PRAYING TO GOD OR SELF?
“Believe Me, this man went home from the temple justified but the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled while he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” —Luke 18:14 The Pharisee in today’s Gospel reading was not humble but self-centered. When he prayed, he “prayed to himself” (see Lk 18:11, RSV-CE) and talked more about himself than about God. Also, the Pharisee focused his prayer on himself by favorably comparing himself with a tax collector praying in the back of the Temple (Lk 18:11). The Pharisee was destroying himself by his self-addiction. He was one of...