30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today's gospel, Luke 18: 9-14, we hear another parable about prayer.  Last Sunday we reflected on the importance of persistence in prayer.  Today in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus directs our thoughts towards our attitude about prayer.  Prayer is our primary means of communicating with God and how we pray reflects our relationship with God.  When we pray, most of us thank God for all the graces and gifts we receive and we ask for healing, understanding, patience or for whatever we believe we lack or need.  Sometimes we try to tell God what to do.  But I believe the majority of us recognize that God is bigger than we are, that God already knows all our needs and that we depend on God for everything.  Prayer is our way of placing our needs before God and trusting that God in his goodness will meet them. 

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector presents two people with very different relationships with God.  In the “normal” world, the Pharisee should be our model of devotion and the tax collector should be the “villain.”  However, we are not in the “normal” world.  We are in the Kingdom of God. And in this kingdom, everything is different.  Although the Pharisee is devout, practicing his faith to the letter of the law, he also is arrogant and proud.  He knows that he is “not like the rest of humanity” (Luke 18:11).  He is BETTER than the rest of humanity.  Not only is he better than the rest of us, he does not need God.  With his inflated sense of self-worth, he has no room for a relationship with God, he prays to himself and so he is not “justified” in the Kingdom.

In the Israel of the New Testament era, few people were more despised than tax collectors.  They were Roman collaborators and often they were corrupt.  When the tax collector in the parable approaches the Temple to pray, he stands at a distance, with downcast eyes and prays, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).  That is the extent of his prayer and that is the prayer God heard.  The tax collector knew where he stood with God.  He recognized and acknowledged his own sinfulness. He is “justified” in the kingdom.   Therefore, Jesus presents the tax collector to us as our role model for faithful prayer. 

During your prayer time this week, remember the humble tax collector whose prayer was heard.  And remember what Sirach teaches us, “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay” (Sirach 35:17-18).

Merciful God,
you assure us that the prayer of the humble pierces the clouds.
Look upon us who come before you,
humble and repentant like the tax collector,
and grant that, as we open our hearts
we may trust in your steadfast love and mercy.
We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.

AMEN.