October 26, 2025 Homily: Fr. Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02I think this might be one of the most
2. 0:04psychologically brilliant parables of
3. 0:07Jesus.
4. 0:09It's not just a story about a Pharisee
5. 0:12and a tax collector.
6. 0:16It's a mirror.
7. 0:18It reflects what happens inside every
8. 0:21one of us when we pray.
9. 0:25Two men walk into a temple. One leaves
10. 0:29forgiven, the other leaves still full of
11. 0:31himself.
12. 0:33And Jesus is inviting us this morning to
13. 0:36ask, "Which one am I?"
14. 0:40The parable begins simply, almost
15. 0:42predictably.
16. 0:44The Pharisee, a respected religious man,
17. 0:47faithful to the law, a pillar of the
18. 0:50community,
19. 0:52stands up to pray.
20. 0:54He's not a bad guy. In fact, he's
21. 0:57generous. He fasts. He tithes. He keeps
22. 1:01his rule. Keeps the rules. If we had
23. 1:04more people like him, the world would
24. 1:06probably be a better place.
25. 1:10But Jesus is never content with outward
26. 1:12holiness. He's always after the
27. 1:15interior. And that's where the trap
28. 1:17begins.
29. 1:19Because this, you see, this Pharisee
30. 1:21isn't praying to God.
31. 1:24He's praying to himself. His
32. 1:27words rise up, but they never leave the
33. 1:29orbit of his own ego.
34. 1:33Thank you, God, that I'm not like these
35. 1:35other people. He says,
36. 1:38he's not worshiping. He's comparing.
37. 1:42He's not repenting. He's reviewing his
38. 1:45resume.
39. 1:47And here's the uncomfortable truth, the
40. 1:49temptation that lives in all of us.
41. 1:53It's the spiritual version of scrolling
42. 1:56through social media and silently
43. 1:58thinking, "Well, at least I'm not like
44. 2:01that person.
45. 2:03At least I don't have that situation."
46. 2:07We might not say it out loud, but we
47. 2:09feel it.
48. 2:11We grade ourselves on a curve. We
49. 2:14compare our holy holiness to someone
50. 2:17else's failure.
51. 2:19But that's not holiness.
52. 2:22That's vanity dressed up in religion.
53. 2:25The Pharisees biggest sin isn't
54. 2:28arrogance. It's blindness.
55. 2:31He doesn't realize that his soul, though
56. 2:34it polished, has gone dry.
57. 2:38He knows the law, but he's forgotten all
58. 2:41about love.
59. 2:44And then there's the tax collector, the
60. 2:46villain of the story, the one everyone
61. 2:49is expecting God to reject.
62. 2:52He simply slips through the back of the
63. 2:55church, head bowed down, heart heavy,
64. 2:59can't even look up. He beats his breast
65. 3:02and says, "God, be merciful to me a
66. 3:06sinner." And that's it.
67. 3:09No poetry, no self-defense, no
68. 3:12justification, just pure honesty.
69. 3:16And Jesus says that man, that sinner,
70. 3:19that failure, the outsider, well, he
71. 3:23goes home justified.
72. 3:25Why? Because God can fill an empty heart
73. 3:28but cannot fill a cannot fill a full
74. 3:31one.
75. 3:32Mercy cannot enter where pride has
76. 3:35already taken up the space.
77. 3:39When Jesus told this parable, he wasn't
78. 3:41condemning religion. He was redeeming
79. 3:44it. He wasn't saying stop being devout.
80. 3:49What he's saying is be devout for the
81. 3:51right reasons.
82. 3:53The Pharisee and the tax collector
83. 3:55aren't opposites. They are both you and
84. 3:57me.
85. 3:59In each of us lives a little bit of the
86. 4:01Pharisee who wants to be admired and
87. 4:04validated and and then there's a little
88. 4:07bit of the tax collector who just wants
89. 4:09to be forgiven,
90. 4:11wants to do the right thing.
91. 4:14The question is which voice do we let
92. 4:17speak when we pray?
93. 4:20Because the truth is most of us want the
94. 4:23f what the want what the Pharisee did
95. 4:26just in a more subtle way.
96. 4:29Most of us do what the Pharisee did.
97. 4:33We think holiness is about performance
98. 4:36when it really is about surrender.
99. 4:40We think prayer is about saying the
100. 4:42right words when it's actually about
101. 4:45showing the real wounds.
102. 4:48We want to impress God.
103. 4:51But God isn't impressed.
104. 4:54He's moved by humility, by honesty, and
105. 4:58by love.
106. 5:00This parable reveals something that's
107. 5:02both spiritual and deeply psychological.
108. 5:07The more we defend our perfection, the
109. 5:10less room we leave for grace.
110. 5:15I have to tell you that in confession,
111. 5:17many people will come.
112. 5:20And I've noticed something that they
113. 5:22will come to confession trying to get it
114. 5:24right.
115. 5:26They want to sound holy and say all the
116. 5:28right things to make a good impression
117. 5:31on the priest. I'm I don't want the
118. 5:33priest to think that I'm that bad.
