Before Mass
In the Gospel today, we’ll hear about two guys who go to church… seemingly for different reasons. And it raises the question: Why do we come to Church? Why do we pray? Is it to make ourselves feel good? Is it to support other people in the pews? Do we even HAVE a reason for coming to church? In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a strong clue about the reason for prayer. He implies that the purpose of prayer is to be ‘justified’. That’s not a word we use often, so we might miss the meaning of the Gospel.
One place we might use that word is when we’re typing something – and we tell the computer to Left-justify everything. It means to line everything up in a straight line. If you’re a carpenter, you’re familiar with a plumb-bob – that string with a weight on it which shows you where the plumb line is – which is exactly straight up and down.
So in a spiritual perspective, to be Justified means to be lined-up with God – to be in right relationship. THAT is the goal of prayer.
Homily
Let’s pretend for a minute that God is in this box. I know – God cannot be contained – but play along for a minute. God is in this box. Now – the goal of the Christian life is what? To be with God – to become part of the divine. In short – our goal of our religion… the goal of our LIFE in general, is to get into this box with God.
How do we get into the box? Well, we actually have a pretty good idea of the path to get to God, because He has TOLD us: Through scriptures, prophets, and revelation to saints, God has revealed paths for us to get to him – things like following the commandments, praying, celebrating the Mass, praying our rosary and chaplets – all of these are ways that have been given to us to get into the box. So let me ask – if I do all those things we’ve been told will I automatically be in the box with God?
I mean surely, if God revealed that praying a rosary is the fastest way to heaven – then SURELY if I pray it daily I’ll be in the box with God.
Surely if I go to Mass and receive Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity weekly – or even EVERY DAY – SURELY, I’ll be in the box!
Surely if I give my 10 percent to charity, THAT would put me in the box.
And surely - SURELY – if I do ALL of those things, then I’m good, RIGHT?
Maybe you think that’s not enough… What if we added confession - or novenas - or bible study or working the soup kitchen – THEN we’d be in the box, right? Add all you want – I still say – it won’t automatically put us in the box with God.
See – that’s the perspective of the Pharisee in the Gospel today. The Pharisee was not a BAD person. In fact, he was the goodest of the good people… In the days of Jesus, the Pharisee was the ‘religious guy’ who did everything right… by definition – that’s what Pharisees do – they follow every law to the letter, and they THINK that guarantees that they are in the box with God. And since they’re so tight with God, THEY’ve got the moral high ground, - so they look down on everyone else. That’s what we hear from the first guy in the Gospel – looking down his nose at ‘those sinners’ and patting himself on the back for being so good.
Now – the rest of us would look at the Pharisee and based on everything we know, would have to agree – he IS the goodest of the good people. He’s SO good, in fact, that there’s no way we can measure up. I mean, If following the law of Moses is THE path to God, then the path is so steep that 99 percent of us ain’t got no chance of ever climbing into that box…. So we’d just give up. God is out of reach. Instead of helping us to reach God, the law becomes an impediment keeping us from God.
That’s one perspective – but Jesus brings in the Publican… which is tax collector. He is the baddest of the bad people. Worse than a sinner, He’s a traitor against Israel – he’s a extortionist – a cheater – a thief. To put that in perspective, think to yourself of the worst, most un-holy person you know. The person you are SURE has no chance of getting the heaven. DON’T say their names out loud! Maybe it’s your Deacon 😉 or maybe a family member, co-worker, politician, maybe somebody involved in human trafficking, Hitler maybe… we all have someone who we think is a bad person. Surely God hates them.
Jesus says – that person – that baddest of the bad persons – knows how to get in the box with God – and the Holy guy does not. What?
See how this just doesn’t make sense? The Jews would think - Jesus – we’ve only been given ONE path to God and it’s called the Law of Moses. THIS guy follows that path better than anyone we know … and now you’re saying even THAT ain’t good enough?
Jesus is pointing out what is missing in the prayer of the Pharisee. Access to God is not about all the external things of religion… it’s about the internal state of our hearts.
Notice, because the Pharisee has the moral high ground, he easily becomes inflated with Pride – and y’all know Pride is considered the root of all the deadly sins. Because of that, instead of humbling himself before God, he thinks he’s ALREADY justified – he thinks he’s already IN THE BOX with God…. He doesn’t need God’s help, thank you – he’s got it all under control.
But the baddest of the bad guys successfully gets into the box with God… not by doing all the externals of religion… in fact, he likely does NONE of those things… instead his path into the box is to approach God in humility… to open up his heart and admit he is a sinner and ask for mercy. He recognizes that he cannot approach God without God’s mercy. That is the key to the box.
We see this another time in the Gospels when Jesus is hanging on the cross and the thief says – ‘we are getting what we deserved’ – and then he asked Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. Notice – he admitted his sin – then asked for mercy. He’s considered to be the thief who stole heaven… by one act of humility at the end of his life, he got into the box with Jesus.
So – how do we apply this to our lives?
It’s a normal human tendency to put God in a box…. And only those who follow the secret path of OUR religion can get to God… and if it gets too easy, we add on more rules to make the path even harder. Why? Because we kinda like being on the moral high ground. We like feeling that we’ve done everything WE can to EARN God’s attention. This naturally leads to pride. We put ourselves in a box of moral certitude and feel like we are justified because of our actions. WE followed all the rules! – at least better than that guy over there so we DESERVE to be with God.
Religion can also lead us to putting other people into boxes. ‘Those people’ don’t do things exactly as I do, so they obviously aren’t going to be loved by God. Those people over there are the wrong political party – those people over there are not pro-life – those people over there do whatever – notice the common thread: ‘those people over there’. Anytime we put people into a box, we think they are excluded them from God – but in reality, we’re excluding ourselves from God. Because our pride – our lack of humility – keeps us from opening our hearts to other people – and therefore keeps us from opening our hearts to God.
The thing is – THERE IS NO BOX. God cannot be contained in a box this size – nor the size of this church – nor the size of the world or even the size of the universe. God is all in all – and the path to get to God is not some list of a thousand things to do – but the path to God is to simply, humbly admit that we are sinners in need of a savior and to ask God for mercy. THAT is the Good News of the Gospel. The purpose of prayer is to admit that we’re NOT justified – that we’re NOT living as we should – and ask God for mercy so we can improve our relationship with Him.
Now – let me be clear – doing all the things our religion suggests ARE good things. They are TOOLS given to us by the Church and by saints throughout the ages to ASSIST us on the path to get to God. But if we think the rules or the tool is THE way to God, we’ve missed the point of today’s Gospel. For example, I may say a rosary every day, but if it doesn’t change my heart – it’s not opening my mind and heart to God. A relationship where we don’t share our hearts is not a real relationship. Think about that from a human perspective – you may be physically close to your spouse or you may be texting your friends often to stay connected– but if you don’t reach the point of sharing your deepest thoughts and dreams and feelings – sharing your heart with them – then the relationship remains only on the surface. Same applies to our spiritual life – only through sharing our deepest thoughts in all honesty and humility will we deepen our relationship with God.
Yes – do all of our religious practices – but – burn the boxes and turn to God with humility.
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