We encounter a God of great mercy inside of today's Gospel. Despite the sinfulness of the tax collector's past he is forgiven through the mercy of God. He is forgiven because through his humility he realized his own sin and repented from it and with true faith placed his trust in God's never ending mercy. On the other hand we encounter the Pharisee who had every opportunity to encounter this same mercy from God. The Pharisee was stuck in his list of good works and following proper religious rules to the point that he missed what they were leading him towards. He was stuck inside of his pride and failed to see the limitations in himself that were struck by the stain of sin. This failure at self reflection and the acknowledgment of sin caused him to skip over the mercy of God that was always present in his life. This mercy never goes away, but is always present. The problem is that we are often like the Pharisee who through his lack of proper preparation wanted nothing to do with God's mercy.
We often reflect the values of this Pharisee inside of our own lives. We like to boast over the list of our accomplishments as if through these accomplishments alone we will reach God's mercy. In the carrying out of our good works we are not doing so to impress our Lord in any way, but are doing so because we must have this response out of obligation of calling ourselves Christian. To dismiss these opportunities to do good works through the service of our neighbor is failure to truly come to understand the ultimate charity that is displayed to the world by Christ crucified upon the cross. We also reflect the Pharisee when we are filled with pride and in return fail to see the importance of humbling ourselves to God's abundant mercy. If we are to truly be able to humble ourselves to this mercy we must begin to challenge ourselves to daily conversion from our sins. We cannot tap out to the submission of sin and allow it to continuously conquer our lives, but instead must realize that with God's mercy we are forgiven and can conquer it.
The tax collector realized this with his whole heart when he beat his breast in the realization of his sin and exclaimed: "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." At the beginning of each Mass we have the penitential rite that gives us the opportunity to stand with the tax collector in great humility. We stand with him as we call to mind our sins and prepare our hearts to receive our Lord in Holy Communion. We stand with him as we beat our breast crying our in the realization of our sin "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault." May we not rush over this action inside of the Mass without giving it proper preparation because it is only with humility that we will be able to prevail ourselves to God's mercy. This rite should also extend into our homes through a daily examination of conscience. It is here that we can continue to realize the totality of our sin and in return receive the strength necessary to endure in our journey of faith through encountering Christ's divine mercy. This daily examine should also open our hearts in perfect preparation for the great action of humility that is required to prevail ourselves to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
It is within this sacrament of God's love and mercy that we are able to join with Saint Paul in proclaiming "The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat." It is from this profound sacrament of mercy that we join with Sirach in trusting that God "hears the cry of the oppressed." When we begin to allow ourselves to trust in the mercy and the forgiveness of God with an acceptance of humility we join with the tax collector who did not allow his sin to control his life, but instead conquered it by embracing the mercy of God. May we embrace this same mercy by joining with this tax collector instead of running away from this mercy with the Pharisee. In pride we join with him in constantly running away instead of trusting that we can be rescued from every evil threat through our encounter with God's mercy.
In Saint Faustina's diary she writes concerning her encounter with Christ: "Write that I am more generous toward sinners than the just. It was for their sake that I came down from heaven; it was for their sake that my Blood was spilled. Let them not fear to approach Me; they are in most need of my mercy." If we are to respond to this invitation from Christ we must leave our pride behind and embrace this invitation for mercy in its totality. We can only embrace this invitation when we do so humbly by our realization that we are all in need of Christ's loving mercy daily. In humility we will examine our conscience and be driven back to God's mercy. In humility we will confess our sins and be strengthened in Christ's mercy. Through humility we will put our pride to death and in return move ourselves towards God's mercy. In the words of our Holy Father, Francis, "we are all sinners." This means me and you; it means all of us are in need of humbling ourselves to God's mercy that we may be liberated from every sin that enslaves us. The humble are the sinners who Christ came down from heaven for and the just are the sinners who are to prideful to accept Christ spilling his blood for them. May we accept our sinfulness in humility and in return embrace God's divine mercy.
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