![\"\"](\"http:\/\/jp2doc.pl\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/580e4a9e8159730194120472_5a4bb4bc7c-300x199.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cTwo people went up to the temple area to pray\u201d.<\/p>\n
Is there anyone – a Christian of any denomination – who does not know the story of a Pharisee and a tax collector? I doubt it. I myself have heard the message hundreds of times, if not more often.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s have a look at it. Two men come to the Temple in Jerusalem to pray. One is a man who fulfils his religious and social duties to the letter: he never misses a prayer, a prescribed fast, who is faithful to his wife, who is honest, who shares his wealth.\u00a0 In other words, he does all the right things and he does not do any of the bad ones. He is eager go above the required norm, too \u2013 he fasts twice a week, he contributes more to the Temple\u2019s treasury, too. He does it all surrounded by the pagans, half-pagans, fallen-off Jews, the Romans, the God-less lot.
\nIf you look at how he performs, without looking into his heart, as only God can do \u2013 and did – you can only admire the man.<\/p>\n
You can compare him to one of those contemporary silent heroes of Christianity. They live in the pagan West or the dangerous East of our times, yet go to Mass every morning (or travel miles to get to Mass at all), say full Rosary daily, pray outside the abortion clinic once a month, do not \u201csteal\u201d even a pen from work, donate to charities, live a chaste life or have been married only once.
\nThey are lucky if they do it without noticing it themselves. No doubt, many do all of the above in the spirit of \u201cwe are useless servants\u201d.<\/p>\n
Yet always \u2013 just as it was 2000 years ago and is now \u2013 there is a catch to perfection.\u00a0 No matter how good we all are on the outside – the truth about us lies in the heart.. it is all in the heart.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One God\u2019s look into the Pharisee\u2019s heart reveals that\u00a0 this perfect man\u2019s thoughts are not on God, even if the words he says sound like a thanksgiving. \u201cO God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity\u201d..<\/p>\n
The man is proud of his perfect stand in view of his duties as a worshipper of God \u2013 but above all that he is not sinful \u2013 greedy, dishonest and adulterous – like the \u201crest of humanity\u201d, exemplified by the tax collector \u201cwho stood off at a distance\u201d and begged God to have mercy on him, the sinner.<\/p>\n
My own reception of the story changed over time. When I was a young Catholic, full of energy, with easy confessions every month, daily Masses\u00a0 and \u201cgood deeds\u201d, I loved it and, duly aware of its spiritual value, practiced the prayer of a tax collector with eagerness. Sure enough, I was unable to notice that I was a Pharisee ANYWAY.
\nIs there anything more funny than a Pharisee saying the prayer of a Tax Collector, the humble sinner?<\/p>\n
Then, our circumstances changed and from the Giver, I became the Recipient. Any new immigrant knows the feeling. When you arrive in a new country, you have contents of a suitcase. You suddenly need the basic things \u2013 a bed, a table, some plates and cups, winter boots, a dictionary. Kind people donate some of the stuff. You are given what others no longer need. You can see how often your benefactors (discreetly) look down on you : your inability to cope with new reality, your desperation sometimes, your obvious clumsiness. I observed this and I thought back, back to the years before \u2013 and was forced to admit that my own past \u201cgood deeds\u201d inflated my pride, no matter how I fought\u00a0 it. Had I known how to attribute them to God alone.. to give back the good to the source of all Good\u2026<\/p>\n
So, I shrank somewhat in those first years in Canada. No material goods to share, much to be grateful to others for, roles reversed.\u00a0 Healthy, if unpleasant.<\/p>\n
Still, I had my spiritual pride to inflate me: my fully Catholic, church going family. Oh, for the pride of watching our parish church\u2019s pews filled with the lot of us: the old, the middle aged and the young.. those\u00a0 weddings, the baptisms, 1st communions and confirmations.. It felt so good to know we all are still \u201cholding on to faith\u201d, while (sigh, sigh) so many of \u201cothers\u201d are already outside the Church,\u00a0 divorced, living in sin, not even baptizing their offspring born out of wedlock.
\nSo that type of pride had to go, too..
\nSometimes God has to break our hearts to shake us out of our spiritual blindness.\u00a0 He needs to strip us of everything we rely on, everything we take pride in \u2013 so that we may learn to extend our genuinely empty hands to Him, begging for mercy.
\nWas Pharisee\u2019s pride broken eventually? Probably, because God gives us all many, many chances to see…<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo people went up to the temple area to pray\u201d. Is there anyone – a Christian of any denomination – who does not know the story of a Pharisee and a tax collector? I doubt it. I myself have heard the message hundreds of times, if not more often. So let\u2019s have a look at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n