Jesus, throughout his temporal ministry, presented a picture of God which many, including Christians, have forgotten. God is love, and because of that, God is merciful, seeking for all to be saved. Jesus constantly presented God as being willing to forgive sins and save people when they showed a true conversion of their heart. St. Dismas, the thief on the cross next to Jesus, was welcomed into paradise, not because of any good which he might have done, but because he asked Jesus to remember him.
We must not be haughty and smug, looking down upon others, thinking we are better than them; rather, we must accept who and what we are, with all the good and bad which we have done, and in doing so realize that, like everyone else, we need the grace of God in our lives. If we humbly seek it out, we shall have it, but if we begin to try to put demands upon it, act like it is ours by right because of how great we think we are, we shall lose it, while finding many we thought little of receiving it instead. Jesus made this clear in the way he described the result of two different attitudes, one of a person praising themselves before God, the other, of a person who humbly looked to God for grace:
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, `God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk. 18:9-14 RSV).
Humility does not mean we have to deny the good which we find in ourselves, but it means we should not praise ourselves for it, thinking it makes us better than everyone else. If all we want is praise, we get it when we praise ourselves, and in doing so, we cut ourselves off from the grace which we need to find true happiness.
Jesus could have told the story differently; it could have been about a tax collector who praised himself, thinking all the wealth and power he had proved he was blessed by God, while the Pharisee could have sincerely loved God and sought God with all humility and received God’s mercy. We confuse the story if we think if we try to use it to create generalities and prejudices. It was not because someone was a Pharisee that Jesus indicated that they were haughty and prideful, nor was it because the other man was a tax collector that he ended up being humble. Indeed, it is more likely the case that a tax collector would be boastful and proud, and a Pharisee humble, but Jesus wanted us to not follow expectations, not to engage prejudices and biases in the way we interpret others. He did this by having the one who would more likely be holy prove to be otherwise, and the one who would more likely have little to nothing to do with God prove to be the one who came to God and received God’s mercy. We are warned by this not to judge by appearances or expectations, but sadly, over time, Christians have forgotten this and have used the story to suggest all kinds of wrong notions about Pharisees (and with it, the Jews and their pious traditions).
It is important to note how quick and easy it was for the tax collector to receive mercy; all he did was go to the temple with perfect contrition. We do not know all that he had done in his life, nor do we have to. We can assume the worst if we wish, but the call of God came over him and led him to see his need for God’s love and grace. What we do know, therefore, is that the tax collector entered the temple in humility and sorrow, realizing how far astray he went in his life, and so asked for and received mercy and grace. The point is that receiving God’s forgiveness and grace can be and is that simple. God will forgive us if we ask for mercy and we are sincerely sorry for our wrongdoings. This is why we can and should have hope, for God is quick to forgive us, no matter what we have done. Indeed, it can be said, God wants to forgive, but will not force that forgiveness upon us; God will wait for the time when we call out and ask for it, and then we will receive it. God so loves us and desires to forgive us, God even allows for imperfect contrition to be a means of grace, hoping that by giving us such grace, we can be fully converted, thereby going on to remove all the remnants of injustice and unlove from our lives. God is there, doing all that can be done to help us become the person God always intended us to be, a person who acts out of justice and love, indeed, who reflects love in all that we do.
Braggarts, on the other hand, do not understand this, and so they will try to do all things themselves, praising themselves for what they have done, acting as if even God should reward them because of what they have achieved. They do not understand true goodness, true holiness; they only understand its external manifestation, something which they try to imitate, but because they do not drink from the well of grace, all they have is a simulacra of holiness, one which proves to be hollow on the inside. And yet, sadly, such braggarts will tend to be viewed by the world as being holy men and women of God; they will have the appearance of being followers of God when all they do is follow after themselves. Thus, the writer to Timothy warned us about them, saying “evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13 b); we will find many imposters going out into the world, deceiving people while being deceived themselves (for they will believe what they tell others about themselves), imposters who will bring a bad name to Christianity, not because they are not Christians (because many of them, thanks to baptism, are) but because they claim their way of life is the true Christian way of life, when it isn’t. Thus, it is important to remember those whom Jesus praised, those who were humble and lowly, those who recognized their faults and their need for grace: they received what they needed because they were ready for it; let us hope and pray we, likewise, will be ready for it and receive all the grace which we need in our lives.
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