Commentary

The Pharisee, the Tax Collector, and the Privileged Path of Mission

Today’s Gospel presents one of the most luminous yet provocative pages of Jesus’s entire message. Two men go up to the temple to pray. They are both believers who seek God and present themselves before the Most High. However, their prayers reveal two completely different approaches to faith, justice and their relationship with the Lord. This passage offers an important lesson in the life and spirituality of all disciples of Christ, who are called to become missionaries of hope among all peoples.

1. The Pharisee and the Caricature of Prayer

The Pharisee represents someone who feels ‘right’ before God. His prayer starts well with the words “O God, I thank you”, but quickly turns into a list of his own merits: “I am not like the rest of humanity… fast twice a week, and I pay tithes…” Rather than revealing a grateful heart, his words reveal a heart that measures itself against itself and compares itself to others.

Interestingly, the Pharisee asks nothing of God because he believes he needs nothing. His righteousness becomes pride, and his piety becomes a wall that separates him from his neighbor. In his prayer, God is not an interlocutor, but a spectator. The Pharisee does not pray to God; he prays about himself.

It would be wrong to generalize, however, as if all Pharisees were like this or as if all of them prayed or behaved in this way. No, no, and no. (Just think of Pharisees such as Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea.) The Pharisee in our parable is merely an example to warn against a dangerous attitude for anyone who considers themselves ‘pious’ before God. This is a constant temptation for us men and women of the Church as well. When spiritual life becomes a competition for perfection, missionary service becomes a source of pride and belonging to the Church makes us feel ‘better’ than others, we are, like the Pharisee, only talking to ourselves.

2. The Tax Collector: A Prayer that Springs from Truth.

The tax collector, on the other hand, stands at a distance. He does not dare to raise his eyes; he does not list his merits or justify himself. He beats his breast and utters only a brief invocation: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner”.

This prayer touches God’s heart because it comes from acknowledging the truth. The tax collector does not deny his sin, but entrusts it to God’s mercy. He has no presumption, only trust; no vanity, only humility; no closure, only openness to forgiveness.

Jesus says that this man “went home justified”. God’s justice is not a reward for the flawless, but a gift for those who allow themselves to be loved. The tax collector did not change the world, but he allowed God to change his heart. This is precisely the beginning of the evangelizing mission that God wants to accomplish in every believer and, through them, in all of humanity.

3. Humility as a Missionary Path

Jesus’s conclusion that, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted”, is a profound spiritual truth and not just a moral maxim. Humility is the door through which grace passes. It is such an important principle that Jesus repeats it several times during his ministry (in addition to Luke 18:14, see also Luke 14:11 and Matthew 23:12).

For those living the mission, this gospel serves as a compass. A missionary does not set out presuming his own “holiness” and knowing everything about God, only to bring his own ideas about God to others. Rather, the true missionary humbles himself, sets out on a journey, and becomes a humble instrument of God’s love for all, just as Jesus did when he emptied himself and became a servant to all (cf. Phil 2:6-7). Only those who recognize their own poverty before the Lord can proclaim the richness of the Gospel.

Like the tax collector, the authentic missionary always prays with a contrite heart. He is aware of his unworthiness in relation to the sublime vocation and high honor of bearing witness to Christ. He knows that the success of the mission depends not on strategies, abilities, or numbers, but on divine grace working in the silence of hearts. 

Mission is not conquest, but communion. It is not superiority, but service. It is not triumph, but bearing witness to a God who humbled himself and became a servant. This awareness of the mission will always be a source of serenity and strength, coming from the Lord’s faithful accompaniment, even in the midst of adversity. This can be seen in St. Paul, the converted Pharisee who became a missionary. At the end of his life, he testified: “[Everyone deserted me…] But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (Second Reading).

In conclusion, this parable teaches us how to pray as true believers and missionary disciples of Christ. Praying does not mean presenting our merits to God; rather, it means offering Him our truth. It is a continuous return to the source of mercy. Each time we say, “Lord, have mercy on me,” the Gospel is fulfilled within us.

Like the tax collector, we can therefore return “home justified,” not because we are perfect, but because we are loved. The love we receive becomes our mission: proclaiming to others that God never tires of forgiving, that mercy is greater than any sin, and that humility opens the heavens.

Lord Jesus,
You looked with love upon the tax collector who beat his breast,
and You gave him the peace of forgiveness.
Look upon us as well, the Church journeying to become ever more missionary:
Save us from the presumption of feeling righteous, and make us humble and true before You.
May all our missionary work spring from gratitude, not pride;
May it come from the love we have received and not from a sense of duty.
Teach us to pray as the tax collector did, to serve as you did, and to live in a way that
shows the world that mercy is our mission.

Amen.