Why Was the Pharisee Not Heard?

 

I find something interesting in today’s first reading (Sirach 35.15-17, 20-22). “The person whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted, and their prayer will reach to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and it will not rest until it reaches its goal.” The prayer of the humble not only reaches to the clouds, but pierces the clouds and reaches God’s heart, obtaining what the humble person needs.

1. Mind you: the text begins, “The person whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted, and their prayer will reach to the clouds.” One could think that the pharisee in today’s Gospel, and perhaps we ourselves (at least sometimes!), are people “whose service is pleasing to the Lord.” The works mentioned by the pharisee are not bad: “I fast twice a week,” he said, and “I give a tenth of all my income.” The pharisee’s actions are not bad, he is accepted as a child by God, and his service is pleasing to Him. But he does not obtain what he needs. His prayer does not please the Lord, does not reach His heart. The tax collector, a sinner, obtains forgiveness from the Lord. “The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and it will not rest until it reaches its goal; it will not desist until the Most High responds and does justice for the righteous, and executes judgment.” In fact, he returned home justified. Not justified for having committed sin, but justified for having asked humbly for forgiveness.

- Let’s go back to the pharisee. If he is that bad, why is he still accepted as a child of God? When we commit a mortal sin, we do not lose the mark of our baptism: we are still God’s children. We may not live as God’s children, we may be bad children, but we are still members of the Church who can expect forgiveness from God in the sacrament of Reconciliation. If we, as prodigal children, come back to our Father and humbly confess our sins, we will be forgiven. It is God’s promise.

- Again, if the pharisee is that bad, why does his prayer still reach to the clouds? When we are running away from God and not living as we should, God does not ignore our prayer, because He knows everything, but our prayer is not effective per se, because we don’t want what God wants. I said, “our prayer is not effective per se”: God may grant a sinner’s request, not because the sinner asked for it, but because it is good for the sinner. So, the sinner’s prayer reaches God’s ears, but because he does not want what God wants, his prayer does not pierce the clouds. The sinner’s prayer is heard only when God, in his mercy, thinks that the sinner will repent sooner if his request is granted.

Why do I say that the sinner does not want what God wants? Because God wants the sinner to be good and the sinner does not want to repent and be good. God wants us to be good because He knows that happiness and sin are mutually exclusive. God wants us to be happy, and the sinner thinks that he knows more than God and that he will be happy by committing sin. This is why God does not hear the prayer of the sinner: because the sinner is against God’s will, the sinner does not want what is good for himself, and God cannot agree with him. If God, sometimes, hears his prayers, it is because the sinner may have asked for something that is actually good for his salvation, even if the sinner himself does not care too much for his salvation.

2. Again, back to the pharisee. He is still a child of God, God still hears his prayers, but He does not justify him, God does not grant His grace and friendship to the pharisee. What is wrong with his prayer? “God, I thank you that I am not like other people.” God could say to him, “You are wrong: you are like those other people.” “But those other people are sinners!” “And why are you not one of them? Who protected you from committing more sins that you have committed in life? Who gave you life to repent and not die younger in a state of a mortal sin? Who gave you the grace of repentance? Who gave you the education and the upbringing allowing you to become a better person? And most importantly, what would this tax collector have done with his life, had he had the opportunities you had? Who would you be now, if you had had the life of this tax collector? Are you really different from him? What are you without me? If you are better, it is because of how good I have been to you, not because you are not like him.”

- The pharisee is not thanking God for His mercy towards him, but for being better than others, as if his justice were something belonging to him. The pharisee does not realize that all the good we have comes from God, and on our own we have nothing, we are nothing, and sometimes worse than nothing, because we can sin. “I thank you, Lord, because I am so good”: the pharisee is pleased with himself, not with God; the pharisee rejoices in his own justice, not in God’s mercy; the pharisee celebrates his own goodness, not God’s goodness.

- And, to make it worse, he despises his brother… If the pharisee had understood how merciful God had been to him, he would have never despised his brother sinner. The merciful God loved that sinner, and the pharisee was now despising him… The pharisee distanced himself from the sinner, God wanted him closer. The pharisee did not want what God wanted, and so he could not be justified.

When we talk to God, let us not think that we will be heard because of how good we are. We will be heard because of how good He is. There is nothing we can give God that will pay for his graces, but there is no sin we can commit that can make God less willing to forgive. Let us not sin; but, if we have sinned, let us go before Him and ask for what we need: forgiveness. When you ask for forgiveness, you want what God wants. Let us never despair of God’s mercy. He will never give up on us.