Questions for reflection

As you slowly read this Gospel passage, allow its words to soak into your mind. You may want to light a candle to help you ponder the passage, reflect on the image above or on the words of Pope Francis below. You might want to imagine that Jesus is telling you personally not to compare your self to others and to pray with sincerity.

1. What is this passage saying to you?

2. What word(s), sentence or phrase in this Gospel passage most caught your attention; most touched your heart; most challenged you; most comforted you? Is there anything in this passage that you found uncomfortable or startling?

3. ‘Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.’ How often do you compare yourself to others? When have you been complacent or judgmental of others.

4. ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men’. Do you sometimes thank God you are not like certain people because you feel you are morally superior to them? Do you sometimes feel you have to justify to God your virtues and achievements? How can your prayer become more God-centred and not self-centred?

5. ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’.What behaviours have separated you from God? What will help to bridge this divide? Are you aware of your faults and failings and are you honest about them in you heart before God?

6. ‘For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’ When have you been judgemental, self-centred and full of pride? How can you grow in humility?

Pope Francis tells us:

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 frenetic 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.

The tax-collector however presents 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.

We shall now spend 10 minutes reflecting on this scripture passage by reading, repeating, responding and resting as described above. We will then share what we thought, felt etc. only if you are comfortable to do so.