23/10/2022

Today's readings at mass combine to confirm how we should live to be ready at the end to trust in the mercy God has prepared for all of us. St Paul has a confidence that he has done all he can to bear witness and to preach the Good News. His confidence is in the Lord for he has seen the Resurrection and received the Word directly into his being. Paul did take scrolls with him on his missionary journeys and I wonder if he knew today's parable either from the writer himself or from the rudimentary records that became Luke's Gospel.

Jesus condemns the Pharisee's self-satisfaction even though the list of his proclaimed virtues begins as a thanksgiving to God. Is there any difference between Paul's confidence and that of the Pharisee. Both are Jews well versed in the Law. Both believe in the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Both are confident but the confidence of one is ill-placed.

Paul's confidence is confidence in the righteousness of God. The poor Pharisee, trapped in his pride, has not had the grace of the Resurrection and is still tied to the letter of the law that is in complete contrast with its Spirit as witnessed by the humble confession of sin by the tax collector. Paul's confidence is a confidence he shares with us all who are longing for the "Appearance" of the Lord, for his Second Coming.

We can be sure that Jesus will return; he has told us that there will be an "end of time". Even if we are not to witness that final event, we can be doubly sure that our "time" will end; that it is then we will receive the judgement of the just one who has not only revealed Father Son and Holy Spirit but also redeemed us from our sins. Maranatha !!

Dear Lord may I too, as was St Paul, be held in chains, never to lose the links that bind me to you. I can have confidence only in your grace and I do know that you are the one creator of all that is good. You forced Saul to know you by your confrontation with him on the road to Damascus. Mary your mother accepted you as her child in her womb by total belief in the breathtaking humility of your message. May she and all the saints continue to defend us from the "roaring lion" who, in various guises, prowls our world seeking to devour our souls in the jaws of evil.