Thank you that I am not like the rest

By Steve Hall

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031823.cfm
Hoseah 6:1-6
Luke 18:9-14

‘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.’
(Luke 18:11-12)

An interesting passage, to say the least. The choice of words in the very first line tells this man’s story. "I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity." It’s easy to imagine that we’re listening to an abbreviated version of the song, Gaston, from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Gosh, it disturbs me to see you Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy here'd like to be you, Gaston
Even when taking your lumps
There's no man in town as admired as you
You're everyone's favorite guy
Everyone's awed and inspired by you
And it's not very hard to see why

No one's slick as Gaston
No one's quick as Gaston
No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston's
For there's no man in town half as manly
Perfect, a pure paragon!
You can ask any Tom, Dick or Stanley.
And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on!

(LyricFind
Songwriters: Alan Menken / Howard Elliott Ashman
Gaston lyrics, © Walt Disney Music Company)

Well, so much for being a paragon of virtue for the whole human race. Then, of course, there’s the tax collector, who would not even raise his eyes to heaven but rather humbly acknowledged his separation from his creator. That humility—the humility that recognizes our place before God—is at the heart of true virtue. We are not God.

We may wonder at God’s desire. We may well ask why mercy and love are His expressed preferences. We might deceive ourselves into thinking that mercy and love are good things that we should aspire to; but there is more to it than that. Jesus’ directives for us clarify the issue.

“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
(Matthew 5:48) RSV-CE

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
(Luke 6:36) RSV-CE

Our usual pattern of understanding would lead us to believe that God has these virtues in abundance; he is perfect, he is merciful, he is loving. Such is not the case. Rather, He is perfection. He is mercy. He is love. That is why the Prophet says “Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD.” Let us know, let us be intimate with, let us be of the same essence as our Heavenly Father. To put it simply: God desires us to be like him. 

In order for that to happen we must first, like the tax collector, know the magnitude of the distance between ourselves and God. Only then will we allow him to enter in.