A little and chubby girl in a Purefoods TJ Hotdogs TV commercial wrote in his diary like this: “Dear Diary. Carlo wants me a date. He’s so cute. sabi niya I’m pretty. Kaya lang I’m fat. I eat too much kasi, eh. Kaya mula ngayon – goodbye chocolates! Goodbye spaghetti! Goodbye hotdogs! But when she looked back, she saw the two Purefoods TJ Hotdogs in a plate. So, she said: Ayyyyy…. Goodbye Carlo!” She ate the hotdog.
In the business world, competition is a good thing. We see it in television, we hear it in radio and we read it in the newspaper about their commercials and advertisement of their products. They have to show that their product is the best in order for them to be always on the top.
Just like hotdogs, there is only one kind of hotdogs but there are so many brand names like Purefoods, Swift, Campo Carne and many more. Some are very delicious and some are not; some are sour and some are like cellophane. But for me, it is good to have so many brand names so that consumers can select which is the best. But what is bad about competition is it destroys the other. According to one advertisement: “Mas masarap tong sa amin, ‘iyong sa kanila hindi (ours is more delicious than theirs),” Anyway, no business would say that their product is not good, everybody would say that theirs is the best.
But if we talk about things which concerns spiritual life, the words ‘competition’ and ‘comparison’ that the business world are using, are out of the topic. It is because when a certain person starts to compare himself with others, well, he is not the best and this should not be. If he begins to compete with others that he is the best person in the world because, he has no enemies, ho does not destroy others, very humble and he does nothing wrong, he is conceited person and very proud of himself. If he always criticizes and then he does not give alternative solution to the problem, he just wants to show that he is always right. So, we should not use the words competition and comparison if we follow God. In our spiritual life, we shout: “We are the worst!” And so what is needed is humility.
This is what happened in our gospel today. The Pharisee really praises himself because according to him he is the good person of all. He fasted twice a week and he paid tithes in all he possessed as compared to others, like the tax collector, who is grasping, crooked and adulterous. So with head unbowed, he prayed to God in this fashion. I don’t know if he did it daily and perhaps, only during the day of the Lord, just like us.
The tax collector on the other hand, did not even dare ‘to raise his eyes on heaven. All he does is to beat his breast and says: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” But he returns home with him the prize of acceptance of God because of his awareness of his sins and self-despising and confession. The Pharisee meets all what is demanded by the law and even more. As what I have said that he fasted twice a week even if it is only once a year and he paid tithes even on insignificant things. Supposed to be only on main products. But the Bible says nothing about his kindness, charity, justice and love. In other words, what we need is humble prayer or humble service and this is what matters.
Which of the two should we follow, the Pharisee or the tax collector? We can still follow what the Pharisee has done. He follows the law of God faithfully. He makes the Lord’s Day holy. He teaches us how to fast and to sacrifice. So we could not condemn him totally. Only with his conceited attitude, pride and his sickness called A-I-D-S (Acquired Insensitivity Due to Selfishness). Just like what a certain pastor said in his preaching: “Humility is a very difficult virtue. But thanks be to God, I have that virtue.” Everybody was laughing because the moment you start to claim that you have humility, you are admitting that you are proud and that’s the end of everything.
How about the tax collector? We can also follow him but not his deeds. He is abusive. He did follow the law of God because he steals and does extortion. But we can follow his humility. A person who knows how to be humble is ready to accept constructive criticism and he will not hide his wrongdoings, just like the tax collector, and willing to change for the better.
Let us reflect on this: “Too humble is half-proud (Yiddish proverb). Too much humility is pride (German proverb). Nothing proves humility better than humiliation.”