9781644135945

The Light of the World
we present ourselves in humility and repentance before God. Acknowledging our own
insufficiency, during Mass we cling to a superior power: “To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted
up my soul; in Thee, O my God, I put my trust” (Offertory). Convinced of the inefficaciousness
of our own prayers and sacrifices, we confidently depend on our communion
with Christ and our intimate union with His prayers and sacrifice, which are of infinite
value. During Mass we are exalted because He becomes our sacrifice and, being the mediator
between the Father and humanity, takes up our cause before God. Thus, “through
Him, with Him, and in Him,” we are enabled to honor the Father worthily in the Holy
Sacrifice, to adore, love, and thank Him, to expiate for our sins, and to beseech Him in
our prayers in a worthy manner that makes them acceptable to Him. The reception of
Holy Communion enhances our exaltation, when the living, glorified, and exalted Christ
Himself becomes our food, pouring into our souls the fullness of His divine life. “He that
humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Gospel).
Meditation
Christ the Lord, the Judge, stands before our eyes in today’s liturgy. “Let my judgment come
forth from Thy countenance; let Thy eyes behold the things that are equitable” (Gradual).
Christ judges self-righteousness, as represented by the Pharisee, and the humble and repentant
acknowledgment of guilt, as represented by the publican. “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner”
(Gospel). He decides in favor of the humble and repentant acknowledgment of guilt against
the conceited self-righteousness of the proud Pharisee.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give Thee thanks that I am not
as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers; as also is this publican. I fast twice in
the week; I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not
so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck his breast saying: O God, be merciful
to me, a sinner” (Gospel). Here we have two persons, two representatives of religion and
piety, men from different worlds, appearing in judgment before the face of God. Christ the
Judge passes the judgment: “I say to you, this man [the publican] went down to his house
justified rather than the other.” And He the Judge gives reasons for His judgment: “Every
one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”
(Gospel). The sinner finds pardon with God as long as he confesses himself to be a sinner
and unworthy of God’s graces, and as long as he implores forgiveness from the Lord and
strength for leading a good life. But woe to the proud self-righteousness that needs no penance,
no conversion. Woe to the kind of piety that thinks well of itself, of its good works, its
mortifications, and its virtues, while it despises others as extortioners, unjust, and adulterers.
The prayers of such men cannot be pleasing to God, neither can their works. “God resisteth
the proud, but to the humble He giveth grace” (1 Pt 5:5).
“To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul; in Thee, O my God, I put my trust”
(Offertory). Behold the Church humbly beseeching her divine Master. The Pharisee in
today’s Gospel is to the liturgy the representative of the Jews, whereas the publican represents
the Gentiles, the Church. Again we are confronted with that astonishing fact from
the history of salvation: the chosen people are rejected, and the Gentiles are mercifully
516