FAR OFF, YET JUSTIFIED: A TALE OF TWO PRAYERS

READINGS: THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

In the gospel of this 30^th Sunday in Ordinary times, Year C, Christ tells the parable of two men who went up to pray in the temple: One stood tall and confident in his righteousness. and the other stood far off, broken. and honest. The latter, according to Scripture, went home justified. 

This is not just about two men who prayed then; it is about us today and how we stand before God in prayer. The Pharisee stood tall and, in praise, prayed “to himself”: “I fast… I tithe… I’m not like other people”—no awe, confession, gratitude, or need for mercy. He simply used prayer to advertise his own virtues and as a mirror in which he admired his own performance. Worship had been turned into self-reference. The tax collector on the other hand stood “far off” and will not even lift his eyes up but beats his chest and offers the shortest and truest prayer a sinner could ever pray: “God, be merciful unto to me, a sinner”—no bargaining, no spinning, just unclenched honesty before a Holy God. Jesus’ verdict is shocking: “This man went home justified rather than the other.” 

Herein lies the miracle of grace—the one who admits his brokenness is the one God lifts; not the polished, but the penitent; not the self-assured, but the self-aware. The Pharisee brought a spiritual portfolio, performance, and comparison; the tax collector brought poverty of spirit, repentance, and confession, and left the temple rich, because he prayed in a way that opens the doors of heaven—raw, unadorned, and desperate. 

God is not moved by our spiritual achievements but by the truth in our inward self. When our hearts bow low, grace rises to meet us. In prayer, we do need to pretend or to perform. All we need is to come before God with our true self. We may know how to say the right things, serve, give, and keep the rules. These are good, but when unchecked, they can turn into spiritual pride wearing the robe of devotion and becoming barriers to mercy as we become auditors of other people’s sins and curators of our own excellence. 

The guard against this is not to do less good but to relocate our confidence—from our goodness to God’s provision; from our self-righteousness to God’s mercy; from our loftiness to humility. The way up, is down; the door up is low; the path forward is submission; and the way home is humility.

But repentance is not a doorway we pass through once and for all; it is a hallway we live in every day. So, we constantly need to bring our real self—fears, duplicity, envy, anger, hatred, tired faith, judgementality, etc., and place them under the foot of the cross. We always need to remember our own mercy stories so that we can meet others in theirs. Remember, the most powerful prayer might be the simplest: “God have mercy on me.”

May we go home justified after every prayer we offer. Amen!