GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS 1ST JUNE 2016
GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
Wednesday, 1st June 2016
21. Humble
prayer obtains mercy (cf Lk 18:9-14)
Dear Brothers
and Sisters, Good morning!
Last Wednesday we listened to the parable
of the judge and the widow, on the need to pray with perseverance. Today, with
another parable, Jesus wants to show us the right attitude for prayer and for
invoking the mercy of the Father; how one must pray; the right attitude for
prayer. It is the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector (cf. Lk
18:9-14). Both men went up into the Temple to pray, but they do so in very
different ways, obtaining opposite results.
The pharisee
stood and prayed using many words. His is yes, a prayer of thanksgiving to God,
but it is really just a display of his own merits, with a sense of superiority
over “other men”, whom he describes as “extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or
even,” for example, referring to the other one there, “like this tax collector”
(v. 11). But this is the real problem: that pharisee prays to God, but in truth
he is just self-lauditory. He is praying to himself! Instead of having the Lord
before his eyes, he has a mirror. Although he is standing in the Temple, he
doesn’t feel the need to prostrate himself before the majesty of God; he
remains standing, he feels secure, as if he were the master of the Temple! He
lists all the good works he has done: he is beyond reproach, observing the Law
beyond measure, he fasts “twice a week” and pays “tithes” on all he possesses.
In short, rather than prayer, he is satisfied with his observance of the
precepts. Yet, his attitude and his words are far from the way of God’s words
and actions, the God who loves all men and does not despise sinners. On the
contrary, this pharisee despises sinners, even by indicating the other one
there. In short, the pharisee, who holds himself to be just, neglects the most
important commandment: love of God and of neighbour.
It is not
enough, therefore, to ask how much we pray, we have to ask
ourselves how we pray, or better, in what state our
heart is: it is important to examine it so as to evaluate our thoughts, our
feelings, and root out arrogance and hypocrisy. But, I ask myself: can one pray
with arrogance? No. Can one pray with hypocrisy? No. We must only pray by
placing ourselves before God just as we are. Not like the pharisee who prays
with arrogance and hypocrisy. We are all taken up by the phrenetic pace of
daily life, often at the mercy of feelings, dazed and confused. It is necessary
to learn how to rediscover the path to our heart, to recover the value of
intimacy and silence, because the God who encounters us and speaks to us is
there. Only by beginning there can we in our turn encounter others and speak
with them. The pharisee walked toward the Temple, sure of himself, but he was
unaware of the fact that his heart had lost the way.
Instead the
tax collector — the other man — presents himself in the Temple with a humble
and repentant spirit: “standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to
heaven, but beat his breast” (v. 13). His prayer was very brief, not long like
that of the pharisee: “God, be merciful to me a sinner”. Nothing more. A
beautiful prayer! Indeed, tax collectors — then called “publicans” — were
considered impure, subject to foreign rulers; they were disliked by the people
and socially associated with “sinners”. The parable teaches us that a man is
just or sinful not because of his social class, but because of his way of
relating to God and how he relates to his brothers and sisters. Gestures of
repentance and the few and brief words of the tax collector bear witness to his
awareness of his own miserable condition. His prayer is essential. He acts out
of humility, certain only that he is a sinner in need of mercy. If the pharisee
asked for nothing because he already had everything, the tax collector can only
beg for the mercy of God. And this is beautiful: to beg for the mercy of God!
Presenting himself with “empty hands”, with a bare heart and acknowledging
himself to be a sinner, the tax collector shows us all the condition that is
necessary in order to receive the Lord’s forgiveness. In the end, he is the
one, so despised, who becomes an icon of the true believer.
Jesus
concludes the parable with the judgment: “I tell you, this man went down to his
house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be
humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (v. 14). Of these two, who
is the corrupt one? The pharisee. The pharisee is the very icon of a corrupt
person who pretends to pray, but only manages to strut in front of a mirror. He
is corrupt and he is pretending to pray. Thus, in life whoever believes himself
to be just and criticises others and despises them, is corrupt and a hypocrite.
Pride compromises every good deed, empties prayer, creates distance from God
and from others.
If God prefers
humility it is not to dishearten us: rather, humility is the necessary
condition to be raised by Him, so as to experience the mercy that comes to fill
our emptiness. If the prayer of the proud does not reach God’s heart, the
humility of the poor opens it wide. God has a weakness for the humble ones.
Before a humble heart, God opens his heart entirely. It is this humility that
the Virgin Mary expresses in the Canticle of the Magnificat: “he
has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden […] his mercy is on those who
fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:48, 50). Let her help us,
our Mother, to pray with a humble heart. And we, let us repeat that beautiful
prayer three times: “Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner”.
Special
greetings:
I greet the
English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience,
particularly those from England, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Vietnam,
China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nigeria, Canada and the United States of
America. With prayerful good wishes that the present Jubilee of Mercy may be a
moment of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon
all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Friday is the
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, this year enriched by the Jubilee
of Priests. I invite you all to pray throughout the month of June to the Heart
of Jesus and to support your priests with closeness and warmth that they may
ever more clearly reflect that Heart filled with merciful love.
I extend a
special thought to young people, to the sick and
to newlyweds. Dear young people, draw from the Heart of Jesus the
nourishment for your spiritual life, the font of your hope; dear sick
people, offer up your suffering to the Lord, that he may continue to spread
his love in the hearts of men; and you, dear newlyweds, approach
the Eucharist regularly, that, nourished by Christ, you may be Christian
families touched by the love of the Sacred Heart.
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