THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Dear Parishioners,

As I ponder the deep riches of today’s parable, I am inclined to reflect on my early Catholic formation. I grew up in St. Laurence parish on the South Side of Chicago. It was a very beautiful and enriching experience in so many ways. But like anything else human, it suffered from the blindness revealed in today’s Gospel. Over the years, I have found myself growing in awareness of the ordinary human prejudices and ignorance that were implanted in me by my early Irish Catholic parish experience.

First of all, we had a wide open highway to hell for others. Protestants and fallen away Catholics, especially the divorced, led the parade. The role of women was very clear: in the kitchen and preferably pregnant. The “colored people”, the operative term of respect for African Americans in my youth, were inferior and happy to stay on the other side of 47th St. where God put them. As Catholics, we were very patriotic and in full support of the insanity of nuclear escalation.

We were proud to be Catholics leading the way in the censorship of movies to maintain pelvic orthodoxy. I think some in the Communion line in my parish would not have made it past the censors. We never gave a thought to Hollywood’s glorification of booze, smoking and violence. Mexicans were the only Hispanics I knew and this only thru movies. They were always total losers only topped by the savagery of Native Americans who attacked the white settlers.

I could go on at length about clerical dominance but the point is clear. Organized religion, no matter how beautiful and profound, is never too far removed from the Pharisee in today’s Gospel.

I do not think often enough about what the next generation will see in our parish and today’s Church that is so completely off the radar of Gospel values. I am sure that there is a lot to consider even if it is hidden from our awareness at this time.

Today’s parable offers us the possibility of much light and wisdom. The first point directs us to a message that goes beyond the characters of the Pharisee and tax collector. The deepest issue is about the goodness and mercy of God. God is the one who forgives sinners. Our task is to recognize and accept our reality as sinful creatures, yet as sinful creatures who are loved and forgiven. This is the truth of our situation. Humility is the liberating passage to this truth. It empowers us to receive God’s love and mercy.

There are two other helpful points in today’s parable. The first continues Luke’s often repeated theme of reversal. In God’s coming revealed in Jesus, things will be put in the proper order with God at the center. The Pharisee missed this point as we so often do. It is a long journey to put God at the center and to move ourselves tour rightful place as the humble and totally dependent creature.

Secondly, it is quite a spiritual feat to have the openness and integrity of the tax collector. St. Teresa of Avila teaches us of the utter importance of this humble self-knowledge. She practiced it so well that she could say at the end, her life story is all a story of God’s mercy. It truly was the same for the tax collector.

Fundamental to today’s parable is that every human heart is torn between the pull of the Pharisee’s arrogance and the tax collector’s humility and self-knowledge. The power of the message is that the God of mercy revealed by Jesus forgives sinners. All we need to do is to recognize that we need to get in line for this liberating gift!