, to get ready for Easter, yes, I confessed my sins, in a humble way, I am a sinner, I am imperfect, and I am not always good and upright. I want to be, but as a human, it is hard, I work toward following Jesus, trying to reflect, forgive, imitate, and love like Him, but I am still working on me, trying to be a better person, trying not to judge others, be too critical, not swearing, being dishonest, I am a sinner for sure. We all are, but we need to be honest with ourselves and God, He knows our hearts, He knows what we do, we need to humble ourselves to Him! To be honest and repent! To turn from sin, and to humble ourselves to someone higher than all of us, God!
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