True religion

There is what we can define as true or false religion. True religion leads to faith. False religion blocks internalisation.

This, in short, is the meaning of the parable in today's Gospel of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It focuses on one of the major issues in our churches today, that of the internalisation of religion. We all acknowledge that institutionalised religion is in crisis. People in Western culture have for quite some time now been putting into question their belonging to a church or to a religion.

In this parable, we have two characters who represent two basic attitudes in religious life. One is open to God. The other is closed in on itself and leads to nowhere. Jesus provides us with an in-depth analysis of our experience of religion, showing how it can be either liberating or enslaving.

The Pharisee thanks God for not being like the rest of the people, but attributes his righteousness to his religiosity, to the fact that he fasts twice a week and that he pays tithes on all his income. At times, observance of the law can serve only to consolidate our false self.

Without noticing it, we do a lot to emulate the Pharisee. Like the Pharisee, and here I quote Martin Luther, many a time we enter into God's presence only to present Him with the bill, expecting from Him only what is our due by right. In this manner, it is God who is in debt with us, not the other way round.

On the other hand, the tax collector's prayer is simple: Lord have mercy. In its simplicity, this is the perfect prayer. The Book of Ecclesiastes in the first reading tells us that the humble man's prayer pierces the clouds. This is the reason why, in the parable, the tax collector, seen as a public sinner at the time of Jesus, returns home at peace with himself and with God. In contrast with the Pharisee, the tax collector is utter simplicity and truth. Indeed, he acknowledges that he needs God's gift of righteousness because he has none of his own.

This narrative speaks to something deep within the heart of every human. The love of God can so easily turn into an idolatrous self-love; the gift can so quickly be seized as a possession. Prayer can be transformed into boasting.

Piety is not an unambiguous posture. The pious one is all convoluted in comparison and contrast. Worse, he assumes God's role of judge; while enumerating his own claims to being just, he reminds God of the deficiency of the tax agent.

In a cultural context where church-going seems to be in crisis and where people ask so much about the true significance of religion in their life, this parable should convey home a very important message. It reminds us of the saying: When you love, do not say God is in your heart but that you are in the heart of God. Being in the heart of God is what ultimately puts us at rest.

And as regards the parable, the truth is not that some are on the side of the Pharisee while others on the side of the tax collector. The truth may be in the middle, in the sense that we are all partly Pharisee and partly tax collectors. There is always a part in me that is Pharisaic, and a part in me that is genuinely ready to face the truth and acknowledge the need to turn to God.

It is not that God is choosy or even discriminatory in the way He manifests His mercy. Rather, our experience of God's mercy and forgiveness depends on whether we are humble enough in our heart to let go of our pretences and false securities and cling to Him alone.

This is how the principle of mercy works in the Christian religion.