30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
My dear parishioners,
God is Good!!! All the time!!! And all the time!!! God is Good!!!
The book of Sirack is filled with practical advice for the journey of faith. A grandson translated Sirach’s Hebrew text into Greek in the latter years of the second century before the birth of Jesus. He did this to give the book an even wider audience. Much of the book may take its inspiration from a reflective reading of the Torah so cherished by the author.
Luke provides a motive for Jesus’ proclaiming this parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who were praying in the temple area. “It is aimed at those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.” 1) The Pharisee. The Pharisee is at the temple, praying quietly to himself. His prayer is one of thanksgiving. He thanks God basically for being a good Pharisee. Unlike the rest of humanity, he is not greedy, dishonest, adulterous, and certainly not like a tax collector. Tax collectors had a reputation for being notoriously dishonest. The Pharisee fasts and pays tithes. According to the standards of his day, the Pharisee is a virtuous person and would be looked upon with respect. He would not have been considered boastful, filled with pride, or hypocritical.
The tax collector. The tax collector’s prayer is a short statement confessing his own sinfulness and petitioning God for mercy. He shows signs of sorrow in that his eyes are cast down and he beats his breast. For most people, this tax collector’s repentance would fall way short of the mark. He has spent his life cheating the small and common people out of their meagre resources. What is he going to do about that? Compared to the Pharisee, this tax collector deserves nothing.
The shock. The shock comes when we are told that the tax collector went home justified and the Pharisee did not. How could that be? What kind of God would allow that? The final verse is an interpretive clue. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. But did the Pharisee really exalt himself? He certainly would not have thought so. But here is the point. The problem is not what the Pharisee said about himself and his good works. The problem was that the Pharisee somehow felt that his behavior distanced him from the rest of humanity, including this tax collector. The Pharisee takes no account of his own contempt for other people and their weakness, failings, and sinfulness. God’s mercy comes through grace. It cannot be earned. The Pharisee did not know this. The tax collector apparently did. God is merciful
Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org. All rights reserved
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Aloysius