Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 18:9-14
October 23, 2022 | Sunday

Today’s Gospel

Jesus told another parable to some people, 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 a 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 back to his house, he had been reconciled with God, but not the other. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised up.”

Today’s Reflection:

Me, me, and my selfie! Selfies are photos that a person took of himself. More often than not, selfies posted on social media do not objectively represent how a person actually looks. What are often shared online are one’s best possible photos. These are often enhanced (filtered) in order to draw more positive comments and earn more likes. Truth be told, selfies are a form of self-adulation or praise of oneself.

While all of us need some degree of affirmation and praise, self-adulating or trumpeting our achievements in order to gain more praise can be dangerous. This is somehow what the praying Pharisee exhibits in the Gospel Reading. His posture in praying and the content of his prayer betray his self-adulation.

As regards his posture, he is said to be “standing [by himself] and/or praying to himself” (σταθείς προς ἑαυτὸν [ ] προσηύχετο). Noteworthy herein is the prepositional phrase “by/to himself” (προς ἑαυτὸν), which can serve as a modifier either of “standing” (σταθείς) or of “praying” (προσηύχετο). On the one hand, if the phrase is connected to “standing”, it would mean that the Pharisee is standing alone and isolating himself from the rest of the people in the temple.

On the other hand, if the phrase is linked to “praying”, it would indicate that the Pharisee is addressing his prayers of thanksgiving not to God but to himself. Both interpretations are possible, but more scholars make a good case for the latter because Jesus warns against self-righteousness at the beginning of the Gospel (Lk 18:9) and underscores the value of humility at the end (Lk 18:14b). By shouting out loud his thanksgiving prayer, the Pharisee is actually not thanking God but boasting of how good he is.

Let’s now take a closer look at the content of his prayer, which is basically narcissistic and self-adulating. Two points are worth noting. The first is his unnecessarily excessive use of the first-person pronoun “I”—no less than four times in a row (Lk 18:11-12). Which likewise betrays where his focus lies: not on God whom he is supposed to thank but on himself. The second is that he brags on how he far exceeds the requirements of the Mosaic Law. While the Law requires fasting only on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), this Pharisee fasts twice a week (Lk 18:12a). Whereas Jews are only required to give a tenth of their fields’ produce, he gives tithes on all his income (Lk 18:12b). The fact that he thinks highly of himself because he does far more than what the Torah requires and the fact that he mocks the rest as “thieves, adulterers and tax collectors” (Lk 18:11) show that he is not properly motivated in his supposedly meritorious acts.

We may find it convenient to condemn this Pharisee. But if we look honestly into ourselves, we shall realize that we—in varying degrees—have tendency to self-adulate or to praise ourselves for our achievements. Jesus warns us against giving in to this dangerous tendency by presenting to us the Pharisee as a negative example.

The Second Reading presents us a positive example in the person of another Pharisee—the Apostle Paul. Paul directs his thanksgiving not to himself but to the Lord: “To him (God) be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Tim 4:16b). No doubt, Paul was an over achiever. He was not only a missionary who proclaimed the Gospel far and wide in the Roman Empire but he was also a prolific writer (13 of the 27 books in the NT are written by or are attributed to him). But he does not trumpet his achievements. He does “boast” though, but he boasts of the fact that his life has been poured out as a libation, that is, poured out as a “drink-offering” (ESVS). In other words, his is a life of self-giving and self-emptying for the sake of the Gospel and for the praise and glory of God. (by Fr. Lazaro N. Ervite, OSA) /Vulnerasti, 2022