Saturday, March 21, 2020

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘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.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In this reading from the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord Jesus presents a parable featuring two seemingly contrasting characters: a Pharisee and a tax collector.  They would seem to have nothing in common: the first was a learned member of the dominant branch of Judaism during our Lord’s lifetime, and the second was a collaborator with the Roman occupiers.  The first presented himself in public life as honorable and virtuous, and the second kept to the edge of society and were widely reviled by their fellow citizens.  And in addition to working for the Romans, the tax collectors engaged in the practice of adding to the taxes for their own benefit.  Yet a bond did exist between the two.  According to the historian Flavius Josephus, the Pharisees brought the Roman general Pompey to Jerusalem to end the civil war then taking place there.  They even opened up the gates of the city to the Roman army.  The Romans began to rule Judea and Galilee at that time and, as part of their rule, the Romans commissioned tax collectors.  

The Pharisee is shown standing in the temple and thanking God that he is not “like this tax collector”, but in fact, he was more like the tax collector than he could admit.  His pride in himself and in his sect blinded him to the history of his sect and to his own personal faults.  His “prayer” is actually nothing more than a boast.  The tax collector, on the other hand, had come to repent and to beg God for mercy.  Perhaps Jesus is telling us about Matthew, resolved to give up his post when he returns to his town.

The tax collector, in order to be saved, was willing to give up his position.  The Pharisee would have needed to give up his sect.  Each us likewise must examine ourselves honestly and give up what we cling to so that we might have the mercy of Christ.  

The Roman Martyrology lists the Feast of St. Benedict on this day.  His holy life has inspired untold numbers of men and women to leave the world for the religious life.  The Rule he wrote for his followers, founded on the foundation of “Work and Pray”, remains a great spiritual classic to this day.

May the intercession of the blessed Abbot Benedict, commend us to You, O Lord, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.  R. Amen.