the Pharisee

Recently, my husband came home and said "Today, I was the Pharisee."  Of course, being the wise and astute wife that I am, I knew immediately what he meant by that.  Oh wait...

I believe I said something like, "OK....?"  And he went on to reference the Gospel from Mass a few Sundays ago:

Jesus addressed this parableto those who were convinced of their own righteousnessand despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray;one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity --greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’But the tax collector stood off at a distanceand would not even raise his eyes to heavenbut beat his breast and prayed,'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;for whoever exalts himself will be humbled,and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:9-14 

He said (this is the gist of it, I changed the example because I don't remember the real one):

"Today, I overheard a conversation between two people speaking about their respective marriages.  One man said, 'If my wife wants diamond earrings, then she better give me foot rubs everyday for a year. Why should I do things for her if she doesn't do things for me?'  And I thought, Thank goodness my marriage isn't like that.  And then I stopped.  I realized I was being the Pharisee in the story."

I told him he was merely being thankful for our marriage, but he assured me that his inflection was more of a Thank goodness my marriage isn't like THAT... a.k.a. "O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity--"

So when he realized it, he turned it around and prayed for them and was indeed grateful for our marriage (10 points for him!).

Well, all that to say, today was my turn to play Pharisee.  While driving across town with little G-man in the back seat (*shamelessly insert adorable picture*),

This was the three of us on Halloween--

Unrelated? Yes.  Super cute picture of him? Yes.

I came up behind a little bumper sticker-covered Honda.  Some of them I could read from where I'd stopped: Save the Manatees (Saving the Environment. That's nice--matching license plate, too); Free Tibet (OK. Random. Free as a verb or Free as an adjective?). But I couldn't read all of them.  So, like any curious motorist stuck at a stoplight, I inched closer so I could read them.  There, I saw a small yellow equal sign with a navy background. The telltale marriage equality symbol.  And another on the rear windshield I stand with... but I couldn't read the rest.  Something told me it wasn't the Catholic Church, as I've seen on bumper stickers before.  So, again I inched a little further forward, of course trying not to be too obvious that I was trying to read the sticker (because he would judge me for reading them or get out of his car to see what I thought??).  The sticker read I stand with Planned Parenthood.

And I thought, 'yuck. Thank goodness I don't hold all those beliefs and proclaim them on my car.' a.k.a. "O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity--"

Instead of being grateful for my Catholic faith and praising God for his love and truth, I judged the man driving the car in front of me.

Thankfully, I have great husband who had only days earlier had a similar experience, and had been reminded only a few weeks earlier in the Gospel.  So, I realized the error of my ways, turned my judging into gratitude, and prayed for the man in the car in front of me.

Here's hoping and praying that I have the strength to be the tax collector on a more regular basis.