A news reporter heard that a woman, Mrs. Jones, was the prophet of a new religion. He interviewed her and asked about the core belief of the new faith. Only those who are members of my religion will get to heaven, she answered. How many members of the new religion are there? The reporter asked. Only two, she answered, me and my maid, Mary. So only you and Mary will go to heaven? After a long pause Mrs. Jones answered, I’m not that sure about Mary. Judging who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, is a perennial human practice. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commanded that we avoid doing so. “Stop judging lest you be judged,” or to put it in commandment form “Thou shalt not judge.” In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector or Publican the problem was not so much that the Pharisee was listing all his spiritual accomplishments, his prayers, fasting and generosity. Those were, in fact, true and to his great credit. His prayer was one of gratitude that God was so much a part of his life. The problem arose because the Pharisee compared himself to others in general and to the publican in particular. “Oh God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity or even like this tax collector.” He violated the commandment to stop judging.
To be sure there is judging and then there is judging. For example, we judge whether this politician is telling the truth or not. We make good decisions about who to vote for because of our judgments. What we shouldn’t do, what Jesus commands us not to do, is judge how that person stands before God. When we are deciding to answer someone’s friend request, we judge whether she would be good for me, not whether or not she is a good person. Only God knows all the factors which has formed this other person and how they became who they are. We can judge whether what they are doing is good, not whether they are good. The mistake the Pharisee made was to judge another person in comparison with himself, not being willing to cut them some slack.
Okay, bragging about yourself and judging other people is bad and being humble is good. We get that. But a closer look at the parable suggests Jesus is after a deeper meaning. To understand the parable as Jesus spoke it requires looking at the translation. Remember that the Gospel of Luke was written in Greek fifty or so years after Jesus spoke the parable in Aramaic which we now read 2000 years later in English. We sometimes have to dig to get what is going on. In the parable, after the Pharisee says his prayer he might have heard the prayer of the Tax Collector. Now tax collectors were despised as collaborators with the enemy and Pharisees were local heroes in Jesus’ time. So imagine the Pharisees surprise when he hears the tax collector’s saying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” This might have caused him to re-assess his judgment. Perhaps the tax collector was not as hopeless as he thought. According to the story, they both went up to the temple to pray, the Pharisee telling God how good he is; the tax collector how bad he is. Then comes the crucial line: (this translation) “The latter went home justified, not the former.” The word translated as “not” is the Greek word “para.” This translation understands it to mean “instead of.” The latter (the tax collector) went home justified instead of (para) the former (the Pharisee). But the word “para” has been incorporated into several English words which shows it can have different meanings, for example “parallel.” In this case the word “para” means “along side.” The lines are parallel if they lie along side one another. If we translate this gospel passage taking “para” to mean along side then it would say: The latter went home justified along side the former. In other words both the good guy and the bad guy went home equally justified. Why? Not because of how good or how bad they were. No, they were both justified because they both recognized their need for God by coming to the temple to pray. God justified them, not their actions for good or for ill.
If this translation is correct (I didn’t make this up, some Biblical scholars have suggested it) – then both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector were in the same boat because of their need for God. Could that be the lesson Jesus wants us to glean? God hears the prayers of everyone along side each other. One prayer isn’t better than another. The prayer of the cloistered monk who spends eight hours a day kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament is received by God along side the prayer of the harried mother who, in the midst of feeding the children breakfast, ironing a shirt for work, putting a load of laundry in, taking out the chicken to thaw for dinner, fixing lunches to take to school, and calling the car pool to say she’s running a bit late manages to work in a “Dear Lord, help me make it through this day” prayer. Both prayers belong along side one another because both are precious to God. In both instances the pray-er recognizes that it is only with the grace and love of God that we live a full and happy life.
The Pharisee when he heard the Tax collector’s prayer discovered that God alone was enough. All of his tithing and fasting did not make him a good person. God’s grace did. The Tax Collector also found that God was enough. Even though he had messed up big time God’s forgiveness and mercy let him know he was loved. The monk and the harried mother both knew that God was enough to help them make each day worth living. And God is enough for you and me. As a famous prayer of St. Ignatius puts it: “give me only your love and your grace. That’s enough for me.”
