A Few Words On "The Word"

October 28, 2007
The 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Luke 18:9-14

Think Again!

Have you ever encountered someone you just couldn't get along with? Maybe it was a classmate who just rubbed you the wrong way. Perhaps you were on a team with someone who continuously pushed your buttons. For whatever reason, you just couldn't see eye to eye.

When we come across someone we don't really care for we easily begin to think that we know exactly what they're like. We think we've got them figured out. We become confident that our negative view of them is the most accurate one and we refuse to listen to anyone who tries to tell us otherwise.

Despite what we think we know about a person, we often forget that we can only view other people through our own prejudiced eyes. It's easier to think that someone is a bad person if we already dislike them because of their actions. Unfortunately, we can't really know what someone may be like on the inside.

During Jesus' time there was a group of Jews called the Pharisees. The gospels generally depict the Pharisees in a pretty negative way. In reality, the Pharisees were considered some of the holiest Jews around. They did everything right. They followed the rules and said their prayers. The problem with the Pharisees was that they "were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else."

Basically the Pharisees appeared to be arrogant snobs. They looked down on people who didn't follow the laws as closely as they did. At the top of their list of the un-holy were people like tax collectors who they felt were not following the law by collecting taxes for the Romans.

In today's passage Jesus shows us that our own prejudices can often be wrong. At first glance you'd probably think that the Pharisees were better people. They appear to be more holy. On the other hand, nobody wants to pay taxes so it's inevitable that people wouldn't really like a tax collector. However, Jesus wants us to realize that appearances can be deceiving. The Pharisee in the story has become so confident in his own righteousness that he no longer realizes how powerful God truly is. The tax collector knows that he's not perfect and approaches God humbly.

People have a way of surprising us. Our initial judgments of people are often wrong. We choose to see the bad in them instead of realizing that we too need God's love and mercy. We become caught up in outward appearances and forget that Jesus is more concerned with what's on someone's heart. Our first step to freedom is to rethink our own prejudiced views of others. We must stop judging those around us and start looking at others with open eyes. If we can do this we may begin to see how amazing other people truly are.

Reflection Question

In what ways can you make efforts to stop wrongly judging the people you encounter every day?

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