30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, C                  October 28, 2007

A very stern and humorless woman was not feeling very well and made an appointment to see a doctor.

The doctor began by asking his new patient some basic questions.

“Do you drink at all?”

“I never touch alcohol!” she said with great disdain.

“Do you smoke?”

“I never go near tobacco!”  She was insulted by the question.

“What about your sleeping habits?”

“I go to bed early every night,” she haughtily replied.  “I have no time for late-night partying and carousing.  I am a busy woman.  I am in bed by ten and up by six every morning.”

“I see,” said the doctor, making notes on the chart.  “Now exactly what’s been wrong?”

“I have been having terrible headaches,” she said.

“I think I see your problem,” the doctor said.  “Your halo is too tight.”

How do you know if your halo is too tight?  When a person doesn’t measure up to the high standards of behavior you set, do you find yourself wishing, “If only she could be more like me”?  Do you compare others to yourself and continually find they don’t make the grade?  

Is there a little Pharisee in you?  “Thank God I’m just a cut above so and so.”  Maybe your halo is a little too tight, and that’s why other people often give you a headache.  Jesus prescribes an antidote for this.  It is the prayer of the tax collector, "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner." 

Starting in the 4th century monks prayed this as a sort of mantra repeated during contemplation.  Later it developed into what is now called the Jesus Prayer.  The words are "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."  This prayer is a strong weapon against the tendency to think you are better than others.  It can give you a proper perspective on yourself and open you to see the goodness in others.   Pray this and you are well on your way toward conquering pride and feelings of superiority.

Have you ever said, “So and so is a real pain”?  Well, you probably can’t make the person go away, but you can make your pain vanish.  Just pray the Jesus Prayer.  Allow it to percolate inside you, embrace it, rejoice in its power to change you.  "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”