30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C October 26, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“O God, I thank you that I’m not like those pharisees who think they’re better than everyone else. They pray and fast and give to the Church, but they’re so judgmental. I’m much more like those tax collectors and other people Jesus loved – I never fast or give tithes, I love money, I’m addicted to drinking, and I like to lust… but, man I’m so glad I’m not judgmental!”
Y’all see the problem there? People are so quick to agree with Jesus that the pharisee is wrong – and rightly so – but they don’t seem to get why he approves of the tax collector. For the sake of simplicity, Jesus built this parable on two basic categories: proud religious hypocrites and humble repentant sinners. His challenge to hypocrites is an important lesson – one that haunted me even when I was young because I saw myself in the pharisee’s role once I was old enough to understand it.
Still, just because the obvious interpretation of “don’t be judgmental or arrogant” is a good one – that doesn’t mean we can be lazy about how we interpret the whole passage. The prayer I opened with is an example of the third category of people. Not a category that Jesus addresses directly in this parable, but for whatever reason, a category of people that seems much more common now. Proud Religious Hypocrite is one category. Humble Repentant Sinner is the second one. What’s the third? Proud Sinner, who combines the worst of both sides.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of pharisee-type people still in the world today. But, honestly, I don’t think they’re our biggest problem now. I really don’t see a lot of priests and bishops acting like they’re better than everyone… if anything, we never seem to stop apologizing for what we are.
No, instead I see a lot of self-justifying sinners. Rather than learning the lesson of humble repentance, we warp it to mean we should be proud of our sins. People see Jesus be kind to sinners and think it means they can sin more, sin boldly, and not be afraid. People flaunt God’s law and act like it makes them better than the religious hypocrites. “At least we’re honest about our sins!” Yeah, but you’re also proud of them! It’s kind of like the people who find out that a saint sometimes used foul language act like it justifies them doing it… but it’s not like they imitate any of the good qualities of the saint!
Jesus praises the tax collector in this story not because he sins, but because he repents of his sin. If the pharisee had also said, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner. Forgive me for looking down on people,” Jesus would have praised him too.
Of course there are still pharisee-types in the Church: proud religious hypocrites… but we’re always pretty quick to catch that nowadays. What alarms me more are pharisaical sinners, people who don’t practice their faith but then look down on people who do. As if being a lying thief who goes to Mass a few times a year makes them better than people who go to Mass every week because “at least I’m not judgmental!” Except… you are judgmental. You just have a different standard you use to judge people. You twist this parable into an excuse to judge all religious people as evil and judgmental even though you have no idea what’s actually going on in their hearts and minds when they go to Church and pray.
There’s a clever online comic strip by Tom Gould, called “Tomics” – the T is a cross – which shows a guy reading this Gospel story, closing the bible and going “wow, that pharisee is so full of himself! Thank God I’m nothing like…” and then he realizes what he’s saying and lets the real lesson sink in. Excellent delivery.
So yeah, don’t be too quick to use this story as an excuse to point your finger at anyone. As with basically all of Jesus’ teachings, the point is not to aim it outward at other people, but to aim it inward at our own hearts. Every Christian should ask themselves, “where am I like a hypocrite?” on a regular basis. Every Christian should also ask themselves, “how can I learn from the tax collector in this story?” The trick, of course, is that we learn the right lesson: repentance! It’s not to imitate the tax collector’s sin, but to imitate his humility. It’s to imitate his willingness to ask for forgiveness, which implies a desire to stop sinning. Jesus wants to encourage sinners who are at risk of despair to have hope for salvation, not make them feel better about their sins.
And just so we’re clear, that still means we shouldn’t be too quick to nod our heads and say, “yeah, Father, tell those proud sinners how wrong they are.” Whatever in this homily or whatever in this gospel strikes you today, make sure you aim it at yourself. A good homily is not one that makes me feel better than other people, but one that causes me to draw closer to Jesus Christ. Perhaps it makes me repent of my sin and so draw closer to Jesus. Maybe it stirs up my joy and love of Jesus and draws me closer to him. Maybe it’s too long and difficult and makes me suffer and draws me closer to Christ on the cross. Whatever the case, remember the goal is getting closer to God, not judging others.
This is why the gospel gets paired with this particular first reading from Sirach. Sirach reminds us that God does not play favorites. He is perfectly just. People who reject religion, people who practice religion like hypocrites, people who judge others harshly… all of them will face the same perfectly just God who holds everyone accountable for every sin. Yet, in the very same breath as it tells us about God’s justice, scripture reminds us that God hears the cry of the weak, the oppressed, the orphan, the widow, the lowly, and the poor. We just repeatedly prayed “the Lord hears the cry of the poor” in our psalm. Why?
Because when we emphasize God’s justice, the right response should be concern. We should feel at least a little afraid that we’re going to answer for our sins. A clear look at God’s justice should make us realize that we are all lowly. And if we do, then we’re in luck. God listens to the lowly and “one who serves God willingly is heard” even if they are weak and lowly and unimportant and poor. No matter what our sins or what our status in life, if we’re willing to take God’s justice seriously, to admit our sinful lowliness, and to sincerely seek mercy, God will hear us! He will save us!
So yeah, the point of this parable is not for us to condemn anyone – even the pharisee. It is for us to convict ourselves of our need for repentance, to learn from the tax collector that most important prayer: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” And if we really mean that, if we really are convicted, we should strive not to sin! We should, like the pharisee, fast and tithe and pray, but do so with full awareness that we still need his mercy… that we do these things with humility and not as proof of our righteousness, but as expression of love, gratitude, and humble obedience to the law of the God who saves us.
Because, you know, there is a pharisee we call a saint. St. Paul, a pharisee and son of a pharisee, says without any irony that “a crown of righteousness awaits me.” How can that be? Because Paul combined the religious zeal of the pharisee with the humble repentance of the tax collector. We would be wise to do the same.