30th Sunday

30th Sunday Ordinary
October 24, 2004

"The Lord is a God of justice who knows no favorites... yet he hears the cry of the oppressed." (Sirach 35:12-18) "The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself... but the tax collector stood off at a distance..." (Luke 18 9-14)
.At first reading, the contrast between the proud and legalistic religious expert and the despised and humble tax collector could not be more clear. This particular Pharisee "spoke this prayer to himself" rather than to the Most High. Many Pharisees of Jesus' day were imperious law givers and rulemakers who flaunted their piety and religious superiority. As religious leaders they could impose intolerable spiritual burdens on others. But many of them were sincerely religious and spiritual people who wanted nothing more than to worship the Most High in spirit and truth. Tax collectors in Roman times were not nice people. They purchased contracts from the Roman governor to collect a designated amount for the government. Whatever else they collected they could keep for themselves. They were greedy, cruel, selfish and imposed crushing financial hardships on the local population. Even worse, they were usually "one of our own". In this case the tax collector was a Jew himself, betraying his own people. He had plenty of reason to be asking God for mercy.
My own initial reaction to the story was to begin pointing fingers (well, not literally). Then I realized how I assume the roles of both Pharisee and tax collector in different places and situations. Like the Pharisee, I am quite capable of being sure of the correctness of my causes, beliefs and opinions, the wrongness of others', and my duty to let them know about this. Like the tax collector I am also capable of being selfish and greedy. The only real difference between the two is not that one was right and the other wrong but that the tax collector was aware of his problem and the Pharisee was not.
In this electoral season we have gotten ourselves stirred up into a mighty frenzy in the church over the "right" way to vote, with plenty of name-calling, righteous judgment and condemnation. The fact is that neither side can claim the religious and moral high ground. The only "nonnegotiable" sin is the failure to treat one another with love, respect and dignity regardless of how much we may disagree. Maybe it's time to begin examining our own consciences instead of accusing those of others'
Pope John Paul says in his recent letter on the Eucharist, “We mustn’t deceive ourselves: it’s from our reciprocal love and, in particular, from the concern we have for those in need that we will be recognized as true disciples of Christ. This is the criterion on the basis of which the authenticity of our Eucharistic celebrations will be confirmed.” The Eucharist is rendered "authentic" not only by kneeling and bowing at the correct times, but also by being on the side of the oppressed whoever they are and wherever they may be.