Saturday - 3rd Week of Lent

Gospel – Luke 18:9-14

Turning Inward

Anointing Stone, Church of Holy Sepulchre

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the laundry outside. “That laundry is not very clean”, she said. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.” Her husband looked on but remained silent.  Every time her neighbor would hang her washing to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

Sometime later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean laundry on the line and said to her husband: “Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this.”  The husband said, “No, dear!  I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows”

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!  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.  There are times when our focus is completely outward, looking for the faults in others and blind to our own.

May our prayers of repentance be sincere and our thanksgiving self-less!  May these remaining weeks of Lent be an opportunity to continue to humbly acknowledge our blessings from the Creator, identify our faults, and pray for His grace and mercy.  May this Lenten Season be a time when we can honestly and humbly focus inward, on our dirty laundry and how we can improve our spiritual life.