What if
it IS True? Blog
Discovering,
wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.
03/29/30
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.”
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.”
I
love the concept of Jesus addressing this to “those convinced of
their own righteousness”. I guess that obviously means I'm supposed
to hear this. How often do I let my pride put me in competition with
everyone around me? “I'm glad I'm not like that clueless
individual”, I think to myself. All the while knocking things
around like a bull in a china shop with the huge plank sticking out
of my eye.
I've
been reading a bit of C.S. Lewis again recently and I love the stuff
he has to say about humility. Essentially Lewis boils humility down
to not competing. How tough is that? We all want to be the best, or
at least better than the other guy. No doubt this is the heart of the
Pharisee. He's like the rest of us. Competing and not even knowing
why. His culture likely did that to him just as ours does today.
The
big question is how do we effectively humble ourselves and mean it,
not a facade or an act of some sort. Lewis talks a lot about acting
as if you are virtuous in order to become virtuous. So maybe an act
is the place to start. But I think the bottom line to being humble is
first, not to wait until you ARE humbled and second, stop the
competition. If you stop competing you won't be glad you're not like
the losers, right? Especially if by being glad you're not a loser
actually makes you a loser like our Pharisee friend.
I
recently had the pleasure of being the music leader on a retreat for
middle schoolers about the Mass. One of the segments was presented by
Fr. Alan Carter who talked about Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex
Vevendi, or the law of prayer, is the law of belief, is the law of
life. If we start praying like the tax collector, begging mercy for
our sins, especially the sin of pride and competition, we might just
end up believing the world doesn't revolve around us and eventually
our lives will reflect that as well.
Good luck and God bless,
Leo
Brown
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