March 05, 2016 Saturday, 3rd Week of Lent 1st Reading: Hos 6:1–6 Gospel: Lk 18:9–14
He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else. “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.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus approved the tax collector for being humble and rebuked the Pharisee for being boastful. Both were actually making references to themselves while praying. But the tax collector did so for the purpose of bringing himself down. The Pharisee did not only bring himself up but even looked down on the tax collector as morally depraved. Enumerating his virtues would have been enough to impress God. Yet he still pulled the tax collector down just so he could appear bigger than what he actually was.
The problem with putting others down is that one limits his visual propagation to where the wretched ground is. That is why he only sees the wretchedness of the person he looks down on and becomes judgmental. Looking up on others is different. His vision partakes of the vast reach of space and he can even get to God. That is why a person who looks up on others sees God in them. He becomes more charitable and tolerant toward them.
To put others down is bad enough; to rise on the demerits of others is worse. The only valid gage of self-evaluation is God. “Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Until one is perfect he cannot have judgment and condemnation rights over his fellowmen. “The sinless among you can cast the first stone”, Jesus said. Since the hands of time can only produce 24 hours per day, the struggle toward perfection can never be over. We can never be righteous enough to condemn others.
Jesus will waste no time in shooting down any attempt at self-aggrandizement at the expense of others. That’s why he minced no words in rebuking the Pharisee. “For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.” – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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