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Prayers
and Prejudice
October
24, 2004
Fr.
George Smiga
Luke
18:9-14
Today's
Gospel is meant to trap us. But I must admit that the trap
probably worked better at the time of Jesus than it does today.
Because in order for the trap to be set you have to have a
correct understanding of the characters in the story: the
Pharisee and the tax collector. Now you and I share a rather
lop-sided and negative view of Pharisees from our reading
of the New Testament. But our view would not match how people
saw Pharisees at the time of Jesus. For in the first century
Pharisees were seen as sincere, religious people, people who
cared for the poor and promoted an idea of a loving God. Tax
collectors, on the other hand, were universally hated. They
cooperated with the Roman oppressors in collecting taxes and
would often cheat their own people in order to make a profit.
So
when Jesus told this parable in its original setting, he set
the trap with the first line: “Two men went up to the temple
to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector.” His audience would
presume that the Pharisee prayed well, whereas the tax collector
did not. But as the parable proceeds, we find out that the
opposite is true. It is the tax collector, who goes home justified,
whereas the Pharisee does not. This parable reverses the customary
roles of the characters. It overturns our expectations.
This
parable is a warning against pre-judging others. It warns
us about the quick judgments on which we base our life. The
word “prejudice,” at its root (you can hear it) comes from
“pre-judging” because it is a prejudice to judge people without
knowing who they are or what they think. We pre-judge people
all the time. A new person comes into our neighborhood, into
our office, into our school. He or she talks a little different
or acts a little strange and we write that person off as someone
we do not wish to know. We meet somebody who is a manual laborer,
who has dirt on his clothes, and we say this person is not
very bright, he has nothing to say to us. Whereas we meet
someone driving a Lexus and we imagine this person is intelligent.
We wait for the wisdom he will impart.
You
don't pre-judge, you say. Let me see if I can set a trap for
you. Two people went to church to pray. One was a Democrat
the other was a Republican. Who said the better prayer? You
think you know? Are you sure? Two people went to church to
pray. One was an American, the other was an Iraqi; one was
black, the other was white; one was gay, the other was straight;
one was Catholic, the other was an Agnostic.
If
you think you know who said the better prayer, you have fallen
into the trap. You have exhibited prejudice because none of
us know who will say the better prayer until we hear it, until
we know who these people are. If you are caught in prejudice,
admit it. But then ask God for the power to change.
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