O God, I thank
you that I am not like the rest of humanity---greedy, dishonest, adulterous. I
fast twice a week and I pay tithes on my whole income.
Luke 18: 9-14
One of the things I like most about Luke’s gospel is that the
tables are always being turned. Losers win and winners lose. The
underdog comes out as the hero. We see it yet again in today’s gospel!
We are presented today with two men praying in the Temple.
The man in the front pew is a Pharisee, a holy man, a
conscientious keeper of religious laws in their minutest detail. He did
everything right, but his religious success has made him proud. He is so proud
of his religious observance that his prayer becomes an act of telling God about
all the good things he has done for God. He is so arrogant that he
even goes as far as putting down the man praying in the back pew. “Thank God,”
he prays, “that I am not like everybody else - greedy, dishonest and
adulterous- and especially like that tax collector back there in the back pew!”
This Pharisee probably wasn’t greedy, dishonest or adulterous,
but his success at being good was ruined by his pride and self-righteousness.
Instead of praising God in his prayer, he praises himself.
The man in the back pew, on the other hand, was a
tax collector, known for squeezing money out of his fellow Jews, even out of
the poorest of the poor, both for himself and the hated Roman government
occupying his country. He was praying, too, but his prayer was very different.
He simply beats his breast while looking at the ground, saying “God, have mercy
on me! I am a sinner and I know it!”
The man in the front pew was good, but proud! The
man in the back pew was bad, but humble! Jesus
praises the humble man’s prayer, and dismisses the proud man’s
prayer. The crowds of ordinary people listening to this little story, people on
the edges of religious observance, would have burst into applause at the punch
line. They hated arrogant, pride-filled religious types back then as much as we
do today.
We all pray like the proud Pharisee when we think to ourselves things like this.
"I thank you God, that I am not from Iran! I thank you God, that I am
not a Protestant! I thank you God, that I am not a Moslem! I thank you God, that I am not a Republican! I
thank you God, that I am not a Democrat! I thank you God, that I am not one of
those sick child molesters! I thank you God, that I am not an alcoholic or drug
addict! I thank you God, that I am not like those rich people who never worked
a day in their lives! I thank you God, that I am not like those welfare recipients
who never worked a day in their lives! I thank you God, that I am not one of
those right-wing conservatives! I thank you God, that I am not one of those
left-wing liberals! I thank you God, that I am not like that hypocritical,
self-righteous Pharisee in today’s gospel!"
Even though today’s parable was given to us by Jesus over 2,000
years ago, it is amazingly appropriate today, both in regard to our country and
in our church.
We are in a protracted political stalemate and an open-season on
angry words and nasty accusations Today, the only way you can get elected to
public office it seems is to disparage, demean, ridicule, categorize and vilify
people who do not agree with you. If you tend to be “conservative” in
your thinking, idealizing the 1950s in general, you run the risk of being
demonized as a “right wing crazy nut case.” If you tend to be “liberal”
in your thinking, demonstrating for the protection of immigrants, you run the
risk of being demonized as a “left-wing crazy nut-case.”
Even our Church, mimicking the worst of the political world, has
been infected by the politics of disparagement. If you question, even the most
trivial liturgical or organizational change of the restorationists or question
the withholding of communion to some politicians, you are demonized as not
being a “real” Catholic. If you like traditional customs of piety, you are
demonized as “reactionary” or “entrenched.”
The politics of disparagement, “my way or the highway,” stirring
up group feelings and pumping up group identity by vilifying others, is also
being used effectively by one or the other against us and we against them. “I
thank you God, that I am not like them, whoever they are!”
In the opening words of today’s gospel, we are told that Jesus
addressed today’s parable “to those who were convinced of their own
righteousness and despised everyone else.”
Imagine yourself watching the crowd listening when Jesus told this
parable. Imagine the shock on people’s faces when he got to the punch
line. When Jesus mentioned the Pharisee, some of the people would have thought
they needed to cheer, thinking he was supposed to be the hero. Pharisees,
after all, were good people. They were admired. Their efforts to be holy were
second to none. They tried extra hard not to be tainted by corruption and other
unseemly influences. They were serious spiritual seekers. The praying Pharisee
was probably not greedy, dishonest or adulterous. He probably did fast twice a
week and tithed scrupulously. When Jesus mentioned the tax-collector the crowds
would have thought they were supposed to boo with repulsion. Tax collectors
were known cheats. They collaborated with the enemy who had taken over their
country. He was guilty as sin. He knew it and so did the crowd.
But when the parable ends, to the surprise of the audience, Jesus
actually praises the prayer of the tax collector and dismissed the prayer of
the Pharisee. Why? All the Pharisee talked about in his prayer was what
he had done for God. All the tax collector talked about was what God had done
for him. The Pharisee put himself and his goodness in the center of his prayer.
The tax collector put God and God’s goodness in the center of his prayer.
The Pharisee felt he was justified only by his own goodness and by
comparing that goodness to the badness of others. The tax collector felt
justified only by the goodness of God and by comparing his badness to the
goodness of God. By humbling himself, the tax collector went home from
praying justified. By exalting himself, the Pharisee went home unjustified.
The tendency to feel good about ourselves by putting others down,
the tendency to compare ourselves with others in order to justify ourselves,
runs deep. Some of the greatest evil in history has come from people who
thought they were doing good. Self-righteous Christian religious fanatics were
behind the Crusades and the Inquisition, people who murdered and tortured
thousands and thousands in the name of “doing God’s will.” Some Moslem
religious fanatics, threatened by our invasive culture and foreign policies,
bomb, behead and torture innocent people in the name of “stopping the godless
crusaders.” I am reminded of a particular quote by Blaise Paschal that fits so
well here. “Men never do evil so
completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
Even today, this thinking is behind ethnic cleansing, racism, religious persecution and a host of other forms of “I thank you God that I am not like those people.”
The late Father Walter Burghardt, who some called the best
Catholic preacher of his day in America, suggested that if we need to thank God
about ourselves, we should pray like this: “O God, I thank you that I am like
the rest of humankind. I thank you that, like everyone else, I too have been
shaped in your image and likeness, with a mind and heart to love you. I thank
you that, like everyone else, I, too, was embraced by the crucified arms of
your Son. I thank you that you judge me, like everyone else, not by my brains
or beauty, my skin tone or muscle power, my clothes or my money, but by the
love that is your gift to me. I thank you that, for all our thousand
differences, I am so remarkably like the people around me.”
No matter how good we think we are, we have surely fallen short!
No matter how short we have fallen, there is still some goodness in us! This
fact alone should keep us all humble in God’s eyes.
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