Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Agnes Church, New York, NY
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Extraordinary Form
August 1, 2021
1 Cor 12:2-11, Lk 18:9-14
To listen to an audio recording of today’s Mass, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- St. Paul in today’s epistle tells us, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit makes possible our prayer and our profession of faith. We don’t know how to pray as we ought, as St. Paul teaches us in his Letter to the Romans, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, he has been poured into our hearts so that we might cry out, “Abba, Father” and “Jesus is Lord.” He does so not by putting words on our mouths, but by changing who we are as we pray, so that we, recognizing we’re beloved sons and daughters of the eternal Father, might turn to him with filial confidence, and, conscious of Jesus’ divinity, might relate to him as Lord and Savior. During the Last Supper, Jesus said that the he and the Father would send us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, to remind us of everything he taught, and to convict the world with regard to sin, righteousness and judgment. This work of the Holy Spirit with regard to sin, holiness and the last things is crucial for us to pray aright and live aright. In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us a parable that underlines this important point and helps us to examine whether we are truly living by the Holy Spirit.
- In the parable, Jesus describes two men who went up to the temple to pray. The first man was a Pharisee. He prayed, “Thank you, God, that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.” The man was what most people would deem today a good religious man. He was going up to Jerusalem to the temple to pray, which was probably a journey of many miles. He, like his fellow Pharisees, never sought to do the minimum in the practice of the faith. Whereas Jews were required to fast only once a year on the Day of Atonement, the Pharisees fasted twice a week. Whereas Jews needed to tithe only certain things, he tithed on his whole income. He was outwardly a role model. But there was something drastically wrong in his conception of God, his conception of religious life, and his conception of others. The first clue is that Jesus said, “He spoke this prayer tohimself.” That doesn’t mean that he simply said it quietly so that he alone could hear, but, in a sense, he was directing the prayer not to God but to himself. He expressed thanks that he was not like so many others, who were thieves, rogues, adulterers and publicans. He rejoiced in what he saw was his virtue. But he failed to recognize was how proud, judgmental, vain, boastful and uncharitable he was. He didn’t see his own sinfulness. He didn’t ask God for mercy, because he didn’t think he needed it. Compared to so many around him, and the other person he noticed praying in the temple, he considered himself a saint among sinners, canonizable among the corrupt.
- Jesus contrasts him with the other man, a tax collector, who went up to the temple to pray that day. Tax collectors were hated by their fellow Jews not just because they were collaborating with the Romans who were subjugating the Jewish people, but because in carrying out of their duties, they would routinely rip off their own people for greed. They were assessed a certain amount that needed to be collected; whatever they could get beyond that was theirs to keep, and many of the tax collectors were ripping off the poor precisely in order to live well. They were similar in some ways to an ancient mafia class that the authorities with whom they were conspiring would do nothing about. One would think that someone in this circumstance, who had given his life over to this type of betrayal of his nation and of so many people who lived around him, wouldn’t pray at all. For him to pray, some might say, was hypocritical. But he knew that even if others might never forgive him, God might, and he knew how much he needed God’s forgiveness. With no arrogance whatsoever, no self-importance, and great humility, he stayed in the back of the temple, beat his breast and say, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” He was totally conscious that he didn’t deserve forgiveness, but knew that the Lord was kind and merciful, that the Lord’s mercy endures forever, and with great repentance, with a humble and contrite spirit, he prayed for that gift.
- Jesus gave a startling conclusion to the parable. He told his listeners that of the two, the good man who fasts, tithes and lives outwardly by the mosaic law, and the despicable one who rips off his own people and conspires with the pagan authorities, only one of them had their prayer heard and left the temple in a right relationship with God — and it was the publican! We’ve heard the parable so many times that we can miss the absolute shock that Jesus’ first listeners would have had in response to it. To understand their surprise, it would be like Jesus’ today substituting a Missionary of Charity for a Pharisee and a pimp, drug pusher or abortionist for the publican and said that when the two left the Church only the latter left on good terms with God. It would be like he said a priest and a hit man went to Church to pray but the only one who left justified was the repentant assassin. Such a comment was not about the type of life they were leading before coming to the Temple, but about the type of humble prayer they made and the way they leaving the temple. Only the tax collector left changed. Only the tax collector departed intent on living truly with God from that point forward. This whole parable points to what Jesus had said elsewhere, “I have come not to call the self-righteous, but sinners!” If we wish to come to Church and leave on good terms with the Lord, we need first to recognize that we’re sinners and need his mercy, ask for it and seek to live by it. Only those who pray for mercy will receive it. Only the truly humble will be exalted.
- This has great practical consequences in the way we come to Mass to pray. At the beginning of Mass today, did we really mean the words we said in the Confiteor, that, “I have greatly sinned … through my most grievous fault?” Did we beat our breasts with sincere repentance? Did we really pour ourselves into singing the Kyrie, imploring, “Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!” or did we treat it as just as beautiful music? Later in the Mass, when we pray in the Agnus Dei to Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, will we passionately cry out, “Have mercy on us, have mercy on us, and grant us peace” from our sins? And perhaps most poignantly, when that Lamb of God is elevated and we behold him, will we pray with conviction the words, “Domine, non sum dignus,” “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed?”
