O God, be merciful to me a sinner.

When the late Benedictine Cardinal Basil Hume learned that he had terminal cancer, he specified that this Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican was to be the Gospel for his funeral liturgy.  When asked why, the Cardinal explained:  Two short months ago when I learned of my terminal cancer, I was at first temped to think “If only”…”if only” I could start all over again, I would be a much better monk, a much better abbot, and a much better bishop.  But then on second thought how much better to come before God not to say thank you that I was such a good monk, a good abbot, a good bishop, but rather I simply want to say to the Lord: “O God. Be merciful to me a sinner.”  For If I come empty-handed, then I will be ready to receive God’s gift of his merciful love.

Indeed, this beautiful Gospel can make every day of our life a jubilee of mercy.   May we come before the Lord not impressed by our own accomplishments, but rather in a spirit of humility we are loved and healed and forgiven by the merciful love of Jesus.

The unspoken question in today’s Gospel:  which of the two:  the Pharisee or the publican tax collector are you?  In our personal inventory of the actions of our lives, there is probably a bit of the Pharisee and a bit of the publican in all of us.

The Pharisees were for the most part religious people.  Most of the people held them in high esteem.  We can point to many accomplishments in our lives.  Many “I” statements:  I succeeded in school; I make good money; I know the right people; I support the Church and charitable causes; I once worked in a soup kitchen.

If you listen closely to the Pharisee’s prayer, he really isn’t speaking to God, the evangelist Luke says:  “He spoke this prayer to himself.”  He probably was one of those churchy types whose very presence makes you aware that you don’t measure up.   

In contrast, the publican comes empty handed before the Lord and simply says:  “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”  This weekend we are welcoming into our First Reconciliation preparation process many, many of our younger parishioners.  They are beautiful, beautiful boys and gifts.  They are God’s beloved, but they are not perfect just as you and I are not perfect.  We are teaching them to pray the beautiful heartfelt prayers of the publican:  “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”  This prayer does not lessen their self-esteem; rather this prayer makes them even more beautiful before our loving and forgiving God.

Today we celebrate annual Stewardship Commitment Sunday.  We are asking you to place your stewardship commitment card in the second collection today.  If you neglected to bring the commitment card with you today, all is not lost.  We invite  you to use one of the commitment cards in the pews today.  Simple write your name on the card and your  stewardship commitment of time, talent, and treasure.

Let me quick to say in the light of today’s Gospel, we are not trying to turn you into a proud Pharisee by which you list all of your proud accomplishments on the commitment card.  That is not the intent.  Rather we are to follow the example of Cardinal Hume and Pope Francis, we come before the Lord empty handed and trust that we will be the recipients of the extravagant merciful love of Jesus;

We come empty-handed before the Lord because we have spent ourselves in the service and love of others.  We make a generous commitment of time, talent, and treasure because we already are the recipients of the merciful of Jesus, and we are told by the Lord himself to share what we have been given.  As a disciple of the Lord Jesus, we cannot not give of ourselves in praise of God and in service of one another.

Please God we do not consider our plate as already too filled to be available for others.  As long as the Lord keeps on loving us, we are to keep on loving others -- in gratitude for the love we have received.

As previously mentioned, we will now give you a few minutes to fill out the stewardship commitment card and then to place it in the second collection which will be for the purpose of collecting the commitment cards.  Again, a reminder to put your name on the commitment cards.

If you have your commitment card already filled out, praise God.  Take these three minutes to be still in the presence of our God.