Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 26, 2025

Reflecting on today’s readings, we learn that true worship keeps intact both God’s nature and ours.   

Now, who would be so foolish as to either use God for personal gain or take the place of God?” 

Ultimately, in our worshipping we shall keep in mind and be convinced that whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.  Luke 18:14 

Let’s make no mistake about it: God does the exalting and the humbling.  If that exalting and humbling is done on this earth, we can benefit from them and return to playing our assigned role as creatures. However, the exalting and humbling after our death is most final and unalterable for all eternity. 

We can then safely say that today’s readings teach us a most crucial lesson, whose ramifications will be final and unalterable. 

Those who use God for personal gain and those who take the place of God are identified by the gospel of Luke as those who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise everyone else. Luke 18:9 

They take the place of God; become very benevolent judges of their own conduct; and place themselves beyond reproach, above everyone else.   

Hence, we must wonder if in a subtle and well disguised fashion, we might harbor the same insidious attitude ourselves. 

The Pharisee described by Jesus does not hesitate to take his position physically up front, “close to God,” and he proceeds, confidently, to do his self-serving brand of thanksgiving, (pseudo-eucharist)!  

Overlooking the fact that, unlike human beings, God cannot be fooled by appearances as he knows exactly what goes on in every human heart, this Pharisee turns the front of God’s Temple into an echo chamber in which he speaks a prayer to himself, thanking God for being better than everyone else.  

It is true that many are greedy, dishonest, and adulterous.  It is true that he fasts, not once a year as required, but twice a week, (impressive). It is true that he pays all kinds of tithes… 

Hmm, we sense that the Pharisee’s “pseudo eucharist,” his brand of giving thanks is a caricature of true worship, but we have trouble identifying where his colossal error lies. 

The 1st reading (Sirach 35:12-18) prepares us for true worship, for the Eucharist, for knowing who God is, what he alone can do, vis-à-vis our miserable human condition as sinners, and what should our lowly inner disposition be “to pierce the clouds.” (Sirach 35:17) 

Well, in his echo chamber, instead of worshipping God, this Pharisee has taken God’s place and has set himself above the rest of sinful humanity.   

So, in his eyes, God hasno choice but to approve of all this and pay him all that is due to him. 

However, to truly worship God and to do Eucharist, giving glory, honor and praise to the Father in union with Jesus Christ, to be justified by the Blood of Christ on the Cross, we must be truly and constantly humble. 

Now, despite the innate wound caused by original sin, what is required of us to be truly humble is what the tax collector admits. It is acknowledgment of our true condition and of uncomfortable, undeniable facts. 

Here is an uncomfortable and undeniable fact: all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. Romans 3:23, and here is another: “Without me you can do   nothing.” John 15:5 

As we worship God through the Eucharist, we ought to realize that all our prayers, fasting, good deeds, absolutely everything is done through the Holy Spirit.   

We cannot take even a speck of credit for anything good we do.  And, my friends, that is so hard to swallow!  

Every Eucharistic Celebration begins with a penitential act. It should begin with the instinctive hesitation generated by deep-seated awareness of our unworthiness, so present in the tax collector. 

It should be followed by eagerness to be made anew by the awesome power of the Word of God the Church chooses for each Holy Mass we attend. Such eagerness to be made anew keeps us from comparing ourselves favorably with anyone else worshipping with us. 

The Father, then, will satisfy our hunger for the Bread of Life which we shall consume with a humble heart and with intense hope of being admitted, one day, into the endless wedding feast of heaven.  

This is the type of worship most acceptable to the Father, and which grants us the justification we seek.