For daily readings, see
http://www.usccb.org/nab/102807.shtmlBoth the Pharisee and the tax collector went to the temple to pray. Before we turn today’s Gospel story into a debate between whether it is better to be religious or not to be religious, it is important to see that both the Pharisee and the tax collector went to the same place, the temple, to pray, although they took up different positions within the temple. Today’s Gospel, I submit, is not really a discussion of whether it is better to be spiritual or religious. Many people who have fallen away from organized religion and Catholics in particular who have stopped availing themselves of the sacraments describe themselves as more spiritual than religious, and identify organized religion with hypocrisy, intolerance, and of course, as always asking for money. But it is important, I think, to see tonight’s Gospel not as a comparison between someone who is religious and prays in the temple, i.e. the Pharisee versus someone who now finds God in nature. No, today’s Gospel is not a debate between religion and spirituality; even the tax collector in today’s story is religious; he goes to the temple, respectful of his responsibility to pray to the God who has revealed Himself and done great things for his chosen people, Israel.
But now to the Pharisees of today’s time – those Catholics, shall we say, who perhaps attend daily Mass, go to confession once or twice a month, pray the rosary daily, do a daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, and tithe on all their income. If there are Pharisees who exist among us today, certainly they include these kind of people who live their Catholic faith to the nth degree. What would Jesus think of such Catholics today? Let’s consider the other angle – what about those Catholics who attend Mass haphazardly, do not have a meaningful prayer life, go to confession once a year or less, and who spend more on themselves than they give to the Church – what would Jesus think of such Catholics today?
I think the question is easily answered in today’s scriptures. Just as a parent can’t be bribed into liking one child over another, nor can a parent be discouraged from loving one of his or her children because of their mistakes, so also God our loving father cannot be bribed into loving us more, nor put off by our sins into loving us less. God is love, and we cannot change who God is. By definition, God is one who constantly makes a complete gift of himself for the good of the one he loves. This constitutes God’s inner Trinitarian life, but also it explains the mysteries of creation and redemption in Jesus Christ. God is love, and is always in search of us, His beloved. He cannot be anything else.
Today the mistake of the Pharisee is highlighted, but this of course, is no reason to be any less diligent in the practice of our faith. The Pharisee is to be greatly commended for taking the moral life seriously, and for doing good and avoiding evil, so that He neither harms God nor his neighbor. The Pharisee is to be greatly commended for honoring God with a daily routine of prayer and by the sacrifice of his income. The only thing that needs to be corrected in the life of the Pharisee is that He must do his religious observances with greater humility. It is human nature for us to compare ourselves with others – we must do this if we are to surround ourselves with good people and limit our exposure to bad people who will lead us astray. But our judgments are never solid, but temporary, and we are to look forward to other people growing in goodness and virtue, and should do our part to help them. The Pharisee in his prayer in today’s Gospel of course makes the mistake of trying to convince himself that maybe He had done enough to serve God, that perhaps He did not need God’s help as much as the next guy. This of course, was a lack of gratitude on the part of the Pharisee, for He saw his own virtue as his own accomplishment, rather than the work of God within Him. And so to remain a good person, the Pharisee no longer needed God’s help, so long as the tax collector and those like him remained sinners in comparison. Today’s Gospel, then, is not about becoming less of a Pharisee in our religious practice, but is a reminder to thank God more and more for his presence in our lives, and to invite him to continue to come closer and closer and to touch our lives more and more, and especially to continue healing us at our weakest points.
The tax collector, on the other hand, because of his humility, is the hero in today’s story. What is highlighted is his humility in knowing that He is not righteous through His own willpower but needs God’s help and has the humility to ask for it. What is hidden for the tax collector in today’s story is his new responsibility to use the forgiveness given Him to go and to bear fruit. It would be a pity, wouldn’t we all agree, if the tax collector took God’s forgiveness for granted, and did nothing to turn away from sin. That is why Jesus always told those He forgave to sin no more, and why we all pledge to avoid the near temptation of sin during our act of contrition before we are absolved of our sins.
We all would like to get to a place where we avoid our sins more easily and do the good we know we should do. But it is more important, we learn in today’s story, not to rely completely on our own willpower, as strong as it may be, to become righteous. If we rely only on our own willpower, not only will we risk not becoming righteous, but we may attribute any progress that we make to ourselves, and not to God, and so reduce our dependence on Him. God is like our parent, He will love us no matter what, and so we do not need to be afraid of Him, but can rely more and more on Him and less on ourselves. Instead of continuing to be people who turn away from Him 100 times before we ever ask for His help, let’s instead be people who ask for His help 100 times more than we turn away from Him!
