Religious people can be all so self-righteous. 

Once a person has been tuned into what he or she accepts as the absolute truth it is difficult not to feel some sense certitude with the desire to lead others to that same truth. This is what we call evangelization and it is something that we as Catholics tend not to be very good at. On the other hand, there is an experience of a sort of spirital arrogance that we can get ourselves very much caught up with. There is a fine line between the confidence of faith and hubris. This is a line that we must be continually on guard against crossing.

Jesus is often pitted against the Pharisees who prove to be a good foil for him. In the Gospel for this 26th Sunday of the year, Jesus tells a parable about a man with two sons. He asked the one to go into the vineyard but he said “no” then later changed his mind and went out. The other son said “yes” but then never went. When Jesus then asked the Pharisees which son did the will of the father they answered the first, which was the answer Jesus expected. What they didn’t realize – and indeed never seem to grasp – is that he was challenging them. The Pharisees were notorious for interpreting the Law of Moses so that they could be excused from observance of them while the other people were often overburdened with the Pharasaic imposition. 

One of the great difficulties of leading the Christian life is to genuinely encounter Christ and experience the totality of conversion. The process of growth in discipleship happens to us on many levels – intellectual, moral, spiritual, personal, faith, emotional – at various times and in diverse ways. It is not uncommon – indeed it is perhaps all too common – for us to experience periods of incongruity or disconnection in our life of discipleship. It is not often that we recognize this in oneself but we are very astute at identifying this disconnect in others.

Many people erroneously call this behavior “hypocritical.”

A hypocrite is an actor – a person who merely carries out a role for showmanship. While there may well be people who only fake being religious the vast majority of us are instead experiencing the normal tension of growth in discipleship.

Hence, we see tension between say moral perfectionists, spiritual mystics, social activists and rubricists. Each one believes he or she is superior to the other and yet each of them has experienced a high level of development in one area and needs growth in the others.

We are all in need of on-going and various levels of conversion.

That is the most difficult part – we often wear blinders to those inconsistencies in our lives so that we fail to see those areas of life where we are most in need of change.

The two brothers in the parable show us both the need and hope of such conversion.

The first son found it easy to say “no.” We do not know why, perhaps he felt he was doing more important things or perhaps he was in the habit of saying no. Yet, something within him called him out of himself and led him to go to work anyway. He experienced the early steps of conversion and is hopefully set along a new path.

The second son finds it too easy to say “yes.” He lacked the depth of conviction or the interior skill to see that his failure to go as a failure in relationship breaching faith with his father.

He is yet in need of a life connecting experience.

Jesus tells the Pharisees that “tax collectors and prostitutes” are entering the kingdom before they.  Its typical Jesus hyperbole – he doesn’t mean all tax collectors and prostitutes – but he is certainly challenging the Pharisees who “think” they have it all together with the fact that those they reject as sinners are often further along in the process of conversion than they are. 

We all need to be on guard against the hubris that stalls our growth as followers of Jesus.

Dr. Garry Koch is a seminarian for the Diocese of Trenton.

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