Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 26, 2025 - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Sir 35:12-14, 16-18; 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14]Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.' 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.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." [Luke]
The words of the tax collector have come to be known as "the Jesus prayer." The Eastern rites of the church have a form of beaded prayer in which each of the beads is this simple prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner." In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I often have the penitent recite the prayer of the tax collector - the Jesus Prayer - as the Act of Contrition that is part of the sacrament.
The end of the passage about self-exaltation is clear, but the problem is common. It is the problem of the capital sin of PRIDE. The Pharisee thought he was "better" than the socially despised tax collector. He would have been critical of Jesus for dining with such a person. I often hear people confess to the sin of pride for thinking themselves superior to others. There is a form of this in Catholic life when someone becomes bound up in certain observances and begins to think of themselves as more "Catholic" than others who do not behave the same way.
One might wonder to whom the Pharisee is really praying? The text says he prayed "to himself." Does that mean only that he didn't say his "prayer" out loud, or does it mean he has become his own God? The tax collector speaks out loud to God outside himself and "beats his breast."
The virtue of humility is on display here. It is not a matter of self-abasement, but rather a recognition of our condition of dependence on God. We are not self-made or self-exalting. Perhaps the prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi could be said by us all more often: "My God! Who are you? And who am I?" AMEN