Working in another language can be tricky. For example, one our priests who was just learning Spanish wanted to say that he was embarrassed so he sort of transliterated the English and said that he was embarazado. The people started to giggle. They explained that embarazado means pregnant. That made him really embarrassed. Then there was the time when we were explaining to a translator that one of our men had run into and killed five deer with his car – cinco ciervos. What she heard was that he had killed cinco siervos, five servants. General Motors had a hard time selling the Chevy Nova in Latin America because “no va” translates as, “it’s not going.” Despite the best efforts, translations don’t always accurately convey in one language what is meant in the original. There is an Italian expression: to translate is to betray. Things get lost in translation. All of which has a direct impact on reading the Bible. Since most of us don’t read Greek and Hebrew we are dependent on translators to help us understand what the word of God says. We get accustomed to a particular translation and don’t always appreciate the new, presumably better, translation which replaces the old one. For example, we still say “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” in the Lord’s prayer because we are so used to the traditional prayer that it would be jarring to change it.
All of which serves as background to the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. To understand the parable as Jesus spoke it requires looking closely at the translation. The story: there is a Pharisee who does everything right. He’s a little full of himself but when you do everything right, why shouldn’t you be! Then there is the tax collector who does everything wrong. He is collaborating with the occupying power, he is working against the interests of his own people, and he is in all likelihood skimming a little of the profits off for himself. They both go 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.” The translator 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 with a different meaning, 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 recognized their need for God by coming to the temple to pray. God justified them, not their actions.
If this translation is correct – that both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector were in the same boat because of their need for God – then the parable applies directly to us. God hears the prayers of everyone along side each other. One prayer isn’t better than another. The prayer of the cloistered nun 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.
Since this parable of Jesus is about prayer let’s think a bit about how we pray. Our prayer should remind us that God is there for us. Are you familiar with what is known as the bookmark prayer of St.Teresa of Avila? She was a profound mystic who wrote about the spiritual life in ways that speak of her intimacy with God. When she died they found this well-thumbed piece of paper in her prayer book: “Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All is passing. God alone never changes. Patience gains all things. If you have God you will want for nothing. God is enough.” The Pharisee discovered that God alone was enough. All of his prayers and fasting did not make him a good person. God’s grace did. The Tax Collector 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 cloistered nun and the harried mother both knew that God was enough to help them make each day worth living.
The temptation we face is that we imagine we need something else besides God. God is a nice addition to my life but I really need to have my health in order to be happy. I’m glad to be a believer but I rely on my savings for security. How good it is that God loves me but I won’t be content until I have another person in my life. That is the challenge Jesus holds out for us in the parable. Do we truly believe that God is enough? As another great saint put it, St. Ignatius: “give me only your love and your grace. That’s enough for me.”