Sunday, October 27, 2013
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading:
Sir 35:12-14, 16-18
Second Reading: 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18
Gospel Reading: Lk 18:9-14
Jesus told another parable to some persons fully convinced of their own righteousness, who looked down on others, “Two men went up to the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and said: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people, grasping, crooked, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give the tenth of all my income to the Temple.’
“In the meantime the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying: ‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’
“I tell you, when this man went down to his house, he had been set right with God, but not the other. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”
Reflection:
Two sinners prayed inside the Temple: one was justified – the one who was aware of his sinfulness, while the other was condemned – the one who thought he had the right to condemn others. It was the tax collector who was justified. Of him Jesus declared: “I tell you, when this man went down to his house, he had been set right with God, but not the other.”
Why didn’t the Pharisee find favor with God with his track record of fasting twice a week and giving the tenth of all his income to the Temple? Why was the tax collector, with his track record of corruption and disloyalty to his own people, justified? Blame this on motive. The Pharisee used prayer as venue to trumpet his righteousness while the tax collector went to the Temple to express sorrow for sins.
The tax collector was not lying; he was indeed a sinner. The Pharisee may have been telling the truth also. But telling the truth is not the only barometer to measure the genuineness of one’s spirituality. Jesus said: “Whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.” The Pharisee failed in the test of humility.
The absence of humility rendered questionable the genuineness of the Pharisee’s prayer. By nature prayer is an act of the humble. Humility at prayer involves two dimensions: the first is bowing low before God, and the second is looking up to others. The Pharisee did the first dimension perfectly but utterly failed in the second. This made his prayer detestable before God. No wonder the Pharisee who was vertically humble yet horizontally proud went home a condemned person while the tax collector went home forgiven.— Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
My Prayer:
In the end, Lord, all that matters is your mercy, for the most pious among us will fail your test of faith, hope, love and good works. No one is deserving of the sheer glory that awaits us in heaven, yet Jesus Christ died on the Cross so that we may be admitted into the heavenly kingdom, but only in, of, for and by God’s mercy. Thank you, Lord for this parable, for it opens our eyes to the smallness of our efforts and the gargantuan love you have for us—sinners, adulterers, liars, tax collectors, cheats, an anomaly on two legs since Genesis, in the 40-year trek in the desert, residence in and exile from the Promised Land, throughout the four Gospels, and now in the modern world, a world that has gone bonkers with too much selfie, too much I, me, mine, too much self-glorification, Pharisaical men and women walking their way to self-created doom, but all is not lost, for all we have to do is be aware of our smallness, our unworthiness, God’s creative fail, but God’s crowning glory, the saving of mankind so evil and self-serving, but destined for heaven in spite of ourselves, if only we accepted our nothingness, but in everything in heaven, God’s unimaginable love for us. Amen.