119. 5:36But confession isn't about performance.
120. 5:39It's about surrender. You're not there
121. 5:42to impress the priest. You're there to
122. 5:45let God into your messiness.
123. 5:48The only wrong way to come to confession
124. 5:50is to come pretending that you're right,
125. 5:52trying to defend your actions.
126. 5:56The best confessions are not polished.
127. 5:58They're honest.
128. 6:00You come completely raw, vulnerable,
129. 6:04bringing everything that is broken,
130. 6:06everything that's ugly, everything that
131. 6:07you wish weren't true, you bring it to
132. 6:09that confession,
133. 6:12spilling it all out, vomiting the evil,
134. 6:16as one saint puts it,
135. 6:20not because God needs to hear it, but
136. 6:22because you need to let it go.
137. 6:26Only then can grace rush in and allow
138. 6:28you to start over.
139. 6:31Only then can the soul breathe again.
140. 6:35Because confession isn't God finding out
141. 6:38what you did wrong. He already knows.
142. 6:41It's God reminding you that you are
143. 6:43still loved after all.
144. 6:47If your soul is still all polished
145. 6:50marble, it looks nice, but nothing seeps
146. 6:52in.
147. 6:54You may want to have your soul look like
148. 6:56clay where it's cracked, unfinished,
149. 6:59porous, allowing grace to get in
150. 7:02everywhere.
151. 7:04That's why the saints, the truly holy
152. 7:05ones, are never the ones who think
153. 7:07they're saints. Padre Peio, St. TZ of
154. 7:11Lisu, Mother Tereso, all of them would
155. 7:13tell you the same thing that the closer
156. 7:16that you get to God, the more you
157. 7:17realize how much you need him.
158. 7:21That's not weakness. That's sanctity.
159. 7:25Let me put it this way. The Pharisees
160. 7:28spoke about himself to God. The tax
161. 7:32collector spoke about God to himself.
162. 7:35That's the difference between pride and
163. 7:38prayer.
164. 7:40The Pharisee left the temple full of
165. 7:42pride. The tax collector left full of
166. 7:45peace.
167. 7:48One had all the religious credentials.
168. 7:50the other one only had repentance.
169. 7:55So maybe you're here today and you're
170. 7:57been comparing yourself to others
171. 8:01thinking I'm not as bad as this one or I
172. 8:04really haven't done this or I haven't
173. 8:05done that or maybe the opposite. I'll
174. 8:08never be good enough or I'm really a bad
175. 8:10person. I don't deserve this or that.
176. 8:13Both of those voices are ones that come
177. 8:16from pride. One pride that looks down
178. 8:20and the other pride that looks inward.
179. 8:23But grace invites us to look up,
180. 8:26to lift your eyes not to yourself or to
181. 8:29your neighbor, but to God himself.
182. 8:34Because when you finally stop defending
183. 8:35your goodness and start depending on his
184. 8:38mercy, everything begins to change.
185. 8:41That's when prayer becomes real. That's
186. 8:43when love becomes alive. That's when
187. 8:46holiness begins.
188. 8:48The Lord never tires of forgiving. It is
189. 8:51we who tire of asking.
190. 8:55And here's the gospel's final twist.
191. 8:58The thing that should shake us to the
192. 9:00core.
193. 9:02Jesus says, "Everyone who exalts himself
194. 9:04will be humbled, and the one who humbles
195. 9:06himself will be exalted."
196. 9:09It's not a threat. It's a promise.
197. 9:13Humility isn't humiliation. It's
198. 9:15liberation.
199. 9:17Because when we finally kneel before
200. 9:18God, we stand tall before the world.
201. 9:21When we admit our need for mercy, we
202. 9:23become capable of giving mercy. Because
203. 9:27the goal of this parable isn't to shame
204. 9:29us. It's to set us free.
205. 9:31Free from comparison. Free from
206. 9:34performance of holiness. Free from the
207. 9:37exhaust exhausting need to prove that
208. 9:39we're good enough. God already knows
209. 9:42we're not.
210. 9:44He loves us anyway.
211. 9:47So maybe this week when you come to
212. 9:48mass, kneel before the tabernacle or sit
213. 9:51in your car praying for strength to face
214. 9:53another day. Let your prayer be simple.
215. 9:57Make it a prayer like the tax collector.
216. 10:00God be merciful to me a sinner. I
217. 10:04promise you that prayer will never fail
218. 10:06you. Because every time a heart bows
219. 10:09low, heaven lifts it up. That's the
220. 10:12paradox of grace. The way up is down.
221. 10:16The way to freedom is to surrender. The
222. 10:19way to joy is humility.
223. 10:22So my brothers and sisters, this Sunday,
224. 10:25leave this church today remembering
225. 10:27this. The Pharisee brought his virtue to
226. 10:31God. The tax collector brought his sins.
227. 10:36Only one went home justified.
228. 10:39Because in the end, it is not the one
229. 10:41who boasts of love who is made
230. 10:43righteous.
231. 10:45It is the one who let himself be loved.
232. 10:48Amen.