Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
The tax collector and the Pharisee in the parable told by Jesus were such extreme caricatures that we risk not seeing ourselves in them. But the comedic distance we get when we hear the prayer of the Pharisee, thanking God because, "I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity --
greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector", is not a distance that is supposed to make us dismiss him as irrelevant to ourselves. It is rather a distance meant to take off the edge so that we can see ourselves in him and recognize the degree to which we are still convinced of our own righteousness and despise everyone else.
We wouldn't use the phrase 'convinced of our own righteousness' to describe ourselves, and yet we often manifest a similar attitude to the Pharisee. We take up our position in Church or in prayer time casually and even indifferently as though we deserve to be there, as though we have earned that position by our own efforts. We may experience this as simply taking for granted that we are able to come into the presence of the God Most High rather than the fully rationalized attitude of the Pharisee and may not be entirely cognizant of the assumptions that underly such an attitude. But we can be sure there is something implicit in our presumptuous approach that resembles what was explicit in the Pharisee, that we believe we earned it, as he believed he did, "I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income".
We also would probably not say we despised everyone else, or perhaps even that we despised anyone. And yet we often compare ourselves with others to assure ourselves of our own righteousness just as did the Pharisee. We call to mind an seemingly endless parade of public sin and scandal and use that as a comfort to ourselves to assuage the fear that coming into the presence of the Lord might otherwise invoke.
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.
God did not want the tax collector to remain at a distance to himself. But in order to truly come into the presence of the Lord it was necessary that he would first recognize his own unworthiness and lack of deserving. Only this attitude could truly free an individual from competing and comparing himself with others. Only this attitude was sufficiently emptied of itself, sufficiently poured out like a libation, in order to be filled with the mercy of God. This attitude is meant to be our own, and to mark for us the basis by which we hope to stand before the Lord. This is why it is not only at our first mass but at every mass that we pray, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof". It is not meant to engender in us an attitude of self-hatred, or anything that would increase the focus upon ourselves. It is meant rather to get ourselves out of the way as much as possible, to set our ego aside, so that there can be communion between the deeper and more true depths of our hearts and the Lord. The humility of the tax collector can in fact result in a new confidence to come into the Lord's presence that is no longer rooted in ourselves, as that about which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (see Hebrews 4:16). It is precisely in that posture and with that attitude, when we stand before the Father in the name of the Son, and not in our own name, that our prayer becomes powerful.
The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds;
it does not rest till it reaches its goal,
nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds
Taking the tax collector as our example won't make us pathetic, pitiful, or powerless, as we might fear. Rather it will allow ourselves to take advantage of the only strength that is true strength and with it to fight the good fight, finish the race, and receive the crown just as did Paul, who was in no way rendered pitiful or powerless even though he counted all is loss for the sake of gaining Christ.
And I was rescued from the lion's mouth.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom.
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