Brief synopsis of the readings: Speaking in the book of Sirach, the Lord proclaims that he does not play favorites but does listen to the cries of the widow and orphan. The Lord also accepts the prayers of the one who serves God with his whole heart. Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel describes a parable about two men who pray in the Temple. The first is a Pharisee who uses his prayer to brag about all he does for God and how he is better than the tax collectors. The other man is a tax collector who asks for God’s mercy. Jesus then declares that the tax collector will be justified, not the Pharisee. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.”

When I was in my mid 20s I made my living as a youth minister, employed by churches to work with high school students. Many of my friends and colleagues couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to do that. They saw teenagers as unruly, disruptive, and unwilling to listen. There was a bumper sticker at the time that encouraged teenagers to leave home now since they already know everything. I still chuckle at this. In my experience they got under our skin because they recognized that we didn’t know everything.

I liked teenagers (and still do) because they are experts at calling out hypocrisy, wherever it comes from. Anyone who has lectured a teen driver about speeding knows that they have an eagle eye on the speedometer when we are driving. Likewise lectures about avoiding substance abuse virtually guarantees a census of empty beer cans on Sunday evening after a weekend of watching sports.

And God have mercy on anyone who claims to be closer to God because of their actions. In addition to teenagers and me, Jesus also hated hypocrisy. But here’s the problem: he was surrounded by them. Hypocrites come in all forms but he held many of the Pharisees in particular contempt. Pharisees were highly educated and seen as religious authorities, and expected to be respected without question.

Their downfall wasn’t their education or even how well they believed they served God. Their problem was that they didn’t attempt to rise in God’s eyes out of a desire for wisdom but by stepping on or over people they saw as inferior. Tax collectors were disliked at the time not because they collected taxes but because they often used their authority to collect more than was owed and pocket the rest. It was like one of us filling out our tax return and seeing a line that says: “extra profit for the IRS agent reviewing this return.”

But before we throw shade on both of these groups, let’s have a little compassion. I’ve always thought the Pharisees to be an interesting group. The Old Testament teams with commands to care for the “widow, orphan, and resident alien” and to remember that they were themselves slaves in Egypt. So why did the Pharisees express contempt for those they saw as inferior?

Part of it may have been simple ambition but I suspect it may have been something else: peer pressure. We often think of peer pressure as expiring when we become adults: that was the last time someone tried to talk us into smoking after all. But peer pressure is alive and well among all of us. And the elite, awe inspiring, intelligent Pharisees knew that in many ways their status depended on how other Pharisees saw them. I’ve observed (and participated in) my share of theological discussions; in nearly all cases everyone in the discussion wanted to make the point that everyone agreed with. This would cause this person to be held in highest esteem.

But if anyone stops the discussion by saying: “OK guys, let’s all remember that God cares more for our compassion than for our cleverness,” he would be thought of as strange. Or at least he would be seen as a wet blanket. In any case he would not “win the point.” They were, in a sense, imprisoned by their own ambition and need to be accepted.

Now contrast that with the tax collector. We don’t know much about them but we do know that some of them made a good living out of cheating ordinary citizens. And whether or not they were as tight knit a community as the Pharisees it’s not hard to imagine they got together to brag about which one had extorted the most money from ordinary citizens.

Except that one tax collector. He recognized not only that he was a sinner but also that he needed God’s mercy. We know nothing of his sins and we don’t need to. Perhaps he regretted his extortion, or not. Perhaps he was thinking about how he wasn’t as patient with his children, or as devoted to his wife. Maybe he was struggling with an addiction of some form.

Not only did he not place himself above the Pharisees, he recognized, from our first reading, that he needed to serve God willingly. God certainly embraced whatever he did in the service of justice but God was also impressed with his recognition of his need for God’s mercy.

I think this should speak to all of us, but particularly those who work or volunteer in ministry. I think it should speak not only to those of us who are lectors or Eucharistic Ministers, but also to those who teach the faith and work directly with the poor. I spent a few months as a prison chaplain when I was a seminarian and I loved it. But that does not make me better than someone with advanced degrees in theology. We both need to recognize our own sinfulness and our need for God’s mercy.

But we also need to have the courage to break free of the peer pressure of self congratulations. We draw strength from those we minister with but that strength must not turn into the superiority we see in the Pharisees among us.