Be Merciful to me Lord, a Sinner

The readings for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/102316.cfm.

We have in our gospel today a parable that I'm sure we are all familiar with about the prideful Pharisee and the humble tax collector. The Pharisee is bragging about all the great things he does and how wonderful he is in the sight of God. "Thank you, Lord that I'm not like the rest of humanity especially that tax collect collector back there." The Pharisee goes on to brag about all the right things that he does: he fasts twice a week and he pays tithes on his whole income. I can imagine him saying, "Boy, God, aren't I a great guy!! I deserve a pat on the back for being so wonderful!" There is one thing that he lacks that makes him fall short of pleasing God: humility! He's busy telling God how great he is while bringing down and judging the tax collector. He's busy making himself look good at the expense of another person.

Meanwhile, the tax collector realizes he falls short of pleasing God and turns to God to ask for forgiveness: "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." The tax collector realized that he falls short of what he should be doing to please God, and turns to God and asks for forgiveness.

For many of us "Pharisee" is almost synonymous with hypocrisy. But we should remember that there were good Pharisees in Jesus' time. Nichodemus was one of them, for example. The Pharisees were laymen. There were about 6,000 of them and they were in charge of the local synagogues. The Sadducees or priests were in charge of the Jerusalem Temple. But people in Israel couldn't travel to the Temple every Sabbath, so they had the local synagogue where they could gather for what we today call the "Liturgy of the Word." The Pharisees were devoted to the Law of Moses and to making it workable in a changing world. They believed that for the Jewish people to survive, all of life should be somehow distinctively Jewish. As a result they became prideful in how they lived out the law and were judgemental about those who fell short of how they felt the law should be lived. The Pharisees were considered to be holy men, while tax collectors worked for Rome, the occupying power, and were considered to be traitors and sinners.

The contrast in the parable is striking to a Jewish audience. The Pharisee and tax collector pray in the Temple. The tax collector is the one who is truly forgiven, not the Pharisee.

We may ask what is wrong with the Pharisee's prayer?

In it there's no sense of the need for forgiveness, no sense that he needs to grow spiritually closer to God in his life. His prayer was a prayer about all the wonderful things he had done. He comes to the Temple to tell God about all his fidelity to do his religious obligations. Meanwhile the tax collector was humble before God.

What the Pharisee did in his life was good. But, he compared himself not with the holiness of God, which he was called to imitate, but to the tax collector. In the Torah (the Jewish bible) God reminds us over and over, "Be holy because I am holy." The Pharisee was looking around at others, rather than looking within. Instead of striving toward living in the image of God, he compares himself to another human being. We can do that as well when we say, "Thank you, Lord, that I am a faithful Catholic, unlike some other people that I know." "Thank you, Lord, that I don't commit adultery, unlike some people I know." "Thank you, Lord, that I am honest, unlike some people I know."

In other words, we stand before God not in need of more of His grace, not appreciating how far we have yet to go, but reflecting on how much better we are than others. Spiritual maturity, spiritual growth comes when we compare ourselves not with our neighbor but to Christ. We can always find people around us that may not be living as they should. Comparing ourselves to them may make us feel good about who we are and what we think we are doing in order to please God. But, when we look at ourselves in the light of Christ and His readiness to forgive, His obedience to the Father, then we see a different picture. Our conclusion that we are better than another person leads to a spiritual dead-end.

It's important that we strive to imitate Christ and not settle into a spiritual arrogance or spiritual complacency that comes from comparing ourselves only to others.

We need to look at the love of Jesus and realize that we fall short and try once more to show His kind of fidelity, His obedience, and His love in our lives.

When we are finally judged at the end of our lives, we will all be judged not on whether we are better than others but on how much we resemble Jesus Christ.

As we approach Holy Communion this week, let us pray the words of the tax collector, "Be merciful to me a sinner."