We explored a few themes in the last couple of Sundays beginning with faith, perseverance in prayer and today the Gospel shines a spotlight on the attitude we should have when we pray.Last Sunday’s Gospel, a contrast was made between a just God and a biased judge. God cannot be compared with the unfair judge simply because He listens to the prayers of all and no one is excluded. However, the 1st Reading makes an important qualification. While He is omni-audient or all-hearing, He is also sensitive to the cry of the poor, the widow or the orphan.
In other words, there is a soft spot in God’s compassion. It is reflected in the Gospel today. Two men prayed. One belonged to an elite class. The other belonged to a despised category. The Pharisee should be the expert in prayer whilst the tax collector barely worthy or deserving to stand before the Lord.
Interestingly the Pharisee’s behaviour may be interpreted from the perspective of familiarity rather than of pride. It would be too easy to dismiss his behaviour as pride and in a way, the dismissal may lend us, the present-day readers, an opportunity to vilify him. It flows with the current trend of virtue-signalling.
What is virtue-signalling? Generally, it is to point out the deficiency of a person or a class of persons in order to make us appear or feel good. Even though the Pharisee himself may have been virtue-signalling, closer to reality is a proverb, attributed to the Chinese, which says that “makers of idols rarely believe in them”. It was not pride which kept the Pharisee apart. Rather it could be a contempt born from over-familiarity.
We all know what it is like to take things for granted especially when we are so familiar with a setting. A good example is observable within the context of sacred spaces. How often is it that we have little or no reverence or respect for the tabernacle in our Churches? Remember Moses’ first encounter with God, the Lord reminded him that the ground he stood on is sacred. Imagine someone who enters the sanctuary day in and day out. Ordinarily, when we are in front of people, we sort of make a bow or we genuflect etc but when no one is looking, it is so easy to forget that the Blessed Sacrament is reserved and business is carried out automatically, almost mechanically without second thoughts. Over-familiarity can have this effect on anyone. The Pharisee thought that as one “set apart specially for God” he was close to God and thus privileged.
The tax collector stood at a distance where he recognised his unworthiness which from the perspective of humility, presents him as a paragon of virtue. We resonate with this kind of meekness. But in truth, we do not exactly want to be that humble because in an age that needs to be noticed to be relevant, we have a nagging fear that we might be overlooked.
In the context of being the “bad guy”, nobody wants to be the Pharisee. Individuals are not alone because corporations too are rushing to identify with the “Tax Collector”. He is the only “worthy” actor in a game of who scores higher in the competition for adulation and admiration, that is, to be held up as a model of virtue or righteousness. The comparison and contrast between the Pharisee and Tax Collector could be an occasion of identification that leads to pride. “I am not like that”. While the contrast between the Pharisee and Tax Collector may be a form of virtue signalling but closer to the truth is that both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector may be alive in us.
Thus, the classifications of Pharisee or Tax Collector bring no advantage because it is the attitude that counts. These categories may have connotations associated with them but they are neutral in themselves. Neither one is about good nor bad. Rather it is the attitude that determines one’s standing before God. It does not truly matter for there may be Pharisees who are as humble as the Tax Collector and there may be Tax Collectors who are prouder than a Pharisee.
The attitude that accompanies our prayers is what concerns the Lord. The proud might struggle with humility but the reverse is also true in the sense that it is easy for a Tax Collector to become a Pharisee. For example, a poor person becoming rich may at times forget or even try to erase his or her past destitution. The point is this, the categories of rich or poor, good or bad, Pharisee or Tax Collector are not our focus. Attitude is.
When conversing with a person, we can sense how much a person is receptive to reality or to alternative points of view. When a person is full of himself or herself, whether a Pharisee or Tax Collector, it is next to impossible to get through to him or her. Likewise with regard to our prayers. We often think of prayers unanswered as if it were a God-problem. Meaning? When our prayers are unanswered we may leave with a disappointing sense that God had been deaf because He has not fulfilled our prayers. It appears that God does not deliver.
The Tax Collector who stood a distance away was heard by God because he was not full of himself. In fact, he felt his unworthiness very acutely. Sometimes God cannot or will not give us what we desire not because He is miserly but because we are too full of ourselves. When a person is full of himself or herself, nothing can penetrate, not even God. God’s silence could be due to our attitude which, in prayer, plays a crucial role in our relationship with Him. It is a reminder of how we ought to humble ourselves when we come before the Lord.
The moral we can learn here is that the Pharisee’s identity or sense of self was not shaped by who he truly is before God. In fact, he took pains to paint himself as not being an extortionist or an adulterer, as if that was enough. In a way, it is reminiscent of Adam’s postlapsarian experience. After God found them out, Adam blamed Eve for his sin. In other words, he defined himself as one whose sin was caused by Eve rather than accept the responsibility for his caving in to temptation. The Tax Collector stood before God accepting his sinfulness. That is the attitude we may want to possess when we come before God. We are nothing, not because we despise ourselves but because we are sinners who need God’s mercy. If we can stand before God, it is only because He has, as the 2nd Eucharistic Prayer reminds us, “held us worthy to be in His presence and minister to Him”.
