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Luke
18:9-14
And to some who
trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, he spoke also this parable:
Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other
a publican.
The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks
that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also
is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes
towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: O god, be merciful to me a
sinner.
I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather that the
other: because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he
that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.
Commentary
from the Catholic Encyclopedia
The lesson [the
Parable of the Unprofitable Servant] is driven home by contrast, once more,
between the pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14), disclosing the true
economy of grace. On the one hand it is permissible to understand this with
Hugo of St. Victor and others as typifying the rejection of legal and carnal
Judaism; on the other, we may expand its teaching to the universal principle
in St. John (4:23-24) when our Lord transcends the distinction of Jew and
heathen, Israelite and Samaritan, in favour of a spiritual Church or kingdom,
open to all. St. Augustine says (Enarr. in Ps. lxxiv), "The Jewish people
boasted of their merits, the Gentiles confessed their sins".
It is asked whether those "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous
and despised others" were in fact the pharisees or some of the disciples.
From the context we cannot decide. But it would not be impossible if, at
this period, our Saviour spoke directly to the pharisees, whom He condemned
(at no time for their good works, but) for their boasting and their disdain
of the multitude who knew not the law (cf. Matthew 23:12, 23; John 7:49).
The pharisee's attitude, "standing", was not peculiar to him; it has ever
been the customary mode of prayer among Easterns. He says "I fast twice in
a week", not "twice on the Sabbath". "Tithes of all that I possess" means
"all that comes to me" as revenue. This man's confession acknowledged no
sin, but abounds in praise of himself-a form not yet extinct where Christians
approach the sacred tribunal. One might say, "He does penance; he does not
repent". The publican is of course a Jew, Zacchaeus or any other; he cannot
plead merit; but he has a "broken heart" which God will accept. "Be merciful
to me" is well rendered from the Greek by the Vulgate, "Be propitious", a
sacrificial and significant word. "Went down to his house justified rather
than the other" is a Hebrew way of saying that one was and the other was
not justified, as St. Augustine teaches. The expression is St. Paul's,
dikaiousthai; but we are not required to examine here the idea of justification
under the Old Law. Mystically, the exaltation and abasement indicated would
refer to the coming of the Kingdom and the Last Judgment. |
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