DGeMs- Daily Gospel eMessage
Dear Friend in the Lord,
“Self-Righteous Faith”: The Pharisee prayed with self-righteousness; while the tax collector prayed humbly for God’s Merciful Forgiveness, for his sins. The Pharisee praised himself, and denounced the tax collector for his sinful living. Ponder on, “Jesus praised the tax collector for his humility. Does the Pharisee or tax-collector describe the way we live our faith?”
Fr Philip Heng, S.J.
Luke 18:9-14
Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being upright and despised everyone else, ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like everyone else, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.”
The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again justified; the other did not. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, but anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.’