30th Sunday of the Year
A two thousand year gap separates our world from the world of Jesus. That's just the time gap. There is also a cultural gap. Eastern Mediterranean people are very different to northern European people. So the gospel challenges us in a variety of ways. We certainly cannot take the scriptures literally, at face value. The scriptures must be sifted like wheat. The grain of timeless truth must be salvaged from the chaff of time-bound culture and custom.
The culture and world in which Jesus lived would have had 100 percent religious practice. The one who failed to show up in the temple would have been the odd-ball, the cultural exception. Those who showed up would have had universal applause and approval. This poses problems for us today as we approach the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.
Our normal interpretation of this parable runs as follows: The Pharisee represents the conservative who feels himself in line with God and man, and looks with contempt on his neighbour. The publican is the person who has committed an error, but he recognizes it and humbly asks God for forgiveness. The latter doesn't think of saving himself on his own merits, but rather through the mercy of God. The preference of Jesus between these two is clear, as the last line of the parable indicates: "The latter returns to his house justified, that is, forgiven and reconciled with God; the Pharisee returns home just as he left it - preserving his sense of righteousness, but losing God's.
This reading of the parable falls flat on its face when confronted with the realities of the modern world. Jesus told these parables to those who were listening at that time, in that world. In a culture charged with faith and religious practice like that of Galilee and Judea of his time, hypocrisy consisted in flaunting the observance of the law and of holiness, because these were the things that brought applause. Strutting your stuff in the temple was the popular thing to do.
In our secularized culture, values have changed. What is admired and opens doors to success is the contrary of that other time: It is the rejection of traditional moral norms, independence, the liberty of the individual. For the Pharisees the key word was "observance" of the norms; for many, today, the key word is "transgression." To say that an author, a book or a show is a "transgressor" s to give it one of the most desired compliments of today.
In other words, today we should turn the terms around to get at the original intention. The publicans of yesterday are the new Pharisees of today! Today the publican, the transgressor, says to God: "I thank you Lord, because I am not one of those believing Pharisees, hypocritical and intolerant, that worry about fasting, but in real life are worse than we are." Paradoxically, it seems as if there are those who pray like this: "thank you, Lord, because I'm an atheist!" How many now feel it necessary to preface any half-baked religious observation with this meaningless remark: "Now not religious at all myself Father, though I am fairly spiritual." I have notice in recent times that even the mother of the bride have come to regard this pearl of wisdom as a now mandatory ice-breaker at the wedding reception. How often have I almost choked on the chicken!
A 19th century French writer said that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. Today it is frequently the tribute that virtue pays to vice. This is shown, in fact, especially among youth, who show themselves worse and more shameless than they are, so as not to appear less than others. In order to keep up with the Joneses you must get down in the gutter!
But whether we apply the traditional interpretation or the one I have just provided, the conclusion will be the same: Most of us are part Pharisee, part Publican. The worst thing would be to act like the publican in our daily lives and like the Pharisee in church. The publicans were sinners, men without scruple, who put money and business above everything else. The Pharisees, on the contrary, were, very austere and attentive to the law in their daily lives.
In the Church we should behave like the publican did, throwing ourselves on God's mercy. In daily life, we should behave like the Pharisee did, scrupulously observing God's law and giving generously to those in need.