30th Sunday Year C - Homily 4

Homily 4 - 2022

What a Gospel! It says so much to me. I hope that that is your experience, too. Let us review it more closely. Many scholars suggest that the opening sentence was probably added by Luke. Whereas it serves well to focus our attention on Jesus’ story and what he wanted people to learn, it may limit some of the other lessons that may be hidden in the story.

Jesus’ story presented us with two characters, a Pharisee and a tax collector. It might be worth while to ask ourselves with which one we instinctively identify — if either? My reaction is to immediately distance myself from the attitude of the Pharisee — I am not like that! But if that is my reaction, I think I have fallen for Jesus’ trap — because on reflection, I see that I am like that!

I have a strong perfectionist streak. My whole life, by and large, has been spent trying to become perfect, and I have tended to believe that that was what God has expected of me: I try not to be “grasping, unjust, adulterous”; I try to be pretty self-disciplined and careful what I eat. And I am prepared to contribute to a variety of good causes. All my life I have been particular about trying to pray properly and often.

Look at the Pharisee’s prayer: “I thank you God .. that I am not [sinful] like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here”. Is his prayer — “I thank you God” — any different from, “There but for the grace of God go I”?

Was there anything wrong with that? When the Pharisee described his general behaviour to God as he did, I presume he was honest. Where did he go wrong?

It was not his behaviour that was wrong — it was his inner attitudes, where his behaviour came from, his motivation. What was the source of his energy? Whom was he talking to in his little speech?

Let us take another look at his prayer: It was all, “I”, “I”, “I”. His gaze seemed to be more on himself than on God. Was he really engaging with God, relating to God? It sounds more like that he was composing for God a letter of reference for himself, just in case God had not noticed how good he was. He needed to impress God. He needed to feel in control.

That leads me to ask what might have been his sense of God, how did he feel about God? To me he sounds distanced from God. His sense of God seems to resemble that of a bank manager interested only in keeping everyone’s account in credit. I sense no warmth, no trust, in the relationship. In which case, for all his knowledge of the Law, all his prioritising of the Law, he seems to have little, if any, knowledge of God as a loving, merciful, forgiving God. Nor has he discovered that the deepest love is always unconditional.

The Pharisee despised the tax-collector. Certainly, tax collectors had a very poor moral track record. But this one does seem to have had a firm conviction that God is a merciful God, and trustfully surrenders himself into those merciful arms of God, despite a clear awareness of his sin. Jesus’ comment could hardly have been simpler: “This man … went home again at rights with God; the other did not”.

Do you find Jesus’ comment shocking? or, at least, confusing?
Or do you find it wonderful, and immensely reassuring?

I find it wonderful. But I also find it immensely challenging — not just to trust God totally and let go of all self-reliance; but also, since I think I admire so much God’s unconditional love, to allow God and [seriously — and joyfully] to want God to empower me to love others, any and all others, unconditionally too.

Where does Jesus’ simple little story leave you?