Contemplating today's Gospel
Liturgic day: Saturday 3rd of Lent
Gospel text (Lc 18,9-14):
Jesus told another parable to some persons 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 the 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 down to his
house, he had been set right with God, but not the other. For whoever
makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles
himself will be raised».
Comment: Fr. Gavan JENNINGS (Dublin, Ireland)
«I tell you, when this man went down to his house, he had been set right with God»
Today,
Christ presents us with two men who, to a casual observer, might appear
almost identical for they are in the same place doing the same thing,
as both «went up to the Temple to pray» (Lk 18:10). But beyond
appearances, at the deepest level of their personal consciences, both
men differ radically: one, the Pharisee, has an easy conscience while
the other, the tax collector, is racked by feelings of guilt.
Nowadays we tend to see guilt feelings as close to a psychological aberration: ‘beating oneself up over something’. Nevertheless the ‘guilt-racked’ tax-collector leaves the Temple in the better state for, «when this man went down to his house, he had been set right with God, but not the other» (Lk 18:14). «This feeling of guilt», writes Benedict XVI when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger ("Conscience and truth"), «disturbs the false calm of conscience and could be called conscience's complaint against my self-satisfied existence. It is as necessary for man as the physical pain which signifies disturbances of normal bodily functioning».
Jesus doesn’t lead us to believe that the Pharisee is not telling the truth when he says that he is not «grasping, crooked, adulterous» (Lk 18:11) and that he fasts and gives money to the Temple, nor that the tax-collector is delusional in thinking himself a sinner. This is not the question. Rather it is that «the Pharisee no longer knows that he too has guilt. He has a completely clear conscience. But this silence of conscience makes him impenetrable to God and men, while the cry of conscience which plagues the tax collector makes him capable of truth and love. Jesus can move sinners» (Benedict XVI).
Nowadays we tend to see guilt feelings as close to a psychological aberration: ‘beating oneself up over something’. Nevertheless the ‘guilt-racked’ tax-collector leaves the Temple in the better state for, «when this man went down to his house, he had been set right with God, but not the other» (Lk 18:14). «This feeling of guilt», writes Benedict XVI when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger ("Conscience and truth"), «disturbs the false calm of conscience and could be called conscience's complaint against my self-satisfied existence. It is as necessary for man as the physical pain which signifies disturbances of normal bodily functioning».
Jesus doesn’t lead us to believe that the Pharisee is not telling the truth when he says that he is not «grasping, crooked, adulterous» (Lk 18:11) and that he fasts and gives money to the Temple, nor that the tax-collector is delusional in thinking himself a sinner. This is not the question. Rather it is that «the Pharisee no longer knows that he too has guilt. He has a completely clear conscience. But this silence of conscience makes him impenetrable to God and men, while the cry of conscience which plagues the tax collector makes him capable of truth and love. Jesus can move sinners» (Benedict XVI).
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