Homily for 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2019
Sir 35:12-14, 16-18 2 Tm 4:6-8, 16-18 · Lk 18:9-14
Introduction
Today's gospel reminds me on an incident in my fourth grade. The teacher asked the class a question, as teachers often do. I knew the correct answer, but I did not raise my hand. Many of my classmates raised their hands, but their answers were wrong. And then, very happy with myself, I blurted out the correct answer. I was expecting the teacher to say to me, “good job,” but he scolded me. I was puzzled why he was scolding me who gave him the correct answer and not my idiot classmates who gave wrong answers. But his lesson for me was that knowing the correct answer was beside the point; I lacked class discipline and most importantly, I lacked the humility of a student. Jesus, like my teacher was, is teaching that the Christian must be humble and not prideful.
Scripture and Theology
The gospel begins by telling us that Jesus addressed the parable "to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else." He about his lesson by reversing the roles and expectations of saint and sinner. Because of their frequent run-ins with Jesus in the gospels we today tend to think of the pharisees as bad guys. But in the eyes of the people, they were the good guys, comparable today to the priests, the nuns, the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Daughters, those who practice their faith in public ways and do it well.
Did you hear how the Pharisee described his life? He is perfect and faithful.
- “I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous;” that was probably true, because pharisees were known to observe the Law of Moses very strictly.
- "I fast twice a week"; that too was true. Pharisees fasted even from water on Mondays and Thursdays, while most Jews were required to fast only a couple of times a year.
- "I pay tithes on my whole income;" that was also true. He paid 10% on all his income, to the temple, another sign of fidelity.
Hands down, the Pharisee was a good man, a boy scout, as we might say today.
The tax-collector on the other hand is quite a disagreeable character.
- He didn't fast at all, nor did he give 10% of his money to the temple.
- On the contrary, he was collecting taxes; few people like tax-collectors, much less those collecting money for a foreign power like the Romans!
- Besides, many tax-collectors were dishonest, taking bribes, charging more than was required and pocketing the difference for themselves.
Make no mistake about it; the tax-collector was a bad man.
But the listeners are in for a surprise; for the apparently saintly pharisee comes off badly, while the obviously sinful tax-collector is the hero of the story, who went home justified, in other words, having a right relationship with God.
Why does Jesus turn things upside down, praising the tax-collector and not the Pharisee, holding up the sinner for imitation and not the saint?
Jesus does not fault the Pharisee for his virtue, but for his pride. The Pharisee thought that salvation came from merely observing the law rather than from also having a relationship with God. That is why when he came to pray, he really came to remind God about his own holiness, just in case God had failed to notice his good deeds! Basically he was telling God: “Look man, you should be deeply grateful that you have someone like me (and there are not many of us), someone who is so faithful in following your commands.” It is that pride and self-conceitedness that Jesus condemns.
On the other hand, Jesus does not praise the tax-collector for his sinful life, but for his humility in conversion. On realizing his sin, this man came to God in complete humility. When he came to pray, he stood off at a distance, and would not even raise his eyes to heaven. Rather, he beat his breast praying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” He was keenly aware of his sinfulness; he was aware that without God he is nothing and so needs God in his life. That is why he comes to God begging for God to reinstate their relationship by forgiving him.
And so, the reason the repentant tax-collector is to be admired more than the righteous Pharisee is because, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Christian Life
Clearly then humility rather than pride is the way of the Christian. How do we live out the virtue of humility and avoid the vice of pride?
When we come to Mass, when we come to the temple like the pharisee and tax-collector did, our official worship and liturgy tries to promote the kind of prayer of the tax-collector, rather than that of the pharisee.
- That is why we begin mass with the penitential rite, in which we not only confess that we are sinners, but we also ask God for mercy. In fact, in the “I confess”, we imitate the tax-collector by beating our chest three times saying, "through my fault, through my fault, though my most grievous fault."
- Later in the Mass, just before we receive communion, again we admit our unworthiness saying: "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."
- There is also the Jesus Prayer, used mostly by Christians in the East which says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This prayer is said repeatedly to highlight our unworthiness before God.
But our humility must go beyond the words of our prayer, into the actions of our daily lives. That is why the deacon/priest dismisses us saying, "go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your lives." How do we do this? Our first reading and the Responsorial Psalm point us in the right direction, suggesting that we imitate the Lord ". . . who knows no favorites . . . [is] partial toward the weak, . . . hears the cry of the oppressed." We should be humble like the Lord who ". . . is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint." Our God ". . . is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. The Lord hears the cry of the poor."
Who are these poor of the Lord, whose cry he hears, whose cry we must hear? They are those we serve when we fulfil works of mercy: the unborn and children, the sick and the elderly, the depressed and the suicidal, the hungry and thirsty, the homeless and the stranger, the prisoner and the condemned, the refugee and the immigrant, the widow and the orphan, and of course the sinner.
Who are today's tax-collectors who we should not despise? It is those who may not be like us, perhaps because they belong to a minority group, or because their job does not make as much money as ours. Here I can think of how do we treat the waiter or the cashier or the janitor. It is also those who may not have what we have, perhaps in material goods, talents and gifts, or even in spiritual goods, talents and gifts, and especially who are not as advanced as we are on the journey of spiritual growth. We must not look down upon them.
Conclusion
For when we go to the confessional and like the tax-collector say, "Forgive me father for I have sinned," we must leave there determined to live lives of humility. And why should we do that? Jesus gives us a really good reason: "For whoever exalts himself [before God and before his fellow man] will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself [before God and before his fellow man] will be exalted.”
