Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: A Lesson in True Prayer

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, October 26, 2025

The spiritual theme we explored last weekend was prayer. In Exodus 17:8-13, which was the first reading, we saw the power and effectiveness of prayer. The nation of Israel was at war with the Amalekites. But as long as Moses kept his hands raised (a gesture of prayer), Israel gained the upper hand. When he lowered his hands, meaning he was tired and not praying, the Amalekites gained the upper hand. Eventually, two men, Aaron and Hur, had to support his hands. In the Gospel (Luke 18:1-8), Jesus teaches us about the need for persistent prayer to prevent falling into apostasy. Now, if you went home last weekend wondering how to pray and what your prayer should include, Jesus, the Lord and the greatest teacher of all time, offers a story that answers your questions. If you want to know when your prayer has gone off-kilter, Jesus addresses it in this simple parable. And if you're also seeking to understand the right attitude and approach to God in prayer, you'll find guidance in today’s brief Gospel (Luke 18:9-14).

It is the famous parable of a Pharisee and a Publican (tax collector) who went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisees were the religious establishment and a prominent Jewish sect during Jesus’ time, known for their strict adherence to Mosaic law and traditions. In contrast, tax collectors were the most loathsome and despised people in Israel because they worked for the Romans to transfer money from Jewish communities to Roman authorities. They drain their own people to benefit their hated oppressors. The Romans allowed them to collect as much tax as they could, and any excess beyond the legal amount was kept for themselves. Essentially, they were literally legal thieves. So, the story features two men praying in the temple: one has numerous good deeds to boast about and likely few sins, while the other, the tax collector, has committed many grave sins against justice and charity, against God and his own people. 

What did the Pharisee say in his prayer? “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 tithe on my entire income” (Luke 18:11-12). As for the tax collector, he stood at a distance and wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven but only beat his breast and prayed, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). At the end of the story, Jesus drops a spiritual bomb: “I tell you, the latter went home justified (i.e., right with God), not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Why did the man with greater sins go home justified, while the law-keeping one did not? Does this imply that God’s commandments are unimportant? Not at all! The reason is that the greatest of all sins—the one that can send a person to hell—is final impenitence, which is the refusal to repent of one’s sins and accept God’s forgiveness. John states that God is love (1 John 4:8), and that is indeed true. God is kind and merciful. He is willing to forgive all sins as long as we are eager to ask for and receive His forgiveness. St. Augustine said, “God who created us without us, cannot save us without us.” Notice that in the word “forgiveness,” the word “give” is in the middle. For a gift to truly be a gift, it must be given freely and received willingly. If I choose not to give you a gift, you won’t get it. If I give you a gift but you choose not to accept it, you still won’t receive it. If I force you to take it, it ceases to be a gift. Clearly, God respects our free will and freedom. He does not force us to accept His love, mercy, or forgiveness. Each person in life is free to believe in God’s existence and submit to Him or not. God reaches out to us in love. But He forces no one to accept His reality. He does not compel us to pray to Him. Just as He doesn’t force His way upon us on earth, so He won’t do so in eternity. His gift of forgiveness is offered freely, and we are free to accept or reject it. In this life and the next, God never compels anyone to accept this gift. If He did, it would cease to be a gift. 

But what would make someone not accept the gift of God’s mercy and forgiveness? Pride. Arrogance. Self-righteousness. The belief that you are a good person, and that healing and forgiveness are not necessary. Check the Gospels, and you will find no account of anyone who was healed and forgiven without coming to Jesus, without expressing faith in him, or with no one interceding for them. Everyone healed and forgiven by Jesus in the Gospels either came to him or someone came to Jesus on their behalf. Jesus himself said to the Pharisees that he could not save them because they would not go to him for salvation: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do” (Mark 2:17). If you think you are not sick, you will not go to the doctor. Jesus is the real doctor of the soul, and we are all spiritually ill, and he will only heal those who come to him, who sincerely repent. But if we convince ourselves that we are good people, and won’t go to him, and won’t beg for mercy by using the sacrament of confession, then he won’t heal us. In his extraordinary teaching about prayer, Jesus says, “Ask and you shall receive….” (Luke 11:9). Ask for what? Please, don’t ask for power, wealth, honor, and pleasure. Don’t ask for a Lamborghini or that sleek and classy Mercedes-Benz. Don’t ask to be on top of the world. Don’t ask for the death of your enemies. Ask for mercy! In the great Beatitude, Jesus says, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Is this a masochistic or a sadistic idea? No! Jesus is not saying that the unhappier we are, the more we are consoled or comforted. The great spiritual tradition reads it this way: Happy are those who mourn for their sins. We feel sad about many things. When our dreams have not come to reality, we feel bad. When we lose the job we once had, we feel bad. When love goes sour and the relationship we thought was made in heaven collapses, we feel bad. When things aren't working out or aren't going in our favor, we feel bad. But what is the one thing we should really feel bad and mourn over? Our own sins! Why? Because sin hurts! It hurts us and severs our relationship with God and with the people of God. If the consequence of a sin is not physical, it is definitely spiritual, which is the greater harm. Sin disorders nature. It disorders the orderliness fashioned by God.

God bless you!