God's Point of View

Jesus addresses His parable in the Gospel today to those who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise everyone else. It is strange how these two things go together. When we are convinced we are perfect, we blame everyone else around us for what is wrong with the world.
              I was raised during a time that cultivated a conviction of righteousness under the guise of building up self-esteem. If we got a bad grade in class, it wasn't our fault, it was the teacher's fault for not making the class more interesting or for making the test too hard. If we didn't get enough time on the field in sports, it wasn't our fault for being out of shape, it was because the coach wasn't being fair. If we got dumped, it wasn't our fault, it was that there just aren't that many good men or women out there anymore. When we are convinced of our own righteousness, we are convinced we have no faults. We then despise how all the sins in the world are caused by the rest of humanity.
The way to break out of this trap of pride is to pray to see things from God's perspective. God reveals reality to us. He reveals that we have some gifts and some faults. The devil wants us to be unrealistic and say we have no gifts to make us despair or say we have no faults to convince us of our own righteousness. However, if we are truly humble, we will see the truth - that we are sinners who have the potential to be saints.

 
God bless,
Fr. Scott