Holiness is a gift to be shared with others.

          If any of you were looking for a homily last week, I didn't forget to post one!  I was on vacation and so had a week off from preaching.  I hope that these continue to be helpful to all of you who read them!

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Homily: 30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C

          Today's gospel provides us with a parable that is very familiar to us; but it is one that should also offend us.  By all measurable standards, the Pharisee lives an upright life: he keeps from sin and he goes beyond the minimum of religious observance.  Yet he is condemned by Christ, while the tax collector—a public sinner who collaborated with the Roman authorities and performed extortion on his fellow Jews—is commended.  Now my question is not that the tax collector shouldn’t be commended, because he obviously demonstrates his repentance before God, but rather, shouldn't both be commended?  I mean, it's almost like Jesus is saying "It's better if you're a sinner and repent, than if you have never sinned and stay upright in God's sight."  And that certainly doesn’t seem right, does it?

          We know that Jesus gave a hard time to the Pharisees because very often he found them living hypocritically: meaning they taught one thing and lived their lives another way.  Perhaps Jesus wanted us to apply this stereotype to the Pharisee in his parable and, thus, already judge him poorly.  If we look again at the line that begins our Gospel reading, I think we get a clue that this is exactly what he wanted us to do.  It says, "Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else."  Jesus, it seems wasn't condemning the Pharisee for being overly pious, but rather that he derided others who weren't as pious as he was.  The Pharisee thanked God for his righteousness, but arrogantly.  He failed to see that this righteousness came with a responsibility: a responsibility to help (or, at least, to have sympathy for) those who have failed in their human frailty to acquire God's righteousness, too.

          In our own time, there certainly are those who emulate the worst caricatures of the Pharisees: those who seem pious in their religious observance, but then who do not live this piety in their everyday lives.  In other words, they are hypocritical: not practicing what their pious acts proclaim that they do.  Nonetheless, there are other "Pharisees" in our time who are like the one in today's Gospel: they truly live upright lives and exceed the minimum requirements of religious observance and they are quick to condemn the "tax collectors" of the world: those who persist in sinful behavior and those who support social structures that give approval for it.

          Again, this is the sin for which the Pharisee is condemned: he was unable to sympathize with the tax collector and to recognize in him his own weakness and frailty.  Thus he was unable to accompany the tax collector and encourage his conversion.  How often do our modern "Pharisees" condemn those who engage in sinful practices; and in their efforts to condemn the practice, they end up focusing on the sinner?  They refuse to draw close to them—to accompany them—and to encourage them towards conversion.  Instead, they begin to point fingers, saying things like: “Those people are condemnable, because they support laws that protect abortion…” or “…promote the use of artificial contraception…” or “…support redefining the institution of marriage and the family…”

          But this is what Pope Francis has tried to highlight throughout his pontificate and especially in this year of mercy.  At first he was criticized because he didn't speak out more against abortion, the use of artificial contraception, same-sex marriage, women priests, etc., but he didn't want to get focused on issues.  Rather, he wanted to focus on people.  “Let's spend less time condemning and more time accompanying those mired in sin,” he seems to say.  “In this way, we will more authentically show God's mercy to others.”

          And so, whether we are mired in sin or living an upright life, the message from Jesus' parable is this: don't presume your righteousness.  Struggle for it, yes.  Give thanks to God for any righteous deed you did or attitude you possess, yes; but don't presume.  If you are a grave sinner, then admit it.  Don't let your pride blind you to it until you die and end up in hell.  If you are on the path of righteousness, give thanks, but never presume that you've conquered every human weakness.  Rather, continue to humble yourself before the Lord.  If you don't have any grave sin, then confess the smaller sins regularly.  Your humble confession will be heard and God will strengthen you as you continue towards righteousness.

          Perhaps I could offer my own parable to mimic Jesus' and connect it to our modern experience.  Two people came to confession.  One confessed in this way: “Oh, I don't really do anything bad, Father.  I come to Mass, I give regularly, and I pray most of the time.  I guess that I got mad at my spouse a couple of times, but that’s about it.”  The other confessed in this way: "Father, I've been doing well with praying and making it to Mass every Sunday (and during the week, if I can make it) and I’ve been making a big effort to keep from criticizing my spouse, but the other day someone brought up something my spouse did and I fell right into it and I’m so upset about it."  You can see that both are living what, on the outside, seem to be upright lives; but the first presumes his/her righteousness, while the second continues to humble him/herself before God, trusting that only he can make him/her righteous.  It is this latter example that needs to be a model for our time.

          But wait, Father, didn't Saint Paul say something about "a crown of righteousness awaits me"?  Why yes, I'm glad you asked.  You see, even though Saint Paul seems to presume his righteousness, he nonetheless acknowledges that it all comes from God—that the crown will be awarded from God.  Paul acknowledges that it was the Lord that intervened for him and provided him every grace so that he could arrive safely in his heavenly reward.  Yet Paul does not despise those have not followed him on the path of righteousness, but rather offers a word of encouragement: that all those who have longed for God's appearance will receive the same crown of righteousness.

          So again it is not that we have false humility and deny that we have ever done any good thing, but rather that we acknowledge that those things come from God and that we constantly must turn to and rely on him if we wish to achieve that crown.  Our world right now is overflowing with politicians trying to proclaim their own righteousness so that you will vote for them.  Let's step back from that and change the conversation (in our own communities, at least).  In our effort to live upright lives (and it must start there, by the way), let us also strive to reach out to those "tax collectors" among us—to enter into relationship with them—and so invite them to experience God's mercy, first by our loving companionship and second by an encounter of God's mercy through conversion to and reconciliation with God.

          My brothers and sisters, this is what the year of mercy demands of us.  This is what Jesus, who comes to us in this Eucharist to accompany us, desires that we do in response to this grace.  Let us take up this good work, therefore, so that we too, like the humbled tax collector in Jesus' parable, might be justified; and that, having been justified, we too might be glorified for all eternity in heaven.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – October 23^rd, 2016