"That was dumb." "Boy, I wasn't thinking when I did that." "And that's when I really #$%^ed up." I've only said the latter to my boss once, but it was a major mistake. Carelessness, lack of knowledge, overconfidence, and so on lead us into making mistakes all the time. As a professional, I've been taught the best thing is to admit the mistake and figure out how to fix it. In the short run my pride doesn't want to admit I failed professionally, but I've learned that confessing and then repairing the damage is almost always the least painful thing to do in the long run. Further, until I am willing to say I didn't know enough or wasn't careful enough, I am not able to learn from my mistake and will make it repeatedly. The most respected of my colleagues are the ones who don't need to protect their pride and instead can admit their mistakes and in doing so create trusting relationships where everyone is learning to do things better.
Do we practice admitting our failures to God? We can hide some of our failures from other people, but God's nature doesn't give us the option of hiding them from Him. He knows what happened so not admitting to it doesn't make us look better to Him. It can only increase the damage we're doing to our relationship with Him. Why then is it so hard to admit to God that we failed? Perhaps one part is that acknowledging our failures, our sins, to God hits us right at our weakest point, our pride. We were made in His image, but are not Him. Every admitted sin emphasizes the gap between God and us and between us and our images of ourselves.
The Pharisee hid behind his pride and avoided seeing the distance between him and God. The tax collector could set aside his pride and ask "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!". Acknowledging the gap between God and us, acknowledging that I am a sinner, is the opening God uses to "be merciful." Until we surrender our pride and instead offer it to God, we continue to turn away from his mercy. When we finally offer ourselves to God, He reflects our small offering in His great offering of His Son to mend the damage to our relationship with Him.
When we "offer…our selves, our souls and bodies" including our pride to God, we open ourselves to God's mercy. We allow God to work through us to create His Kingdom.
Activities and Prayer for this Week
‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’ (Luke 18:10-14 )
We are called to surrender our pride and our self to God’s will and work.
Discuss the points of interest to you, and your group.
Our pride (hubris) can keep us from full relationship with God. As a group think of ways that the corporate culture of the Diocese of the Rio Grande might be prideful. As individuals think of ways in which your own pride could be an obstacle to loving God fully.
Write these sins on paper and offer them to God in prayer, and/or by burning them.
Prayer: Blessed God, you ask us to humble ourselves and to be aware of our sins. As individuals and as a group, we acknowledge that we have not always been honest about our sins. We here offer those that we have identified. Take them and all others and be merciful. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Share: Comment on this post here or on Facebook, to share ways that the diocese might be guilty of pride that you, or your group, identified.
Where is God leading the Diocese of the Rio Grande and what is your part in that, as an individual and as a group or parish? Discuss this as a group.
Jesus was referring to the common usage of yoking 2 oxen together. In Bible times oxen were used for farming. They were very useful for plowing the, often rocky, ground of Israel because they are strong and able to work long hours pulling a plow or other farm equipment. There is, I understand, an art to yoking 2 beasts together. In fact, oxen typically are trained to be either the nigh (left-side) or off (right-side) ox and don’t do well with switching sides. When training oxen, a younger one is yoked with a well-trained ox. When the youngster tries to take off on his own, the old and wiser ox keeps him in place and moving forward. Generally, the farmer directs the oxen with voice commands while walking beside them.
The Knots Prayer (revised):