- There’s a story I love about Frederick the Great, King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, who one day visited a prison. Each of the prisoners to whom he spoke claimed to be innocent: the victim of misunderstanding, prejudice, or simple injustice. Finally the king stopped at the cell of an inmate who remained silent. “I suppose you’re innocent, too,” Frederick remarked. “No, sir,” the man replied. “I’m guilty. I deserve to be here.” Turning to the warden, the king said: “Warden, release this scoundrel at once before he corrupts all these fine, innocent people in here!”
- The message of the parable Jesus gives us today is ever urgent for us to grasp. There are of course still self-righteous people in the Church, who, when they look at themselves in the mirror, think that they’re something special, that they’re better than other people, that, sure, they may have their weaknesses and problems, but at least they’re not like those who have “really sinned,” by being thrown in prison or causing massive scandal. They might admit that, sure, they need a “little” of God’s mercy, but nothing near what others need. But this self-righteousness isn’t just a problem for those who, like the Pharisees, actually do try to live religiously. It can also afflict those who live like the publican. That’s very popular today in our culture and even in the Church. Those who are clearly violating the Lord’s commandments left and right — by never coming to Church, by engaging in lifestyles totally incompatible with the Gospel, by supporting atrocities like the killing of innocent human life in the womb — rather than repenting for their sins and coming to beg for God’s forgiveness, actually glory in their shame and attack the Church or those who are seeking to call them to conversion for being “intolerant” or “judgmental.” They can pray, essentially, “I thank you Lord, because I am not one of those hypocritical and intolerant modern Pharisees, who worry about fasting, who obsess about coming to Church and praying, who brag about tithing, but who in real life am worse than I am!” St. Luke tells us that Jesus addressed the parable in today’s Gospel to “those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else,” and so Jesus is proclaiming it to all those who are convinced of their own righteousness, whether they have been religiously observant up until now or not.
- Jesus, rather, wants us to become humble in prayer and life, to recognize our need for his mercy, to come to receive it and, transformed by it, to share it with others. One of the deepest manifestations of the lack of cooperation with the Holy Spirit is when Catholics, especially those with the reputation for being good and faithful Catholics, are arrogant and judgmental, who through their words and actions campaign to be the wagging finger of the Mystical Body. This is not the Spirit of God. Sadly, there are many in the Church who have that impression about those who love the Traditional Latin Mass, because some — a small minority — outspoken proponents of it would win gold medals for chronic complaining and condemning. St. Paul tells us today in the epistle, “Nobody speaking by the spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be accursed.’” In a similar way we can say that no one speaking by the Holy Spirit says that the Second Vatican Council should be accursed, or the Mass of St. Paul VI, as some loudmouths spew, to the detriment of the Church and to all who love the traditional Latin Mass. After the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which was a reaction to some unCatholic, disunifying and theologically dangerous tendencies among certain segments of the traditional Latin Mass community, it’s important for members of the TLM, rather than joining in their attacks against the Second Vatican Council, or the Vicar of Christ on earth, or the New Order of the Mass that validly makes Jesus Christ present on the altars, and rather than remaining silent, to say with conviction, “Such self-appointed spokesmen do not speak for me!” Rather, in the short- and long-term, the rank-and-file must become known for their loves rather than for their criticism, for gratitude rather than complaint. They must be known, in short, for being humble like the Publican than arrogant like the Pharisee, praying for themselves to receive God’s mercy and then praying and fasting for others out of love to come to receive that same gift. Many Catholics who love the traditional Latin Mass as well as priests who serve them have noted that various judgments contained in the motu proprio on which the Pope based his disciplinary decisions are inaccurate descriptions of the vast majority of those who frequent the Mass. But now is the time not just to say that but to show it, through letters of thanks to pastors and bishops who permit and celebrate it, expressing how this liturgy helps you to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel, how it strengthens you to love God and love your neighbor. You know that bishops, priests and the Holy Father will be getting plenty of correspondence from those who are caustic and critical, whose behavior shows many of the works of the flesh rather than the fruit of the Spirit. I’d urge you to far outnumber them with letters of gratitude, praise, humble petition and generosity, revealing some of the good deeds and holiness that worshipping God in the extraordinary form fosters.
- Today we’ve all come to Mass to pray. Whether up until now our lives have been characterized more by the attitudes and actions of the Pharisee or the Public, we all want to leave justified. At the offertory, the priest prays with words from the Book of Daniel that are meant to help us all make the type of sacrifice God considers pleasing. He says, “In spiritu humilitatis, et in animo contrito suscipiamur a te, Domine: et sic fiat sacrificum nostrum in conspectu tuo hodie, ut placeat tibi, Domine Deus.” “With contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received by you, Lord and so let our sacrifice in your presence today be pleasing to you, Lord God.” Today, like the tax collector, we present ourselves with a humility and contrition so that God the Father can transform us by his mercy as we prepare to receive his Son, Mercy Incarnate. And we ask him for the grace to leave her “justified,” in right relationship with God, so that by all our words and actions, we might cry out “Abba Father” and “Jesus is Lord” and give witness to the particular “manifestation of the Spirit” with which each of us has been blessed.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
A reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians
Now in regard to spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be unaware. You know how, when you were pagans, you were constantly attracted and led away to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that nobody speaking by the spirit of God says, “Jesus be accursed.” And no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.
The Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
Jesus then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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