30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Luke 18:9-14

Dirty Laundry

Church of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

 A young married couple are sitting in the kitchen of their brand-new home having breakfast.  The wife looks out the window and sees her neighbor hanging her laundry on the clothesline.  That laundry isn’t clean, she said, it’s still dirty.  Someone should teach her how to wash her clothes.  She has a lot to learn.  This happens again a few days later, and again a few days after that.  Each time the wife complains about the neighbor and her dirty laundry. 

Finally one morning she looks out the kitchen window and, in surprise, she says, Wow, someone must have taught her how to wash clothes; someone must have finally said something to her.  Her husband looks up at her and says, No dear, actually I got up early this morning and washed our window.

Don’t judge unless you want to be judged.  Quit finding the fault in others and not see the same faults in ourselves.  I guess it’s human nature that, in finding fault in others, we raise ourselves in stature above them.  At least I know how to get my laundry clean.  At least I’m not like them.  We pump ourselves up in pride and egotism by looking down on others.

And isn’t that what is happening in today’s Gospel?

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector!  Two very different individuals – one an elite and highly regarded member of Jewish society, a religious leader.  The other – reviled and hated, looked on as a collaborator with the Romans, someone who cheats and steals from the people.

The Pharisee offers God a prayer of thanksgiving, well, sort of (sounds more like boasting)!  What is he thankful for?  That he’s not like others, that he is better than everyone.  He is blind to the needs of those around him and selfishly puts himself on a pedestal.  The tax collector, on the other hand, can’t even raise his head to the heavens.  His is a prayer of repentance, sorrow for his sins and failings.  The Pharisee thanks the Lord that he is not greedy or dishonest like others; and yet, that is exactly what he is.  The tax collector, the one everyone assumes to be dishonest, greedy and uncaring, is honest with himself and with God.  He asks only for mercy for the wrongs he has committed.  Jesus contrasts the humility of the tax collector with the pride of the Pharisee.

Truth be told, there are moments in our lives when we are not that far from the attitude of both of those men.  None of us are completely either/or.  There are times when we pray to God in sorrow and repentance for our failings.  And there are times when we are closer to the attitude of the Pharisee.

We are so good at finding fault in others that we miss the same failings in ourselves.  And, perhaps even worse, all the time and energy we spend judging others ends up being the time we should have spent in loving others. How can we possibly help others with their problems when we turn a blind eye to our own?  How about we spend a bit of time today cleaning up some of our own ‘dirty laundry”.