topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
24 October 10
 


 

Today’s gospel reminds me of one of those Buddhist, Confucian, or Taoist moral stories which leads an individual inevitably to a choice where the wrong choice appears to be the correct choice.  But, in this moral story, Jesus reminds his disciples that when they pray “Oh, thank you, God.  I’m so glad I’m not like…(fill in the blank identifying the person)...,” their prayer condemns them.  Why?  Although his disciples may not be aware of it, they are engaging in the same behavior for which we are condemning the Pharisee.

So, how might we disentangle this Gordian knot so as to pray in the correct way?

One way to disentangle this Gordian knot is to recognize, as Sirach indicates in today’s first reading, that God doesn’t play favorites: “The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.”  The simple fact is that God could care less about how any of us might justify ourselves because God already knows what lies hidden in the heart.  There is no hiding from God the full and complete truth of the person we have made of ourselves.  In light of this, none of us has reason to feel completely justified before God.

Another way to disentangle this Gordian knot is to consider carefully what Jesus teaches in today’s gospel about two different approaches to prayer.  What might each have to teach us about how we pray, what our prayer reveals about ourselves, and the changes we need to make in our lives?

The first approach to prayer is exemplified in the Pharisee, a very learned and pious man who for all of his adult life kept every prescription of the law and even more.  He has fasted twice a week.  He has exempted not one part of his considerable wealth from tithing.

Would that all of us were so learned, pious, and (many pastor would wish) so generous!

The second approach to prayer is exemplified in the tax collector.  His prayer reveals a man who knows full well that he is a sinner as well as a traitor, not only to his kinsfolk but also to all of God’s people.  By serving as the local tax collector, this man has aligned himself with the Romans, the much-hated pagan imperialists and is collaborating with those who have been oppressing the man’s own kinsfolk and co-religionists.  Perhaps worse yet, the man has lined his pockets with their money, a common practice in the ancient world which made tax collecting an appealing job but surely didn’t ingratiate the tax collector to his kinsfolk or co-religionists.

It all seems pretty clear cut, no?  In view of his righteousness, God must side with the Pharisee and, in view of his sinfulness, God must side against the tax collector.

Acting upon divine wisdom, however, Jesus teaches his disciples a very different lesson because “The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.”

For all of the good that the Pharisee has accomplished before God and man, all of that pales in comparison to the mountain of pride which fills his heart and from which his prayer emerges.  Think about what is truly going on in the heart of the Pharisees so that, full of righteousness, he can utter: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.”

Exalting himself before God, the Pharisee uses as his standard of judgment all of those other people.  They are sinners and he certainly is much better than them!

Then, there’s the tax collector “who would not even raise his eyes to heave but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner’.”

After years of collecting taxes and defrauding his kinsfolk and co-religionists, the man has absolutely no hope whatsoever of straightening things out.  Even if he was to attempt to seek reconciliation with his kinsfolk and co-religionists, the law required that he make full restitution of his ill-gotten gains, much of which, of course, he presumably has already spent.  All the tax collector can do now is to cast himself upon God’s mercy and forgiveness.

For Jesus, justification before God comes down to the standard of comparison each man used in his prayer.

The Pharisee compared himself to others and, in his prayer, attempted to defraud God by shifting the focus of attention, attempting to portray himself in a better light than his fellow man.  Not only does the Pharisee fail to recognize his need for God’s mercy and forgiveness, but he also is blind to his pride, to his judgmental attitude, and to his self-righteousness.  These devour all of what the Pharisee has done that is good.  This man is actually worse than the tax collector because he is a hypocrite who believes he can fool God.

In contrast, the tax collector compares himself not to any other human being but to God, recognizing not only his sinfulness, but also his absolute dependence upon God’s mercy and forgiveness.  The tax collector knows that no one except God can save him from the person he has made of himself and the life he has lived.  Perhaps he’s also thinking, “All of those people are correct.  I am an awful person.”

Taken at face value, the Pharisee is a poster boy for holiness and the tax collector is the proverbial “bad boy.”  But, listening carefully to their prayers, as Jesus does, reveals quite a different picture of each man and of God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Jesus says, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

And that is the point of our scripture readings today.  Assuming that we do pray, what do our prayers say about us?

·      Do our prayers reveal the truth about ourselves and our lives?

·      Do our prayers portray our absolute dependence upon God as well as our need for God’s mercy and forgiveness?
 

Or, is it the case that our prayers reveal something different?

·      Do our prayers focus almost exclusively upon the perpendicular personal pronoun “I,” reiterating for God everything I want, everything I desire, and detailing everything I have done for Him?

·      Do our prayers justify ourselves, using the sins of other people to make us look better before God?
 

In short, do our prayers confess in all humility the truth of our lives?  Or, do our prayers only reveal the person we want God to see and to judge?

The challenge today’s readings presents us is to evaluate the degree to which pride operates and is active in our lives and especially in our prayers, threatening to devour even the good that we do. After all, there’s a bit of the Pharisee in each and every one of us.  Like the Pharisee, we consider ourselves religious people.  And, we console ourselves that we have not gone to such extremes as the Pharisee.  ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like…(think of that person you hold in contempt)…that Pharisee.”

See how easy it is to fall prey to feeling superior to less virtuous folks and to take full credit for our righteousness?  All the while, however, Jesus reminds us, our prayer provides all the evidence that’s needed to demonstrate the truth of what actually is in our heart and the depth of our sin.

Then, too, there is a bit of the tax collector in each of us.  We know that we have sinned, both in what we have done and in what we have failed to do.  We are embarrassed and sometimes fear even to raise our eyes to heaven.  The only prayer we can utter is “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

While we may not be exactly like the tax collector, each of us has at one time or another believed there is little hope for making things right with those we have injured, either deliberately or by our carelessness, or undoing the things we have done in the past.  All we can do is to trust in God’s love and mercy.

Jesus highlights these two approaches to prayer to teach us not only about how we pray but also what our prayer reveals about the state of our souls.  We may have a history of good works we can point to in prayer in order to claim that we are justified before God.  But, if we do not ask God to forgive us for our failings, all of those good works are completely and utterly useless.  It is not necessarily a mark of pessimism to focus upon our sinfulness and it is not a sign of spiritual health to obsess upon on sinfulness, but Jesus reminds us, it is certainly foolish and to our peril to ignore our sinfulness.

 

 

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