St Alphonsus Church
17 June 2007

As I reflected on the second reading, I realised that St Paul was pointing to the same truth that Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel, and indeed the same truth that Jesus taught his disciples in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Like many of the parables it was a story with a real sting in the tail. The Pharisee was in many ways a very good man. He did everything as he should. He was generous in sharing his money with the poor; he fasted twice a week; he kept all the commandments. Tax collectors were despised: they helped the occupying forces of Rome to collect money from the poorest people in Jerusalem – and they often helped themselves to some of the money. He had to admit that he was far from being a good person. The people who heard the story for the first time were, no doubt, admiring the Pharisee’s exemplary life and wondering how the tax collector had the nerve to come near the temple at all. At the end of the parable they must have been shocked to hear Jesus say that it was the tax collector who went back home justified in the sight of God, not the Pharisee.

Saint Paul himself was a Pharisee. That meant that he had been brought up to admire and imitate people like the Pharisee in that parable; he had been brought up to keep the Law of God with great care and in every detail. And still in the second reading he makes exactly the same point that shocked the first listeners to the parable. It is a point that must have been hard for him to learn: it is not obedience to the Law that puts us right with God – it is faith in Christ Jesus. The Pharisee in the parable trusted in himself and in his own efforts – and his own efforts were very dedicated; but the tax collector trusted only in the mercy of God.

It can be hard to let go of the idea that it is up to us to save ourselves by our own efforts. But if we think like that we finish up like the Pharisee telling God all the wonderful things we have done and hoping that God will be impressed by how good we are. The tax collector saw things much more clearly. We are not trying to impress God; we are trying to open our minds and hearts to what God is offering us. He is offering a gift that is so far beyond what we could achieve for ourselves that no human eye has seen, no human ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him (I Cor 2:9).

That is why icons, like the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, do not try to be realistic portraits as if they were photographs. They represent the mystery which we could never hear or see or imagine. That mystery can only be conveyed by signs and symbols. Jesus is held in his Mother’s arms while he gazes at the symbols that the Archangel Gabriel carries – a cross and four nails. On the other side of the picture the Archangel Michael holds the vinegar he would be offered to drink and the lance that would pierce his side. Some commentators suggest that the sandal which has fallen from the foot of the child Jesus fell as he ran towards his mother arms when he saw those awful symbols.

It seems strange that in the image Mary looks not at her Son but at us. She is shown as our compassionate Mother, inviting us into the mystery of her Son’s death.

So the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help teaches us the same message. The most important thing is not our own efforts; the most important thing is to long for and pray for the gift that God offers us. If we could bring ourselves to eternal life by our own efforts to keep the commandments, then, as St Paul says “there would be no point in the death of Christ”. The most important thing is that we are to be crucified with Christ in order to rise with him. Only in that way can we say what St Paul said: “I live now, not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me”.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help invites us into the gift that only Christ can give – his own life. What he wants of us is that we should know that we need his gift which is greater than we could ever imagine, we need, in other words a love that we do not deserve, we need mercy and forgiveness.

And that mercy comes generously and at once. We should always be sure of that. Sometimes people begin to feel that God could never forgive them because they feel so guilty and so unworthy. Anyone who feels that way should reflect on the story of David in the first reading. The prophet Nathan reminded David how much God had done for him and how dreadfully David had let God down, how he had shown such appalling ingratitude and even contempt for God, how he had killed an innocent man. But at the end of the story David says simply and sincerely, “I have sinned against the Lord” and the prophet gives God’s answer: “The Lord, for his part, forgives your sin.”

God’s forgiveness is always there. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter how we behave. The reason why the Pharisee did not go home justified in the sight of God was not because he was doing all those good things; it was because he did not realise that he needed God’s gift. The tax collector was very aware that his life was certainly not an example to be followed, but he was fully aware of his need for God’s mercy.

The tax collector knew that what comes first is God’s love for us. The Pharisee thought that what came first was his efforts to earn God’s approval. Saint John says it very clearly: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (I Jn 4:10). If we are thankful for God’s mercy, then our lives will be changed for the better. “Her many sins must have been forgiven her, or she would not have shown so much love”.

In his first encyclical Pope Benedict put before us what he called “a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.” If we really understand that, we will indeed, like the Pharisee, do what is right and good. But we will not be simply keeping rules and laws. We will do what is right because the love which God has poured into our hearts must by its very nature be shared with others (Cf. Deus Caritas Est, 1, 18) and because that love must express itself by fulfilling our duties to God and to one another (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2062, 2072). We do what is right because we are already living the life of Christ, who is the love of God made visible in our world. And we, who have been filled with the life of Christ are meant to make that love visible in our lives.

+Donal Murray
Bishop of Limerick