When Fr. Jerry Orbos and his
companions first donned their cassocks, their novice master reminded them to
make sure to wear a smile along with them. Also, he taught them a very simple
lesson –that if they missed one button, they would have to go back and button
it up and do the rest all over again.
This shared experience of Fr.
Orbos reminds us that whatever is made wrong must be corrected or else the
wrongful doing will continue. Eventually, it shall be shown. Just like in our
Gospel of Luke 18: 9-14, Jesus said that the Pharisee prayed to God believing
that he did not commit any wrong. He did not notice that he was too
self-righteous amounting to his commission of sin. He was over-confident to
attain salvation through his own effort and merits. Nobody attempted to correct
him his ways. So Jesus said, the Pharisee was not justified unlike the tax
collector in his parable. The tax collector was justified because he knew he
had done wrong and he asked for God’s mercy to correct him. It is better for us
to be like the tax collector who admitted before God our shortcomings so that we
will not perpetuate a wrong and be saved not according to our efforts but according
to God’s mercy. Amen.
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