Gospel: Lk. 18, 9 – 14
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity; greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Homily
As a priest I try to be very gentle in the confessional but at times it takes all that I have to be quiet and listen and to continue to be gentle. This occurs when individuals come to confession and say that they have no sin and that they love every one. I often ask them if you have no sin, why did you come and more often than not they reply; to receive a blessing. The sense of sin has been totally lost.
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In the Gospel reading for this weekend, we are presented with two persons, one in whom the sense of sin is totally non-existent and therefore arrogantly stands before God proclaiming his innocence. The other is fully aware of his own sinfulness and asks God’s forgiveness for his part in keeping sin present in the world.
So often in life we are like the Pharisee. Like the Pharisee we acknowledge the presence of sin. The Pharisee was very clear that there was plenty of sin in the world. He could enumerate all the categories of wrongdoing; “’O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity; greedy, dishonest, adulterous;” The only problem was that he removed himself from the rest of humanity accepting no responsibility for the presence of sin in the world. He was the perfect one and because he was perfect he had no need of God. As the passage says “He spoke this prayer to himself…” and thus removed himself from God’s presence. We too acknowledge the presence of sin in our world but we blame everyone else for the structures of sin which are in our world. We accept no responsibility.
The other individual in the story, the publican, stands at a distance, acknowledging by his very posture the separation from God which sin works in our lives. He acknowledges his own share in the evil which is in the world and begs God’s forgiveness. He thus recognizes his need of God without whom there can be no salvation.
A look at the lives of all the saints will show us that the saints were aware of the grace in their lives. They could describe the grace which God had given to them and which resulted in lives of sanctity. St. Paul would say “I fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith.” He would also describe however the sting in the flesh and God’s reply to him when he asked that three times it be taken away. “My Grace is sufficient for You.” He was being reminded of the necessity of God in his life if he hoped to achieve salvation.
The Blessed Virgin Mary would proclaim in the Magnificat that all generations would call her blessed but she immediately added, “Because the Almighty has done great things for me.”
This is what the Pharisee in the story never understood. He saw the result of grace in his life but he never realized that it was because “the Almighty had done great things for him.”
The lesson for us is very clear. First of all we cannot remove ourselves from responsibility for the presence of sin in the world. We cannot continue to blame everyone else as if we are blameless. We are all responsible. We must not say “that we am not like the rest of humanity” St. James is very clear; the just man sins a thousand times in the day. Secondly, if there are signs of grace in our lives, it is because of God’s grace for which we must always say thanks. It is not by proclaiming our sanctity or blamelessness but by recognizing our need for God that we attain salvation. “I tell you, the latter (the publican) went home justified, not the former (the Pharisee); for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, it is so easy for us to become “I” specialists; to fix our gaze on ourselves instead of fixing our gaze on you. Help us, your sons and daughters us not to lose the sense of sin. Help us to understand that you are the source of our strength and that without you we can do nothing that is good or worthy of praise. Help us to be people of compassion, recognizing that were it not for you we would be worse than so many others. Help us not to condemn but to pray for others and do what we can to help them. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our mother and your son Jesus. Amen
