Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/102410.shtml
As I’ve said many times here, during Ordinary Time, the Readings on Sunday generally touch on some aspect of our day to day lives and invite us then to find Jesus and the Gospel in that aspect of our day to day existence.
This Sunday, identifying the aspect of our lives which we are asked to take a look at is rather easy – our attitude toward our brothers and sisters with which we share our lives.
Indeed, this Sunday’s Gospel Reading begins with the words:
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
And then continues to give the example of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector arriving at the Temple to pray.
The Pharisee, actually a rather good guy, one who sought to live his life according the law of God, honest, faithful, arguably generous, nevertheless betrayed an arrogance in his living in such a way: “I give you thanks O Lord for not being like the others – greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like that tax collector over there...”
In contrast, we’re told that the Tax Collector, no doubt know exactly who he was, “would not even lift his eyes toward heaven but beat his breast saying, ‘O God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
And we’re told, of course, that the Tax Collector’s prayer was heard while the Pharisee’s, again, arguably in good part a good guy, was not.
Why?
Well, if God is Our Father then we are all God’s children. There is no such a thing as a “better” child. To our parents, we are ultimately all equal. And as it’s usually the case “at home,” if one or another of the children starts to think of him or herself as better than the rest, then the parents usually step in to say “Hey, cut it out. You all have good points, you all have bad points, and we love you all.” And that may be frustrating to the “good kids” but it’s the truth.
There are _many dangers_ when seeking to compete to be “better than others.”
First of all, all of us are more than our sins, mistakes and failings. In my first year in the Seminary, when I was still unbelievably optimistic and enthusiastic about what I was doing, I volunteered to go visit weekly a prison as my ministry project for that year. No one at that school had done that for some time, but actually as a result of my deciding to give this a shoot, soon there were 4-5 of us were going in a group. And all of us would come back each week amazed. Why? Because we were surprised how easy it was to talk about God to the prisoners that we visited.
Reflecting on why that would be the case, I came to the conclusion that contrary to the popular perception, often presented to us in the movies that “Everybody in jail thinks that he/she is innocent,” when talking to “clergy” actually the opposite seemed to occur. Most of the prisoners _knew_, in fact, that they had screwed up. So the hard part of the preaching the Gospel was over and all that was left was, in fact, the GOOD NEWS, that despite that, God still loves us anyway.
In contrast, outside the jail, most of us carry masks, and insist we are better than the loser over there, of the floozy of a cousin or sister one had, etc, etc. And it’s hard to preach the Gospel to people who think that they are better than others.
And it’s also simply the truth that even those prisoners sitting in jail had people once had loved them. Even people like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy probably made breakfast for their moms a few times for mother’s day. Even people like them probably bought a nice card or two for an aunt or grandmother when they were younger. And their aunt or grandmother would have appreciated them for that, and GOD WOULD HAVE SEEN THAT.
So God would know that all of us are more than sins or failings. And certainly we visiting the jail that year were invited (I do say by God) to start seeing the people in that way. Yes, they screwed up, yes, they deserved to be where they were, but yes, they were still capable of being loved. And if THEY can be loved, then so can we.
In constrast, if we insist on underlining our superiority to others, well ... we put in peril our own salvation. Because if we are better than others, then certainly there would be others better than us. And Jesus did underline in his preaching that NONE OF US is absolutely good.
So in reality, we are ALL in need of God’s mercy – God’s ability to overlook OUR SINS, OUR MISTAKES, OUR FAILINGS.
How arrogant it is to beat-up on the failings of someone else (and let’s face it, often someone weaker than ourselves) for the sake of hoping to “look good” in contrast.
In contrast, why not look at the good of that person and understand if God can forgive the failings of others, then there’s a much better chance that God can forgive us our own failings.
Because in the end, what we celebrate here, the Eucharist, each Sunday is a reminder, that at the end of our lives as God’s children, we’re going to be invited to the same table as the rest of God’s chindren (the rest of the family). And we’re going to be expected to ‘get along.’
So wouldn’t it be great to just let go of “the games” and just started trying to get along now?
May God bless us all, and help us to understand that even the people who annoy us are our brothers and sisters who are loved by the same God who loves us too.
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