Pope Francis’ episcopal and papal motto was “Miserando atque eligendo” which might be broadly translated “Miserable yet chosen.” No doubt the pontiff viewed himself as unworthy of the high office of bishop in the Church and indeed unworthy of the even higher, in fact, highest office in the Church, as Pope of Rome, Supreme Pontiff indeed! The Argentine Jesuit pope did his best to extend this dual understanding of mankind’s miserable status in history and yet mankind’s select status before God. Like the tax collector in this coming Sunday’s Gospel, every person on the face of the earth could honestly make his brief confession of sin his or her own: “But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner (Lk18:13).”
Yet St. Luke quickly alters the scene from one of misery to one of selection: The soul-searching tax collector “…went home justified…for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Recognizing one’s own unworthiness is the first step toward opening oneself to the redemption available from God. Miserable but still in the running for the fullness of God’s grace is the challenging but happy circumstance every believer should acknowledge.
True to his motto, the Pope Francis did not want to preclude any one from ultimate salvation. Yes, mankind indeed can be sinners. The human race certainly has its share of paganism. And families may certainly find themselves in a number of irregular situations. Yet, even though miserable on any number of levels, the Christian message is that everyone is chosen and favored with eternal salvation if only the sinner, like the repentant tax-collector, will reach out and claim that chosenness, that election, that salvation won by Christ and now offered by God.
St. Luke anticipated the humble repentance of the tax-collector earlier in chapter 7 of his Gospel when he relates in greater detail the remorse of the sinful woman who anointed Christ’s feet while the Master was at dinner in the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisee is immediately dismayed that Jesus would tolerate any attention from this known sinner: “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner (7:39).” The Jewish leader sees her as “miserable” and certainly not as “chosen.” He is shocked at Jesus’ tolerance of her waywardness.
Yet Jesus does not dismiss her sinful ways. Christ rather understands that the woman is on her way to repentance and renewal. The Master understands her kindness toward him is a tribute to the forgiveness that she anticipates from him. “Your faith has saved you,” Jesus guarantees the remorseful woman, “go in peace (7:50).” Both the tax collector and the wayward woman acknowledge their sinful ways; they admit their misery. Yet in God, they find hope. They finally understand themselves to be among the “chosen,” among the select, among the redeemed, if only they would admit it.
In its comments on this Sunday’s Gospel passage, the New American Bible frankly observes that the fundamental attitude of the Christian disciple must be the recognition of sinfulness and complete dependence on God’s graciousness. Certainly such contrition for sin and a corresponding reliance on God for forgiveness are clear in the tax collector’s solitary but dramatic statement of remorse. And the public display of gratitude for God’s mercy on the part of the wayward woman and her understood resolve of amending former ways is equally impressive.
Contrition, confession and satisfaction — the traditional formula for the sacrament of Penance — is touchingly and frankly anticipated in these two Biblical events of repentance and renewal.
