At the beginning of Mass, like the tax collector in today’s parable (Luke 18:9-19), we beat our breast and ask God for mercy as we pray the Confiteor. Like him, we can all say, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” But the Pharisee in the parable was not aware that he too, like the tax collector and all of us, is a sinner. Of course all his good deeds were good deeds, but he had allowed his conscience to grow dull. (See homily on the blind spot) The tax collector’s conscience was not dull as he was aware of his need of God’s mercy. The Pharisee thought his conscience was completely faultless but, as Jesus makes clear, he did not go home justified because he did not acknowledge that he too was a sinner. Like the tax collector, he too had guilt to bring before God, but he did not know it. He is a warning that it is possible to have an erroneous conscience, to have a conscience blind to the truth.
The Pharisee reminds me of Old Testament characters with blind consciences insensitive to the effects of their evil actions on others. One is King David. He engineered to take another man’s wife and was unaware that he had done great wrong. The prophet Nathan told him a parable about a rich man with lots of flocks and a poor man who had only one little ewe lamb. A visitor came to the rich man, and the rich man took the poor man’s little lamb to make a meal for his visitor. David got angry when he heard the story and the prophet Nathan said to him, “You are the man!” It took that story about a rich man taking a poor man’s lamb for David to understand the evil he had perpetrated in taking another man’s wife (2 Sam 12).
Turning to the New Testament, we could think of St. Paul whom we hear almost every Sunday. Before his conversion, he was fanatical in his Jewish faith and didn’t believe the stories he was hearing about Jesus. He stood by watching the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, being martyred. Then he set out to go to Damascus to search for Christians to bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. But, as we all know, before he reached Damascus, he met Jesus on the road and the Church’s greatest persecutor at that time became a great preacher in defense of Jesus as the fulfillment of Judaism. He had an erroneous conscience when he persecuted Christians even though he thought he was right, but after a vision of Jesus, his conscience came to know the truth.
We say one’s own conscience is paramount when making decisions but, as we see from King David, St. Paul, and the Pharisee in the parable, our conscience could be blinded to reality. Our conscience could be blinded by the family in which we grew up or the society in which we live or the friends we keep. So many influences have made us who we are now. It is possible that not every influence on us has helped to form our conscience. If our conscience is blind to reality, then we are blind to the truth and blind to where we are before God. King David had his conscience awakened by the prophet Nathan. St. Paul had his conscience awakened when he met Jesus in a vision on the road to Damascus. The Pharisee in the parable, although a good man, needed to allow God to enlighten his conscience as we do also. How do we make sure our conscience is not blind? Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Church guide our consciences. What God has revealed to us in Jesus guides us.
When St. Paul wrote letters back to the churches he founded, he was helping to form and enlighten their consciences. The church in Corinth needed more guidance from Paul than other churches because there were lots of problems there. One problem was disrespect towards the Eucharist. He wrote:
whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. (1 Cor 11:27-29)
It seems to me that just as the Corinthians had dull consciences when it came to the Eucharist, there is need to reflect on those words of Paul because our consciences are dull to the full consequences of those words of Paul on being in a state of grace for Holy Communion. When people distance themselves from God, they end up having a dull conscience and less receptivity to hearing the word of God. If people distance themselves from God, it becomes more difficult to present the fullness and beauty of the truth of the word of God because people react against it. In that sense, distancing oneself from God causes a famine of the word of God. It seems to me that what God said through the prophet Amos is valid today:
See, days are
coming—oracle of the Lord God—
when I will send a famine upon the
land:
Not a hunger for bread, or a thirst for water,
but for
hearing the word of the Lord. (Amos 8:11)
King David had his conscience awakened by the prophet Nathan. St. Paul had his conscience awakened when he met Jesus in a vision on the road to Damascus. The Pharisee in the parable, although a good man, needed to allow God to enlighten his conscience as we do also. Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Church guide our consciences. What God has revealed to us in Jesus guides us.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2025
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Thirtieth Sunday Year C
By admitting our sin to God, like the tax collector, we receive God’s Peace 2010
The Pharisee and the tax collector
Related Homilies: The Blind Spot 2023
Joy of the Gospel 2021
The greatest among you must be your servant
Book excerpt: Ruth Burrows on humility