“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13
Today, the tax collector prays the prayer which all of us should be praying to God. We’re all in sinners in need of God mercy, and so, we’re incapable of righteousness, humility, and honesty on our own. However, this isn’t to say that we can’t be righteous, humble, and honest. We can with God’s mercy when we surrender to our Savior, Jesus Christ. In the parable, the Pharisees’ attitude is one of perfection and boasting. He claims to have done all these things on his own and reminds God of his deeds. It seems that he needs nothing from God, and his expression of gratitude seems empty and vain while the tax collector is everything that Pharisees is not. He knows that he must allow God to work through him. He understands that only God knows what’s just and right, and he asks the Lord to fill him with his righteousness. His gratitude is sincere because he recognizes God’s authority over his life and the healing power of God’s love. Let’s face it, if we truly have faith … if we truly believe that Jesus is our Savior … if we truly believe the we’re incapable of righteousness on our own, then we recognize and appreciate the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation; we, like the tax collector, recognize that we’re sinners in need of God’s mercy – the gift received through the sacrament.
This week the Church remembers St. Simon and St Jude. The two serve as a reminder of those whom Christ chose as his apostles – individuals who unlike the Pharisee where like the tax collector, sinful yet fully aware that they needed God’s mercy and righteousness in their lives. Simon, for example, was a zealot who was likely committed to his Jewish identity and would have firmly opposed Roman oppression and taxation, so much so that he was likely a rioter. Yet, he most likely saw something in Jesus that helped him to recognize his sinfulness, possibly coming before God, like the tax collector, and saying, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” As we pray to St. Simon and St Jude this week, let us ask for their intercession to have the wisdom and strength to come before the Lord and say: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
In Christ
Fr Robert