The Parable of the Pharisee and the Pharisee

You are right. He simply practicing role substitution here. This is not homeletics, it is demagoguery. He does not even go through the trouble to flesh out how these people ressemble the Pharisee in these scenarios, he simply demonizes them.

So much for the "spirit of dialogue" the other side believes they champion.

I find it ironic that, if you go to sources like Jack Chick and James White they also make a show out of scoring points by comparing Catholics to Pharisees.

In the end, Jesus was very critical of those coreligionists who shared his denomination but the fact that his understanding laregly correlates to the Pharisaical version of Judaism cannot be lost.

So this priest is in the Archbishop's diocese? What a disgrace.

But . . . what's the use of a homily if you can't engage in preening moral exhibitionism?

Aaargh. Another case of "I know better than Jesus what he should have said so I'll just flesh it out in the most simplistic way possible." That drives me nuts.

Wow, that's a shame. We got a great homily, for the feast of Christ the King, emphasizing that we need to let Jesus reign over all areas of our lives. Even letting Him reign over those areas where we don't agree with catholic doctrine [nudge nudge].

It sounds like Fr. Tibesar needs to spend some time in the Diocese of Lincoln, in order to discern his vocation.

A visit over to Father Leo Tibesar at St. Frances Cabrini Parish tells anyone that he must have mistaken the Thames River for the Tiber. The parish is an ultra-liberal Amchurch community of like minds that is more in line with Episcopalian Bishops Gene Robinson and Katharine Jefferts Schori than with Archbishop John C. Nienstedt and Benedict XVI.

If their hearts are not with the latter than we cannot expect their heads to be so. As our pastor said today in his homily, one of the most pervasive sins in the Church is the utter disobedience for its teaching authority, its Magisterium. The same sin of disobedience, our pastor pointed out, that our original parents, Adam and Eve, committed and which caused Our Lord to have to suffer and die to atone for that sin and all consequent human sins.

Let us pray for Father Tibesar and for the Parish of St. Frances Cabrini in Minneapolis--pray that they truly come back to the Catholic Church as faithful sons and daughters. What a sad loss they are.

As impressive as this priests political self-righteousness is, I'm more impressed by his lack of foresight--next year Archbishop Coadjutor Nienstadt becomes this guys ordinary.

"Nyaaa-Nyaaa Nyaaa-Nyaaah! I'm gonna antagonize you ! You're not the Ordinary! Myaa Myaaa....*oh crap*."

Or the priest who prays: "I thank Thee, o Lord, that I am not like other priests: obedient to Holy Mother Church."

Is anyone else getting tired of the same childish whining from this quarter of the Church? I think it is time to grow up and start integrating fully as a human being and not being so wrapped-up in your own immature sexual proclivities. No matter what kind of smoke and mirrors you use on the Bible and Church teaching, it will not change.

Just look at the posts about the two grown men in SF dressing up as gay queens at the bishops mass. Is that what it has all come to? Is this how adults act in Church; or even in public?

It just makes me sad sometimes.

AndyMacOP

Ironically, as Christ teaches with this parable not to compare yourself to others and think you are better than them, Tibesar sets himself in place of judgment over all those groups of people he puts in the Pharisee's place. (Yes, one could say the same of Chirst putting himself in place of judgment over the Pharisee - but he's Christ, you're not.) Many people from the groups he puts in the publican's place are the very people who tout the self-proclaimed right to get whatever they want from God or others, regardless of how they behave morally - which indeed is modern day's self-righteousness, the very concept Tibesar tried to wittily pinpoint as a means to push his political views.

I've come to the conclusion that only Jesus can name someone a Pharisee without becoming one Himself. As for the rest of us, "We are the [Pharisees], my friends..." Who is without the sin of self-righteousness? Therefore, it does no good to look at anyone else when we are reminded of the Pharisees. (It should be called the "Pharisee Paradox"). And only Jesus, especially through the sacrament of reconciliation, can heal us of our tendency to justify ourselves. I can't imagine how much I'd talk myself in circles without Confession! We are greatly blessed!

That's not a homily...it's a temper-tantrum.

Fr. Philip, OP

The audio file of Fr. Tibesar's sermon along with additional details is available for download at http://faithfulrebel.blogspot.com if anyone wishes to hear it. I urge everyone's support in contacting the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to ask that Fr. Tibesar be removed from his parish. This is only part of a continuing pattern of conduct by Fr. Tibesar which makes him unfit to be a pastor of a Catholic Church.

Hey, now I don't feel so bad about the homily I got this Sunday about "King of Pain" by The Police. Yeah, they're my favourite band, but not what I wanna hear about at Mass.

The homily is scandalous. There will be those who will use it to justify sinful behavior under the guise of charity and tolerance. The parisioners deserve to be taught what the Church actually teaches.

We ought to be able to sue priests like this for malpractice.

Even if we got past the lazy rhetoric, the homily misrepresents the parable as contrasting the powerful-and-wicked and the weak-but-righteous. The result isn't a parable, it's a tautology: good people are better than evil people.

It's obvious from most of these sermons that the preachers have no idea who the Tax-collectors were. They probably feel that the poor guys were trying to collect the taxes and the Pharisees got all rigid and nasty on them because the Pharisees believed in low taxes so they wouldn't have to fund Roman Medicaid.

They also identify with the "sinners" because they identify them as sexual libertines.

Which is more dangerous, and Episcopalian masquerading as a Catholic priest, or a terrorist dressed as a bride?

Why is it so difficult to expound on, "Be merciful to me a sinner" from the pulpit?

You can't give what you don't have.