The gospel for Saturday of the third week in Lent is from Luke 18, 9th through the 14th verse. Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. Two people went up to the temple area to pray. One was a Pharisee, the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself. Oh, God, I pray that I’m not like the rest of humanity, greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I pay tithes on my whole income. But the tax collector stood off at a distance who would not even raise his eyes to heaven and beat his breast and prayed, oh, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, I tell you. The latter went home justified, not the former. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted.

The Pharisees were a tough audience for Jesus. So he used parables and he’s asking them to consider something, and that is to get into their heads and their imagination that there’s something in them, that if they’re honest, they have to say, you know, when I look at other people, I’m so much better than they are. I’m not like those criminals out there. But they’re not looking at themselves and who they are. They’re not looking at the fact that they don’t really care about other people. They only care about themselves.

The closing prayer. Father, awaken us with a heart that is like your heart, that when we see our brothers or sisters in trouble, we long for them to change, we long for them to grow. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.