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Pharisee

A Study of Contrasts

October 24, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

righteousnessFirst Reading  Sirach 35:12-14,16-      Second Reading  2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18
Gospel  Luke 18:9-14

It is important to note at the outset of this particular reading to whom Jesus is speaking in this parable.  Luke says:  “Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.”

The whole parable is a study in contrasts between the prayer of the Pharisee and the prayer of the tax collector.  Jesus teaches us, his listeners, to pray in humility before God. He surprises his listeners, including us, by highlighting the tax collector as the example of faith – a model for prayer. He reminds us if we are too full of ourselves, there is too little room for God’s grace to work in us.

It’s interesting to notice that everything the Pharisee says is true. He has set himself apart from others by his faithful adherence to the law. He is, by the standards of his day what Luke and Jesus seem to term, righteous. So before we judge him too quickly, we might reframe his prayer slightly and wonder if we have uttered it ourselves. Maybe we haven’t said, “Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people…”, but what about, on seeing someone down on her luck, “There but for the grace of God go I”? It isn’t that the Pharisee is speaking falsely, but rather that the Pharisee misses the true nature of his blessing. As Luke says early on in this reading, he has trust in himself. His prayer of gratitude may be addressed to the God, but it is really about himself. He credits his righteousness entirely in his own actions.

The tax collector, on the other hand, does not even raise his eyes to heaven.  He knows that he possesses no means by which to claim righteousness. He declares he has done nothing of merit. So, he stands back, hardly daring to approach the Temple, and throws himself on the mercy of the Lord.  He seems not so much humble as desperate.  He is too overwhelmed by his plight to take time to divide people into categories.  He stakes is hope entirely on the mercy of God.

At the end of the day, the Pharisee will leave the Temple and return to his home righteous. This hasn’t changed; he was virtuous, honorable, and righteous when he came to the temple.  That hasn’t changed … he’s still righteous when he leaves the temple. His mistake, as Scott Peck says, is that he thinks that whenever he wants to he can pull “God out of his back pocket.”   On the other hand, the tax collector will leave the Temple and go back down to his home justified, that is, accounted righteous.  As Luke expresses it: he is exalted in God’s eyes because he humbled himself.

If you’re spiritually alive, and give credit where credit is due, you’re going to love this take on the parable.  If you’re spiritually dead, you won’t even want to hear / read it.
If you’re spiritually curious, there is still hope!

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of his hometown newspaper and
complained that it made no sense to him at all to go to church every Sunday………

He wrote: “I’ve gone for 30 years now, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them.  So, I think I’m wasting my time, the preachers and priests are wasting their time by giving sermons at all”.

This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column.  Much to the delight of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

“I’ve been married for 30 years now….. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals…… But, for the life of me—- I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.

[Or we might say: I’ve been in community x number of years… in that time I’ve been  nourished and supported by my Sisters thousands of times in hundreds of different ways …But, I can only recall a few instances in detail ….]

But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work.   If my wife (my community) had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today.

Likewise, if I had not gone to church – been faithful to my time of private and communal prayer – for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”  AMEN!

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: contrasts, God, Jesus, parable, Pharisee, Pharisees, righteous

Are You In Danger of Becoming a Pharisee?

March 14, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

It’s pretty easy to spot a Pharisee, and we might not like it to admit it, but we can all behave like a Pharisee if we’re not careful.   How will you knowPharisees if you’re a Pharisee?

If your official title is longer than your given name.

  • If you’re willing to be merciful – once.
  • If you feel your rules are the REAL rules.
  • If everyone outside your immediate circle, and most within it, are always wrong.
  • If God’s still small voice… sounds exactly like your own.
  • If you feel all the apples are spilled out of your cart when a rule is bent.
  • If you know the Word of God, but not the God of the Word.

You see, the Pharisees of Jesus’ day had started out wanting TO PLEASE God. They began in a day when Israel was deeply tainted with immorality and unrighteousness and somebody needed to stand in the gap. And the Pharisees stepped up to fill that need. And in an era where many Jews had abandoned the law of God, the Pharisees became like prophets to their people pointing them back to the Law of Moses and obedience to God’s will.

The Pharisees were THE religious people of the day and they took their “faith” seriously. Any time people take their faith seriously, it’s not a big step over the line from pleasing God to disobeying God.

So we want to be careful WE don’t do that too.  You see the Pharisees didn’t set out to make God angry.   They wanted to obey every one of God’s commands. They didn’t wake up one morning saying: “I’m going to make God mad today!”  It was just that their thinking was warped.  Rules had become all-important – People were UNIMPORTANT.  When the Pharisees brought this adulterous woman to Jesus… they didn’t care about her. A rule had been broken. She needed to be exposed.  She was only a tool – an object lesson they wanted to use to get at Jesus. They really hated Jesus.

In their warped thinking, God’s agenda was what they decided. And, they believed as long as they kept the rules their personal sins could be covered up. In reality they had no intention of stoning the woman … she was just a prop.  In fact, they couldn’t stone her. Once Rome conquered Judah, Judah became a Roman territory, and under Roman law, only the Roman governors had the authority to condemn people to death. You only have to look at the Crucifixion of Jesus to see that truth.  Do you remember who’s approval the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law needed to have Jesus executed? That’s right – Pilate. He was the Roman Governor at the time.

It was a perfect trap.  They didn’t care about the woman. And they didn’t care about Jesus. In their minds both of them had broken their rules… and both needed to be destroyed.

You need to understand, these Pharisees saw Jesus as an enemy of THEIR god. Their god was on THEIR side… and so anyone who opposed them was opposing God.

We can end up making Jesus our enemy by substituting our personal agenda for His. And if you’re not careful… you’ll not even know you’ve done it.  BUT there is one symptom of this dangerous attitude. It should be like a road sign saying “Don’t go there.”

When you get mad people don’t listen to you. Your opinion is being ignored. Things aren’t going YOUR way.  That can make you really angry. YOUR agenda is obviously the right agenda.  If you’re right it follow the other must be wrong.  If you feel that’s happening, pay attention. It’s a sign that you’re in danger of becoming a Pharisee.

The Pharisees had convinced themselves that if they could “look” good on the outside, that was as good as “being good” on the inside.  They fooled themselves into thinking that obeying certain rules was just as good as being righteous before God.  In fact they got most of the rules right.  By contrast, a Pharisee could tell you were going to hell – and you could tell they were thinking “got what you deserved – glad you are on your way.”

As this true story illustrates, warped thinking can lead you down a Pharisee-like path:

A 4-year told his mother” “Mom, I’m not gonna be like those bad guys Jesus was talking to; I’m not going to sin anymore.”   “Well, that’s very nice,” (she said). “What made you decided not to sin anymore?”  He answered: “Cause Jesus said if you don’t sin, you can throw the first stone and I want to throw the first stone.”

Reflection by Prioress, Sr. Roberta Bailey, OSB
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Faith, God, Jesus, Lent, Pharisee

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