Gospel Reading for the Day
From the holy Gospel according to
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| THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR. Image from catechesis-a-journey.blogspot.com |
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
"Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'
But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed,
'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'
"I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
Personal reflection on the reading
Sharing for the Day
During our Day XI reflection, we discussed about judging and condemning. We discussed then that only God has the right to judge and to condemn. For us ordinary people, we must always think positively of others and when they do something wrong, we must leave the proclamation of their guilt to the ones who have been given the authority to do so.
Today we are once again going to confront ourselves about our attitude toward others: whether we are being judgmental, negatively critical of others, or worst, bent on condemning others in order to make ourselves appear better than them. Many times in our lives we do this in the same manner that the Pharisee did it to the tax collector in the parable. As stated in the Desiderata, there are people who are lesser or greater than ourselves. We try to level up with those greater than us by emphasizing our advantage over those who are lesser than us.
When we see, for example, a politician giving 'gifts' to adoring followers, we probably tell ourselves, "At least I am not corrupt". Maybe true but we must remember that corruption happens in many different ways - not only in the political arena. Perhaps many of us in the wake of the RH controversy take pride that we are good in siding with the Pro-Life groups and outrightly condemn the Pro-RH as evil. [Let us just pray for them.] In this area too, we must ask ourselves as to how pro-life are we because the fight for life is not only by opposing the RH Bill - now RH Law - but also on how we relate with the people around us, especially those who are not with us: do we love them, do good to them and pray for them just as our Lord admonished those who listened to Him in the mountain?
The Lord Jesus Christ tells us: those who exalt themselves shall be humbled and those who humble themselves shall be exalted. The Lord is the best example of humbling Himself and then being exalted by the Father. He left His divine status with the Father and become man like us even obediently accepting death on the cross and because of this God exalted Him making Him ruler of all [see Philippians 2: 6-11]. As to the example of exalting one's self and being humiliated: who else but Lucifer, the bearer of light, who became Satan, the Devil, the Deceiver! He wanted to become equal with God and even to dethrone God from heaven. But his pride led him to his downfall and he now tries to entice humanity to rebel against God too so that he would have companions in hell.
We are on the second day of the second half of our 40-day journey. As we continue our reflections this Season of Lent, let us focus on the virtue of humility: a virtue which is not even listed among the seven great virtues [the three theological - faith, hope and charity, plus the four cardinal - prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude]. It's a great virtue that even God the Son exercised it in order to save us from bondage to sin!
Application of the Message
[1] Prayer
Pray for humility.
[2] Abstinence
Abstain from something that keeps you from being humble.
[3] Almsgiving
Share something today in order to exalt or lift up someone who needs help.
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