The prayer of the humble

Sunday, October 23, 201630th 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.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)

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 instead? Motive! The Pharisee used prayer as venue to trumpet his righteousness while the tax collector went to the Temple to express true sorrow for his sins.

The tax collector was not lying when he said he was a sinner. The Pharisee may have been telling the truth also when he enumerated his virtues. But telling the truth is not the only measure of genuine spirituality. Humility is another. 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 made the Pharisee’s prayer suspicious. By nature prayer is an act of the humble. The proud will never truly pray. Were you disposed to pray when you were powerful, rich and influential? Not as much as when you have fallen from the ranks of the rich, the influential and the powerful! Think about what happens when power, riches and influence will have gotten into the head of the person. Feeling no need for any god, he sets aside prayer as the recourse of the weak and takes exception from it.

Humility at prayer involves the vertical dimension of bowing low before God and the horizontal dimension of looking up to others. The Pharisee was only vertically humble. His spirituality lacked the horizontal dimension. That’s why he went home a condemned person. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.

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