Pride compares us with others; humility compares us with God

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the 30^th Sunday in Ordinary Year C, 2010

Holy Names Church

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

A story is told of a king who once visited a prison and talked with each of the inmates. There were endless tales of innocence, misunderstood of motives, and of exploitation. Every prisoner claimed innocent of the actions that brought them to jail: “I am innocent, I didn’t do it” every one of them said. Finally, the king stopped by the cell of a convict who remained silent. The king said to him, “Well, I suppose you are an innocent victim too?” “No sir, I am not, I am guilty and deserve my punishment,” replied the man. Now turning to the prison warder the king said, “Release this rogue immediately before he corrupts all these fine innocent people here.”

Dearest beloved, today’s gospel is one that every believer is called to pay close attention to. It is the story of two believers, a Pharisee and a tax collector. It is important to emphasize that both men were believers in the same God; both belonged to the same religion, and both worshipped in the same temple. Both men were active believers who took part in temple worship and said their daily prayers. At the end of worship, one of them went home at peace with God but the other did not.

As we already know, the Pharisees were disciplined and devout men of religion. They were serious-minded believers who committed themselves to a life of regular prayer and observance of God’s law. In fact, they went beyond the requirements of the law. They fasted twice a week- Mondays and Thursdays, even though the law only required people to fast once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The Pharisees paid tithes of all their income duly, not just of the required parts. So when the Pharisee in today’s gospel said, “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity- greedy, dishonest, adulterous or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income (Luke 18: 11-12), he was not kidding or lying. There are few Christians today who can measure up to the visible moral standards of the man.

Tax collectors, on the other hand, were generally regarded as people of low moral standard. They worked for the pagan Romans, mixed up with them and constantly handled their unclean money, because of that they were said to be in a state of ritual uncleanliness. As far as the religion of that day was concerned, tax collectors were public sinners on the highway to hell. They were categorized and classified on the same list with the prostitutes. But the tax collector in today’s gospel knew that the voice of the people is not always the voice of God. He believed he would be saved not on the merit of any religious achievements but on the unlimited mercy of God.

Both the Pharisee and the tax collector believed in God. But believing in God is not enough, after all, the Islamic extremists who destroy human life and human wealth also believe in God. The epistle of James 2:19 has this to say, “You believe that there is one God; you do well, but the devils also believe that and tremble.” What really matters is what people believe about God and how their faith in God affects their view of themselves and of others. The Pharisees believed in a discriminating God who loves only good people and hates bad people. People behave like the God they believe in. So the Pharisees quickly learn to love only good people like themselves and look down with contempt on bad people and sinners like the tax collectors.

Jesus told this parable against the Pharisees because they “trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” The Pharisee did not really go to the temple to pray to God, he prayed with himself. True prayer is always offered to God and to God alone. The Pharisee was only giving himself a testimonial before God. The tax collector, on the other hand, trusted not in himself or in anything he had done but only in God’s mercy. Standing far off, he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his chest and prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” This is the man who went home at peace with God and not the self-righteous Pharisee.

Today’s gospel teaches us the following; firstly, it teaches us that no proud man can pray. The gate of heaven is very low that none can enter it except on the knees. The gate of heaven is small and narrow that the puff-up, proud and arrogant man who raises his shoulders high or spreads his hands wide in arrogance cannot enter it. Secondly, it teaches us that no one who despises a fellow human being can be at peace with God; the person cannot pray. In prayer we do not lift ourselves above others. True prayer reveals to us that we are all in this together, that we all are sinners in desperate need of God’s mercy. Thirdly, true prayer comes from setting our lives beside the life of God. No doubt all that the Pharisee said was true. He did fast; he did give tithes; he was not as other men are, he was not like the tax collector. But the question is not, “Am I as good as my fellow humans?” The question is, “Am I as good as God?” “Am I more than others or more of Jesus?” The whiteness of a whitewashed house will obviously be diminished and soiled when surrounded by the virgin whiteness of fallen snow.

It all depends on what we compare ourselves with. Pride compares us with others and tells us that we are better than them. But when the virtue of humility compares us with God, it tells us the truth- “We ain’t better.” When we set our lives beside the life of Jesus and beside the holiness of God, all that we can honestly say is, “Be merciful to me O God a sinner.”