Exaltation and humility highlight our Gospel today. The classic understanding of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector points out that we are not to be exalted when we approach God, but rather to humble ourselves and to beg for forgiveness, mindful that it is by the grace of God won for us through the Passion of Christ that saves us, not our own actions alone or in themselves. Indeed, we are called to turn more quickly towards the Lord in our every need instead of boasting in our good works, as if we have done anything more than what we were supposed to do. But how can we humble ourselves more each day so that we may be exalted on the last day? Through our obedience to the Church.
Jesus Christ has not left us by ourselves to learn and follow the path of salvation, but He has established the Church so as to proclaim and teach this path necessary for all individuals. The Protestants will claim that our Lord left us only the Scriptures as our guide, yet this is not the case at all. After His Resurrection, Jesus gave His Holy Spirit to the Apostles and granted unto them the authority to teach in His name along with the power to confect the sacraments so necessary to salvation. The Sacred Scriptures came out of the teaching of the Apostles and serve as the divinely revealed source of the truths of our faith, but they are incapable by themselves of saving us, let alone sanctifying us on the pilgrimage of life.
The Catholic Church has been given the authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, to teach and bear witness to the fullness of truth revealed to us by God through Christ. No other institution on earth can lay claim to such a divine constitution. This means that when the Catholic Church teaches, she does so not as any other earthly organization does, teaching out of interpretation or opinion, but she teaches with that same authority by which our Lord and Savior taught while He was personally present here on earth. Without the authority of the Church, we would be like the Protestants who seem to divide at ever-growing rates due to their differing interpretations of the Bible, incapable of lasting, permanent growth.
Why is this ecclesial authority so necessary? It is necessary so that we the faithful may come to know and understand the full truth of the Gospel and how this truth translates into our daily lives. The Church in matters of faith and morals does not make mere suggestions or opinions; she teaches what is to be believed and lived by every Catholic who claims the Church to be their religion. To be a Catholic is not to join a country club or political organization, but it is to give assent to all that is proclaimed and proposed by the Church as the Gospel truth. Ours is not to challenge or to deny, but to believe, to give assent, and to live it out each day.
This means that the Church will at times propose truths and teachings which will go against the wisdom of the day. In our own day, the Catholic Church stands almost alone against the growing secularism of the world which tries to deny a space for God in the public square. The Church remains firm in her beliefs against abortion, contraception, homosexual acts, abuse of minorities and the poor along with her proclamation of Jesus as Lord and King of Heaven and earth. But if the Church is to remain faithful to Christ, she must testify to the truth in season and out of season, not merely when it profits her.
If we are going to bear the label Catholic, then we must begin to listen to the Church in everything that she teaches, especially the hard truths that she proclaims. The Christian religion does not exist to make us feel good or to support the idea that we are good; the Christian religion exists to boldly proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ, the truth to which we are meant to conform our lives. Either we accept that everything the Church proposes is true, that it is to be believed, and that I must conform my life to that truth; or we deny the truth and form the superficial religion at the heart of the Pharisee in our Gospel today: the religion of self-righteousness that says I alone can judge what is right and true and good. Which shall we choose?
Brethren, the time has come for we Catholics to decide if we are really going to be Catholics faithful to the Church and her timeless teachings or if we are going to be faithful to the religion of self-assurance. We cannot exist in both circles: we shall love one and hate the other. Does the Creed really bear credence in our lives, or is it some empty words we proclaim once a week and let fall on deaf ears? Our entire lives will echo the truths that we believe, whether from Christ and His Church or from Me and the Church of Me. How do we want to be seen by Jesus the Just Judge when we stand before Him in judgment over our lives: as the Pharisee who bragged about His wrong belief or as the tax collector humbled to receive the Gospel truth and struggling to live it out? May we seek to be humbled by the truths of Christ and His Church so that we may receive the exaltation of that truth in everlasting life.
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