pilarczyk homily

In this parable, there are two main lessons. The first is that bragging about oneself won't get God's attention. The second is that God's love and salvation are given freely, and we should respond with gratitude. The tax collector, although a crook, is shown more kindness by God because he acknowledges his flaws and the need for God's mercy. We should remember that we don't have to earn salvation through our own efforts, but rather accept and be grateful for God's gift. Our life as believers should be a response to God's generosity, not a constant struggle. There are two lessons in the parable that the Church assigns for this Lenten weekday. The first lesson of the parable, first lesson is pretty clear and simple. You got a better chance of getting God's attention if you don't brag about yourself. God tends not to pay a lot of attention to those who sound the trumpet of their own importance, as the Pharisee does in the parable. But there's also another, a deeper lesson here, one of the most basic lessons of the teachings of Jesus. Let's begin to examine that lesson by looking at those two men in the temple. The tax collector there wasn't like the nice, proper people who worked for the IRS in our time. The tax collector was a tax farmer, or else he worked for a tax farmer. These tax farmers were people who contracted with the government to produce a certain amount of tax money, and then they went out and shook down the people to raise whatever they could get. And the difference between what they had contracted to pay the government and what they could squeeze out of the people, that was their profit. In other words, these tax collectors, these publicans, were legalized extortionists. They were not nice, respectable people. And the man in the parable was one of them. The Pharisees, on the other hand, the Pharisee was a sincerely religious man who was generous to the poor, and who made sure he was in regular contact with the Lord. He knew that his strict religious observance made him different from other people, but he didn't mind. As a matter of fact, he took pleasure in that. I thank you that I'm not like everybody else. Is there something bad about all that? Well, what's bad about it all is that the Pharisee seems to have the impression that he deserves God's attention because of his goodness and his religious observance. He seems to think that he can earn God's favor by being religious, and that his spiritual and ritual observances will make him more worthwhile in God's sight. And what's so good about the tax collector, if anything? Well, it's certainly not that he's a tax collector. He's a crook, and an oppressor of the poor, and a collaborator with the pagans. There's no question about that. But he is looked upon more kindly by the Lord because he at least acknowledges that his life is a mess, and he at least acknowledges that he needs the kindness and the mercy of God. So what does all that have to do with us, these two strange people in a temple far, far away? Well, it has a lot to do with us because some of us, many of us, perhaps all of us at some time or other, are inclined to think that we have to earn our salvation. That if we just try hard enough and keep the rules carefully enough and strictly enough and do enough good for other people, then we're going to win God's favor. God is going to have to pay attention to us because of how good we are. Well, it really doesn't work that way. The way it works is that God gives us salvation. God gives us salvation. God gives us his love and his care. God gives us the right, the promise of heaven when we end this earthly life. And all we have to do is accept. We are called to respond. That is, we are called to live our life in a way that's consistent with what God has made us to be by his generosity. That's how we express our gratitude. None of us is totally successful at that undertaking, obviously. We are all failures to a greater or less extent. Like the tax collector, we all still need God's mercy. But God knows that and loves us anyhow and continues to exercise his generosity toward us. The life of a believer does not need to be complicated and full of struggles. It simply needs to be open to receiving and responding to what the Lord has given us. The life of a believer is simply a matter of letting our life be an ongoing act of gratitude for the goodness of the Lord. You don't have to fast three times a week. You don't have to do all the things that the Pharisees said. What you have to do is accept the gift that the Lord gives you and be grateful. During the rest of this liturgy, I would urge you to give some thought to all the ways in which the Lord has been generous to you. And when you receive communion today and when you go home and for the rest of your life, be responsive and be grateful because that's really what it's all about.