OT XXX: Sir 35:12-14, 16-18; 2 Tm 4:6-8, 16-18; Lk 18:9-14

The famous actor Gregory Peck was once standing in line with a friend, waiting for a table in a crowded Los Angeles restaurant. They had been waiting for some time, the diners seemed to be taking their time eating, and new tables weren’t opening up very fast. They weren’t even that close to the front of the line. Peck’s friend became impatient, and he said to Gregory Peck, “Why don’t you tell them who you are?” Gregory Peck responded with great wisdom. “No,” he said, “if you have to tell them who you are, then you aren’t.” — That’s a lesson that the Pharisee in our Gospel reading apparently had never learned. He thought he had to tell God who he was. He told God that he was not a sinner like the publican standing behind in the temple and therefore God owed him. He thinks he earned the reward and not a gift from God. This attitude is the worst in God’s sight, because no one can really work hard-enough to earn heaven or be in God’s good book. Everything that we get is purely a favor. And it is an unmerited favor. Anyone goes to heaven only by Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross which he did for the sins of the world, and not weighing on anyone’s good works.

G. Savonarola was one of the great preachers of the fifteenth century. He preached in the great cathedral of Florence, Italy, which contained a magnificent marble statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When Savonarola started preaching at this great cathedral, he noticed one day an elderly woman praying before this statue of Mary. He then noticed that it was her habit to come every day and pray before the statue. Savonarola remarked one day to an elderly priest who had been serving in the cathedral for many years, “Look how devoted and earnest this woman is. Every day she comes and offers prayers to the blessed Mother of Jesus. What a marvelous act of Faith.” But the elderly priest replied, “Do not be deceived by what you see. Many years ago, when the sculptor needed a model to pose for this statue of the blessed Mother, he hired a beautiful young woman to sit for him. This devout worshiper you see here every day is that young woman. She is worshiping who she used to be.”

A number of people are like that woman. They go to church service to worship themselves. And when they don’t get entertained or not been able to satisfy their ego they feel that their attendance of the service was useless. They feel they got nothing from attending the church and get bored and feel that they had no spiritual upliftment or encounter with the Lord and go home just the same way the Pharisee went back from the temple, unjustified, ungratified. The tax collector actually made a connection with God, but the Pharisee only made a connection with himself.

Before the great spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi led India in its struggle for independence, he practiced law in South Africa. He became keenly aware of the injustice there, and he managed to persuade the Indian community to offer passive resistance to the government’s policy of discrimination. One incident which impressed itself on his mind was when he was obliged to step into the gutter so that a group of white passers-by would not be contaminated. Reflecting on the experience afterwards he wrote: “It has always been a mystery to me how men feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.” Prophet Muhammad told his followers, when you walk down the street and you see non-Muslims coming up against you, push them down into the gutter because they are not equal to you and Allah does not like them.

Many people have to humiliate other people to make themselves feel better. Their real worth is dependent on other people’s low worth, their demerits. If there is anyone around them superior to themselves in any aspect then they feel inferior and worthless. Only when another person is humiliated they feel better about themselves.

The Pharisee in the parable doesn’t recognize how much he needs God. He won’t receive salvation as a gift, but seems to think that he’s earned it.  The Publican is different. He recognizes that he’s a sinner, and he asks God for forgiveness. He doesn’t even think he’s worthy to raise his eyes to heaven. Instead he prays, “Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Through the centuries, the tax collector's simple prayer, "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner," has been taken up as a complete summary of Christian spirituality.

There are even cases of monks who made this prayer the only words that they spoke, and reached heights of sanctity by means of it. This prayer makes a connection with God because it recognizes two things. First, it acknowledges God's greatest quality in relation to fallen mankind, His mercy. 

Second, the tax collector's prayer recognizes his need for that mercy. He accuses himself of being a sinner, someone who has selfishly abused God's gifts. The Pharisee's prayer shows no knowledge either of God's mercy or of his need for God; rather, it is an exercise in narcissism, in self-admiration. 

God wants to connect with us, but he can only do so if we let him, and we can't let him if we don't think we need him. The publican’s prayer clearly expresses his need for God. Why are we here in this Church today? Do we need him or do I think He needs me, therefore, I come to Church on Sunday. If only we trust in the great mercy of God can we really be filled by God and his gifts. Like the publican let’s also tell from the heart, Be merciful to me, a sinner, O Lord.