10 'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.
11 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.
12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get."
13 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."
14 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.'
LUKE 18:10-14
We, human beings, have a tendency to be arrogant. When we wander around the world without God, we think that we can do it all on our own. And once we realise that only God is our happiness, we can still fall in the trap of holier-than-thou. It's sooooo easy to see how God blesses us and how He acts in our lives, that we can end up acting like the pharisee, saying "thank you God for making me a good person, not like them..."
Don't get me wrong--everyday, I thank God because He rescued me from the person I was becoming and He protected me in very dangerous situations I kept putting myself in as a teenager and young adult. And I feel so lucky that Jesus and Mama Mary protected me (thanks to the prayers of my mother, mostly) from falling deeper into sin. But this doesn't make me better than you, or you, or you! And I ask God to please give the not only the humility to recognize that I am nothing without Him and that all that I have is thanks to Him, but the love to see you, you, and you as His beloved and not feel that I am better than any of you.
Because I was that pharisee. And I am fighting not to be anymore, and I pray that God helps me not to be it anymore. Because, see... pharisees were not murders, or thieves... they were righteous people, role-models even. But in the process of going through a checklist of "things to do" they forgot that the number one thing to do was to love God, and their neighbours as themselves (which we talked about yesterday).
And I'm not saying that "oh, since being a pharisee is bad, let's just be sinners!" No! Because Jesus explains to us that the tax collector was truly sorry for his sins and clamoring for God's mercy. It's not like "oooh.. well, I'll just do this and I'll just say I'm sorry later " (which many people think that is what the sacrament of confession/reconciliation is like. HINT: it's not).
All I'm trying to say here is that we should all strive for the perfection of the pharisee while at the same time recognize that we need God's mercy, like the tax collector did. It is important to do good things that appear good and not good things that appear evil because we need to give testimony of our relationship with Christ. But our relationship should be a thing of the heart, the will, the soul, and the mind as well as an external demonstration.
So, what if instead of pointing fingers and saying "thank you God that I'm not like her or him" we say "Lord, have mercy on this friend, or this family member, or this coworker. He/she needs you so much. Please reveal yourself to him/her. May he/she encounter you and feel your love!"
I want you to know that the purpose of this blog is not to point fingers in a pharisee-like way. This blog is me saying to you "Hey, I'm broken, I'm plagued with flaws, but the Lord loves me so much. And I love Him. And knowing Him is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And He loves you too. And He's died for you. And He wants to hang out with you. Call Him!"
If God can love me, an ordinary pharisee, be sure that He loves you.
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