by Fr. Tommy Lane
In Vienna in Austria there is
a church in which the former ruling family in Austria, the Hapsburgs, are
buried. When royal funerals used to arrive the mourners knocked at the door of
the church to be allowed in. A priest inside would ask ‘Who is it that desires
admission here?’ A guard would call out, ‘His apostolic majesty, the emperor’.
The priest would answer, ‘I don’t know him’. They would knock a second time, and
again the priest would ask who was there. The funeral guard outside would
announce, ‘The highest emperor’. A second time the priest would say, ‘I don’t
know him’. A third time they would knock on the door and the priest would ask
‘Who is it?’ The third time the answer would be, ‘A poor sinner, your brother.’
(An edited form of the story in
A World of Stories for Preachers and Teachers: And All Who Love Stories That Move and Challenge
There is a journey we all have to make, the journey from pride to humility. That is the journey from starting out like the Pharisee saying ‘I thank you God that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and especially that I am not like this tax-collector here’ to arrive at the point where we can say like the tax-collector, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’. It was easy for the Pharisee to fall into the temptation of thinking he was better because he really was a good man. He fasted twice a week whereas Jewish law asked to fast only once a year. He paid tithes - giving away 10% of all he got, whereas Jewish law required one to tithe 10% of grain and firstborn of the flock. He was a really good man but he lacked compassion for others because he had not experienced problems himself. He did not have a cross to carry and so he did not have sensitivity to others who were suffering. Nothing helps to mature us like suffering does. He had never fallen in life so he was proud. Pride comes before a fall. And often a fall is what it takes for someone to lose their pride and realize that they are human the same as everybody else. When it comes to sin and grace we are all on the same playing field, none of us deserves or earns heaven, it is a gift from God to us won by Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.
There is some of the pride of the Pharisee and some of the humility of the tax-collector in each of us. Each of us, to a greater or lesser degree is called by Jesus in our Gospel to make that journey from pride to humility. In a sense the Pharisee thought he was God but there is only room in any person’s life for one God. There are very few people who have room for two gods so if you’re God, God in heaven loses out. That’s why in the parable the humble tax collector who asked God for mercy went home at rights with God and the proud Pharisee did not. If we are not sensitive to other people we are not very sensitive to God either. The Pharisee was not sensitive to the tax-collector and was not sensitive to God. The tax-collector was sensitive to his own failings and weakness and was also sensitive to God. Sensitivity to other people and sensitivity to God nearly always to hand in hand.
“The proud
cannot bring themselves to hold out empty hands to God, they insist on offering
virtues, good works, self denials, anything in order not to have nothing. They
want to be beautiful for him from their own resources, whereas we are beautiful
only because God looks on us and makes us beautiful. God cannot give himself to
us unless our hands are empty to receive him. The deepest reason why so few of
us are saints is because we will not let God love us.
(from Guidelines for
Mystical Prayer pages 83-84 by Ruth Burrows, published and copyright 1976 by
Sheed and Ward,
longer excerpt)
The royal Hapsburg family in Austria were allowed into the church for burial when they admitted that their deceased was a poor sinner. We are all called to make the journey from saying like the Pharisee ‘I thank you God that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and especially that I am not like this tax-collector here’ to arrive at the point where we can say like the tax-collector, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’. If we experience suffering or a cross in life it is easier for us to make that journey from pride to humility.
This homily was delivered when I was engaged in parish ministry in Ireland before joining the faculty of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Related material for the Thirtieth Sunday Year C
Related Homilies: pride/humility and equal dignity of all We are all Equal in Dignity before God
Be Gentle in Carrying Out Your Business
The greatest among you must be your servant