Saturday,
March 30, 2019
Lenten Weekday
1st Reading: Hos 6:1-6
Gospel: 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)
A politician is invited to give the keynote address of an important gathering at the town plaza. He says, “Hindi na kelangang banggitin pa na ako ang nagpa-ayos ng inyong kalsada.” Then someone from the crowd interrupted: “Ang dapat banggitin ay ang komisyon”. At this the politician decided to end his talk. Reminded of his corruption, he felt ashamed to brag. The beauty of being conscious about the sinful side of us is that we become humble.
Yesterday I was introduced to the mother of a pretty girl. “It’s no surprise that you are her mother because you are equally beautiful”, I told the mother. Before she could answer, her companion retorted, “Dapat lang mas maganda ka kaysa anak mo… Ikaw na nga ang original!”
The daugher may be pretty, but in front of her mother, she could not brag. The same could be said of our relationship with God. We may be very good, generous and hospitable. But in front of God, we can never brag because He is the origin of all good.
The Pharisee’s prayer in Today’s Gospel reading is flawed because he was bragging before God – the source of his goodness. The Tax Collector, on the other hand, found nothing to brag about other than the fact that having lost the grace of God through sin, he still had access to divine mercy. To him, God was everything.
Both offered to God their brand of deeds. The difference is that the offering of the Pharisee was not his but God’s, since only God is the source of all good. On the other hand, the offering of the Tax Collector was truly his because those acts of sinfulness could never have come from God but from him.
The offering of the Pharisee was fake, while that of the Tax Collector was genuine. Now we ask ourselves: What have we to brag before God? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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