30th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 27, 2013
Luke 18:9-14
“O God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luk 18:13).”
A
friend once asked me why I entered seminary and engaged in apostolates. My
spontaneous and zealous reply was, “I want to go to heaven!” After a while, he
made his move, “So, you are doing good because you like to win heaven for
yourself. Isn’t it selfish ambition?” Checkmate! I could not answer anything
and kept pondering his words for some days. Until I stumbled upon this Chinese
anecdote on heaven. The story goes like this: Heaven and Hell are practically
the same place wherein best cuisine are prepared. Yet, the people are provided
with very long chopsticks, so much so that they could not feed themselves. It
is indeed hellish to stare the most delicious food without eating them for
eternity! So, what happens in heaven? The people there feed each other!
Heaven
is not a place for self-centered persons, but for those who are other-oriented
and possess mercy, but fundamentally it is because God is so merciful that we
are empowered to be merciful to our fellowmen. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds
us that our works of greatness and individual achievements are not enough to
lead us to God. In fact, fueled by egoistic motives, they bring us ruin. We
might gain a lot of recognition for our social works for the poor, or we might
receive praise because of our inspiring preaching and other ministries in the
Church. Yet, all these things do not make us better than the proud Pharisee in
today’s Gospel.
Only
His Mercy draws us to Himself, and doubtless His Mercy builds us up to work
tirelessly for the salvation of others. Thus, like the tax collector in the
Gospel, our prayer should be “Lord, have mercy on us, sinner.” Only God’s mercy
makes us worthy of heaven, yet the same mercy must impel us to be merciful as
well with people who come cross our lives. As God has been merciful to us, we
ought to be merciful!
When
I entered the Order of Preachers, the superior asked me, “What do you seek?”
and I and other candidates prostrated on the floor and said, “God’s mercy and
yours”. Truly, my entire life as a Dominican is a story of God’s mercy and my
brothers and sisters’. I come to realization that surely I am not worthy of
this holy life. I am not that smart, and definitely no handsome nor talented. I
struggle a lot with my many weaknesses and I do countless mistakes. Yet, I am
still here and growing as a Dominican. Only one answer I could unearth is that Mercy
really does miracles in my life.
Do
you see God’s mercy in your life? Are you willing to share that mercy with
others? Be merciful as our Father is merciful.
Br.
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP
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