30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 18: 9-14

 

Several years ago in the middle of Lent I received a call from someone I know.   He asked with some concern, “Hey, Friday is St. Patrick’s Day.  Do we get a dispensation from abstaining from meat so we can eat corned beef?”  I told him that thus far the bishop hadn’t granted such a dispensation.  We chatted briefly and the conversation ended.  As I hung up the phone, I shook my head and muttered to my wife, “He never even goes to Mass, but he’s worried about eating meat on St. Patrick’s Day.”

 

As soon as I uttered those words I knew that I had become the Pharisee in today’s gospel.  I had sinned.  I had the audacity to think that I was better than him.  I totally failed to respect the fact that his concern was an expression of his faith.  His concern about abstinence was his way of showing respect to God.  The fact that I attend Mass regularly didn’t make my expressions of faith superior. It didn’t make God love me more than him.

 

On one level today’s gospel is clear on its face:  Don’t be arrogant, conceited or self-righteous like the Pharisee; be humble like the tax collector.  There’s a deeper level, though.  Think about what the Pharisee said – he wasn’t greedy, dishonest or adulterous.  That’s good, right?  He fasted twice a week.  That’s a good thing.  He paid a tithe on his whole income.  Well, that’s good, too, right?  And, what’s more, he started his prayer by thanking God for making him the person he is.  A prayer of thanks to God?  You can’t do better than that.  So, what’s the problem?  Well, the problem arose when he said, in so many words, “At least I am not like this tax collector.”  At that point he made it all about himself – not God, or God’s commandment to love one another.

 

On the other hand, the tax collector totally and unconditionally placed himself in God’s hands.

 

Whenever we do or say anything that separates us from another, we push God away.  The first reading today (Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18) begins with the line, “The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.”  God doesn’t love the Pharisee any less than He loves the tax collector.  When you come down to it, as soon as we focus on the Pharisee’s self-absorption and rudeness (to the tax collector) and say something like, “What an arrogant fool!” we’re doing exactly what the Pharisee did.  We’re judging and we’re taking our focus away from God.  As much as it is a good thing for us to want to change ourselves and become better people, it is impossible to do that without God’s help.    Only through God are we truly transformed.  Only in God are we truly justified.

 

 

“Call Me Ishmael”