Sunday, 27 October 2019 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.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Two sinners prayed inside the Jerusalem Temple: one was justified, while the other was condemned. The one God condemned was a Pharisee, a respected spiritual leader. The one whom God justified was a tax collector, a public sinner. But 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? And why was the tax collector, with his track record of corruption and disloyalty to his own people, justified? Booth were truthful in their prayers, after all. The tax collector was not lying when he admitted to God that he was a sinner. The Pharisee may have been telling the truth too when he said he was not crooked nor adulterous.
But telling the truth is not the only barometer to measure genuineness of prayer. Jesus said: “Whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.” The defect of the Pharisees’ prayer was not about truthfulness, then, but about humility. In matters of spirituality, truthfulness is one thing, genuineness is another. Prayer, even if truthful, is not genuine when lacking in humility. 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. —(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., J.D., D.M.