Gospel: Luke
18:9-14
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 was 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.”
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Reflection:
Have you tried conversing with those who are humble?
What do you notice about them? They very rarely talk about themselves, if they
even talk about themselves they see to it that it’s done not for the purpose of
raising their own self-image. So, we naturally gravitate towards them and we
love to be with them because they carry an aura of holiness.
Have you tried conversing with those who are so full
of themselves? Of course, they always talk about themselves: their
accomplishment, their riches, things that they do and it goes on and on: all
about themselves. Truth be told, we don’t want to hear these self-serving words
that only feed their bloated egos.
God would prefer also that we at all times become
humble. To talk less and less about ourselves and our accomplishments for the
simple reason that He already knows everything about us. He would very
much prefer that we simply practice our faith, never worrying if other would
notice about it or not. Simply content to do things for the greater glory of
God and not to serve our own glorification.
Many of us are like the Pharisee in our gospel, we
love to talk about ourselves and we love to boast about the things that we do.
An inner renewal is in order for all of us so that we would become like the
humble tax collector who gained the favor of God.
We have to
remember that the Lord always favors the humble as stated in the gospel. Those
who do not change whatever fame and fortune they may possess. They remain
grounded; they never allow their sudden fame and fortune to go into their
heads. They are well aware that whatever they have now is a gift from God that
they must not brag about. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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