SPEAKER_00: I think this might be one of the most psychologically brilliant parables of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a story about a Pharisee and a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: It reflects what happens inside every one of us when we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Two men walk into a temple, one leaves forgiven, the other leaves still full of himself.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is inviting us this morning to ask, which one am I?
SPEAKER_00: The parable begins simply, almost predictably.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee, a respected religious man, faithful to the law, a pillar of the community, stands up to pray.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a bad guy.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's generous.
SPEAKER_00: He fasts, he tithes, he keeps his rule, keeps the rules.
SPEAKER_00: If we had more people like him, the world would probably be a better place.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is never content with outward holiness.
SPEAKER_00: He's always after the interior, and that's where the trap begins.
SPEAKER_00: Because this, you see, this Pharisee isn't praying to God.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying to himself.
SPEAKER_00: His words rise up, but they never leave the orbit of his own ego.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that I'm not like these other people, he says.
SPEAKER_00: He's not worshiping, he's comparing.
SPEAKER_00: He's not repenting, he's reviewing his resume.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the uncomfortable truth, the temptation that lives in all of us.
SPEAKER_00: It's the spiritual version of scrolling through social media and silently thinking, well, at least I'm not like that person.
SPEAKER_00: At least I don't have that situation.
SPEAKER_00: We might not say it out loud, but we feel it.
SPEAKER_00: We grade ourselves on a curve.
SPEAKER_00: We compare our holiness to someone else's failure.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not holiness.
SPEAKER_00: That's vanity dressed up in religion.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee's biggest sin isn't arrogance, it's blindness.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't realize that his soul, though it polished, has gone dry.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the law, but he's forgotten all about love.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the tax collector, the villain of the story, the one everyone is expecting God to reject.
SPEAKER_00: He simply slips through the back of the church, head bowed down, heart heavy, can't even look up.
SPEAKER_00: He beats his breast and says, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
SPEAKER_00: No poetry, no self-defense, no justification, just pure honesty.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, that man, that sinner, that failure, the outsider, well, he goes home justified.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God can fill an empty heart but cannot fill a full one.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy cannot enter where pride has already taken up the space.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus told this parable, he wasn't condemning religion, he was redeeming it.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't saying, stop being devout.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is be devout for the right reasons.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee and the tax collector aren't opposites.
SPEAKER_00: They are both you and me.
SPEAKER_00: In each of us lives a little bit of the Pharisee who wants to be admired and validated, and then there's a little bit of the tax collector who just wants to be forgiven, wants to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, which voice do we let speak when we pray?
SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is, most of us want the Far what the want what the Pharisee did, just in a more subtle way.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us do what the Pharisee did.
SPEAKER_00: We think holiness is about performance when it really is about surrender.
SPEAKER_00: We think prayer is about saying the right words, when it's actually about showing the real wounds.
SPEAKER_00: We want to impress God, but God isn't impressed.
SPEAKER_00: He's moved by humility, by honesty, and by love.
SPEAKER_00: This parable reveals something that's both spiritual and deeply psychological.
SPEAKER_00: The more we defend our perfection, the less room we leave for grace.
SPEAKER_00: I have to tell you that in confession, many people will come.
SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed something that they will come to confession trying to get it right.
SPEAKER_00: They want to sound holy and say all the right things to make a good impression on the priest.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want the priest to think that I'm that bad.
SPEAKER_00: But confession isn't about performance, it's about surrender.
SPEAKER_00: You're not there to impress the priest.
SPEAKER_00: You're there to let God into your messiness.
SPEAKER_00: The only wrong way to come to confession is to come pretending that you're right, trying to defend your actions.
SPEAKER_00: The best confessions are not polished, they're honest.
SPEAKER_00: You come completely raw, vulnerable, bringing everything that is broken, everything that's ugly, everything that you wish weren't true, you bring it to that confession.
SPEAKER_00: Spilling it all out, vomiting the evil, as one saint puts it.
SPEAKER_00: Not because God needs to hear it, but because you need to let it go.
SPEAKER_00: Only then can grace rush in and allow you to start over.
SPEAKER_00: Only then can the soul breathe again.
SPEAKER_00: Because confession isn't God finding out what you did wrong, he already knows.
SPEAKER_00: It's God reminding you that you are still loved after all.
SPEAKER_00: If your soul is still all polished marble, it looks nice, but nothing seeps in, you may want to have your soul look like clay, where it's cracked, unfinished, porous, allowing grace to get in everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the saints, the truly holy ones, are never the ones who think they're saints.
SPEAKER_00: Padre Pio, Saint Therese of Lisu, Mother Teresa, all of them would tell you the same thing, that the closer that you get to God, the more you realize how much you need him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not weakness, that's sanctity.
SPEAKER_00: Let me put it this way.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee spoke about himself to God, the tax collector spoke about God to himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference between pride and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee left the temple full of pride, the tax collector left full of peace.
SPEAKER_00: One had all the religious credentials, the other one only had repentance.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're here today and you've been comparing yourself to others, thinking I'm not as bad as this one, or I really haven't done this, or I haven't done that, or maybe the opposite, I'll never be good enough, or I'm really a bad person, I don't deserve this or that.
SPEAKER_00: Both of those voices are ones that come from pride.
SPEAKER_00: One pride that looks down, and the other pride that looks inward.
SPEAKER_00: But grace invites us to look up, to lift your eyes, not to yourself or to your neighbor, but to God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you finally stop defending your goodness and start depending on His mercy, everything begins to change.
SPEAKER_00: That's when prayer becomes real, that's when love becomes alive, that's when holiness begins.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord never tires of forgiving, it is we who tire of asking.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the gospel's final twist.
SPEAKER_00: The thing that should shake us to the core.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a threat, it's a promise.
SPEAKER_00: Humility isn't humiliation, it's liberation.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we finally kneel before God, we stand tall before the world.
SPEAKER_00: When we admit our need for mercy, we become capable of giving mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Because the goal of this parable isn't to shame us, it's to set us free.
SPEAKER_00: Free from comparison, free from performance of holiness, free from the exhaust exhausting need to prove that we're good enough.
SPEAKER_00: God already knows we're not.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us anyway.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe this week when you come to Mass, kneel before the tabernacle, or sit in your car praying for strength to face another day, let your prayer be simple.
SPEAKER_00: Make it a prayer like the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you that prayer will never fail you.
SPEAKER_00: Because every time a heart bows low, heaven lifts it up.
SPEAKER_00: That's the paradox of grace.
SPEAKER_00: The way up is down, the way to freedom is to surrender, the way to joy is humility.
SPEAKER_00: So, my brothers and sisters, this Sunday, leave this church today remembering this.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee brought his virtue to God, the tax collector brought his sins.
SPEAKER_00: Only one went home justified.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the end, it is not the one who boasts of love who is made righteous, it is the one who let himself be loved.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.