THE UNFATHOMABLE JUDGMENT OF GOD

Luke 18:9-14

[My Personal Reflection for this Sunday October 27, 2013, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time]

Every day people manage to create impressions.  There is a saying, “first impressions always lasts.” Indeed for many people this is true.  This is the reason why perhaps corporate people, businessmen, and other people always invest in the so called impressions management.  Perhaps this tendency is all too human.  And it is natural to be that way.  We are careful and we treasure our reputations. We are affected with how people perceive and talk about us.  This feeling of being accepted and of being perceived as good is all too common for us human beings.  Even in religious life we tend to manage our lives in this way.  The gospel reading for this Sunday tells us about the parable spoken by Jesus about two men praying in the temple.  I think that the choice of the characters of that parable was poignant.  The Lord was trying to impress us with something.  Even in the practice of religion we tend to create a “resume”.  We want to be perceived as good Christians and we tend to measure others based on the “resume” we made for ourselves.  But this simple parable of our Lord gives us a glimpse into the mind and heart of God.  God sees everything, He is all knowing, we cannot create a “resume” to impress Him.  For God sees the heart.  Perhaps this is a call for us to stop judging other people.  Every person has its own context.  There are factors surrounding the lives of each and every one of us of which only the love and wisdom of God can see.  We should always espouse humility in our lives.  For we are poor in spirit.  Poverty of spirit means that we feel that constant need of God’s help.  It is a sincere feeling of inadequacy but it is hopeful.  Hopeful in the sense that despite of this inadequacy, there is a God, who is a merciful Father who will lift us from the quagmire of hopelessness.  Seeing ourselves from the perspective of God, will make us more humble and will drive us closer to Him.  But when we have pride in our hearts the more that we see of ourselves rather than God.  May God draw us ever closer to His heart.  It means more than life to us and the more we realize it the more it will draw us closer to Him, realizing that apart from Him we can really do nothing.  Amen.