Two kinds of prayer
“I tell you; this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone he exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted”.
The topic of prayer (Luke18 :1-8) leads Jesus into this parable about the right attitude for approaching God. Jesus told them about the two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed exalting himself as righteous and the tax collector beat his chest in sorrow while praying and confess that he is a sinner and ask for forgiveness.
What was wrong with the pharisee’s prayer and right about the tax collector ‘s prayer, that God’s assessment of them should be so radically different from our expectations? I don’t think it is difficult to spot.
Notice how the pharisee begins, ‘Lord’ he says ‘I thank you I am not like other men are’.
Imagine going to a doctor and saying I want you to know that I am in perfect health, no medicine needed. I am unlike the rest of the patients I observe in your waiting room, there’s nothing wrong with me at all.
He didn’t allow the doctor to examine also. What could the doctor do to such a man? He will leave the doctors clinic unchanged, unbenefited anyway, because he asked for nothing. If he allowed the doctor to examine him, the doctor could have found some problem and healed him.
This is exactly the point Jesus makes in another saying” It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”. (Mathew 9:12). This Pharisee is a perfect example of that. He came into the temple to justify himself of his spiritual and moral character. He didn’t come to pray at all.
The tax collector knew why the Pharisee was praying like that. Just to insult him. Pharisee said in a loud voice “God, I thank you that I am not like other men., Luke 18:11, rogues, swindlers, traitors or like that tax collector over there.
Everybody was a deliberate dig at him. But the tax collector didn’t say anything, he was aware of the disease of his soul. He made no grudge and he feels his need and as he beat his breast, his need burst out of him in short abrupt sound of inner torture.
“God……be merciful to me…. the sinner”. He felt at that time that he was the only sinner in the entire world–yet Jesus says that’s the kind of prayer God hears.
That sort of worshipper goes, a different person, whereas the proud and complacent, for all their eloquent supplications, leave the house of God inexactly the same unacceptable state in which they arrived.
Prayer
Father God gives us the grace to be humble always. We surrender ourselves to you.
Amen
–Sol.Gerard