Weekly Reflection

God's Logic is not Ours

Nobody will ever mistake the Bible for a logic textbook. We need to remember this when we approach today’s readings. How can a God who knows no favorites have a chosen people, or give us the disciplines of fasting and almsgiving and then instruct us not to talk about them? God, in love and tenderness, knows how quickly we can get “into a rut.” The Spirit inspires passages like the instruction from Sirach and the parable in Luke to help drag us out of the rut of thinking that God’s ways are our ways.

Sirach poetically uses contrast to answer the question, “Whose prayer will reach the lofty clouds of heaven?” The answer? Those who are lowly on earth. Jesus amplifies this in his parable of the Pharisee and the publican. It is Spirit-inspired illogic that communicates today’s message: God hears the voices of those who are ignored by the rest of the world.