C: 30th Sun of OrdTime (27 Oct 2019) - ON BOXING MATCH, BEAUTY PAGEANT AND BATTLEFIELD (Lk 18:9-14)

I heard once a beautiful illustration of what is the right attitude in entering the kingdom of heaven. It says that life is not a boxing match that you need to outbox and, as much as possible, knock your opponent down to win the golden belt. Rather, it is more like a beauty pageant where you simply display your beauty and brains without hurting your competitors, giving the judges the freedom to select the candidate deserving to don the prized crown.

Our gospel today presents the story of a Pharisee who stood at the front of the Temple while praying confidently: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income” (Lk 18:11-12). In a way, he is like a boxer who hit heavily his sinful opponent in pursuit of his goal of earning the favorable nod of God. He was probably thinking that by exalting himself and by ardently demeaning his competitor, he would appear as more satisfactory before God. Jesus, however, explicitly denounced such an attitude of self-righteousness and pride. Rather, he preferred the tax-collector’s humble disposition as he only spoke sincerely to God without uttering any bad remarks against the other persons praying in the Temple. To some extent, such a behavior resembles a candidate in a beauty pageant who simply projects her worth without discrediting the value of the other contenders.

In a similar vein, between the two illustrations, we definitely should adhere to the beauty-pageant-imagery since a boxing-match-imagery widely promotes hostility, unfair criticisms, and even violence. Meanwhile, the former encourages equity, fair play, and mutual respect for one another since herein one simply showcases one’s true value confidently believing that one’s beauty already lies innately within. However, the situation of the sinner in our gospel seems not in line with any of the two imageries. Particularly, the publican did not see any inner beauty in himself and did not possess any confidence before God as he was “standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (v. 13). His low self-esteem that already hit rock-bottom clearly would not fit even the beauty-pageant-imagery.

Pope Francis in 2013 gave us a new image of the Church that is worth pondering on: “I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds... And you have to start from the ground up.” Accordingly, the tax-collector in our story was indeed battle-wounded, having probably received the fiercest societal criticism and discrimination. There was no more confidence in him as he could not even lift up his head; even his demeanor of beating his breast seemed like someone who had already lost all hope. Meanwhile, Jesus disregarded his sins of the past. He simply focused on what the poor sinner needed at that very moment, i.e., to receive mercy. Admirably, Jesus did not only give him mercy; he even gave him justification and exaltation (v. 14) primarily on account of his humility and sincerity.

We are then challenged to stay humble and continue to believe that God will not abandon us despite the sins we may have committed in the past. Our first reading recovers our confidence back when it says “He will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan, or the widow when she pours out her complaint” (Sir 35:16-17). Let us then begin to recognize the beauty in each of us, sinner and saint alike, as God always does.

- Rex Fortes, CM