THE THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – C

Sirach 35:12-14,16-18
2 Timothy4-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14

Dear Jesus,

Were the ones to whom you addressed this parable – those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else – among your disciples? Or were you speaking to those in the crowds milling about who had not yet made up their minds about you? Maybe that isn’t as important to know, as is my being sure that attitude isn’t my own. Despising everyone else? Please, Lord, let that not be my attitude about anyone else, much less about everyone else!

I have come to realize that there is something in every scripture that speaks to every heart. Conversion is an ongoing process, not finished until the day I die. So, as I ponder the Pharisee and the tax collector’s story I have to ask what it is that you want me to hear, what is there in me that needs to be seared away by the Gospel’s fire?

It’s true, isn’t it, that once again you pick an unlikely character to be the example of the grace effect you wish to recognize in those who follow you. The Pharisee is a member of a noble group who are set on keeping the Law alive and ensuring that the Law be observed. Pharisees are seriously religious people. He wasn’t lying as he listed those qualities and attitudes he possessed for which he was grateful. He wasn’t an adulterer. He told the truth. He didn’t covet his neighbor’s goods. Fasting twice a week went beyond the Law’s dictates, as did his tithing program. There probably are not many who could have trumpeted such a list of virtues and not feared contradiction.

On the other hand, the tax collector was part of a hated group who made their money wringing from their neighbors inflated tax bills imposed by Roman rule. They were Jews in commerce with the Roman oppressors. They added to the tax bill so that they could skim off their cut for their own profit and turn over the billed amount to their employers. They rendered to Caesar in spades. There could hardly be words to describe how despicable was the behavior of the tax collector who bled their own to make a living. Tax collectors were among those with whom you were infamous for associating. You welcomed them into your company. You ate with them. And you were cursed for it. I can imagine how your audience bristled when a tax collector was held up as an example to them.

There is more about the Pharisee that you want me to hear. Was it wrong for him to thank God for the good life he lived, or, to assume that he was better than everyone else? Implicit, too, is his assumption that his good deeds win God’s favor and endears him to God more than everyone else. He is meriting heaven, getting there on his own. He doesn’t need redemption or salvation.

There is more about the tax collector, the most painful reality to consider. The man is trapped in his occupation. There is no way out. The oppressors wouldn’t let him quit. If he did sever his relationship with the Romans, no one would welcome him back into the community. Like the leper or sinner, he would be forever an outcast for what he had done.

The Pharisee is chastised not for the good that he does, the virtue of his life, but for his judgmental attitude toward everyone else, his attitude in prayer. How dare he assume to know another person’s heart? I am not even like the tax collector.

The tax collector is not praised for the evil he does. Sin is sin, after all. But he recognizes the hopelessness of his situation – that there is no way out for him – and would not even raise his eyes to heaven. He is justified because he acknowledges that he is a sinner even as he prays for mercy. Sirach said that the prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds.

So I ask you, what is it that you want me to take from this parable? I know I am a sinner. The list of my virtues is not nearly as lengthy as that of the Pharisee’s. But I wonder about my attitude towards others. Am I like the Pharisee in that, in making assumptions about and judgments of others? What do I know about even the worst person? Certainly I do not have to whitewash evil that is done. But there is a difference between hating the sin and hating the sinner. I haven’t walked in the other’s shoes or suffered the indignities that formed him/her. I don’t know the inner workings of the other’s mind. And I ought not forget that s/he is God’s beloved – loved unconditionally and forever. I ought not forget that s/he is one for whom you poured out yourself like a libation as you finished the race and were faithful to the end.

I’ll stop here. I think I know what you want me to hear. It isn’t that I should paint myself in worse colors than truth would demand. You would have me recognize the workings of grace in my life and the influence of the Spirit. You would have me remember and give thanks for your sacrifice. And you would demand that I not judge, lest I be judged. It’s about love in the end, isn’t it? Love one another as you have loved. And perhaps when I am tempted to judge I should pray St. Augustine’s prayer: There but for the grace of God go I. It is a salutary thing for me to remember that there is no sin committed by another human being that I am incapable of committing – except for grace and your love.

Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Sincerely,

Didymus