Posted by The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr. Louie A. Punzalan, SVD – University of San Carlos, Cebu City
Saturday 3rd Week of Lent
Try talking to someone about himself and he will be willing to listen for hours. It is because there are people who have a keen sense of humor. The more you humor and flatter them, the better they enjoy it.
Conceit is the only disease known to man that makes everybody sick except the one who is self-conceited. I remember someone who said: “Don’t ask me to admit my mistakes. I don’t make mistakes. There is only one mistake I made in life. I once thought I was wrong about something. It turned out I was right.”
I also remember someone who said: “If there are only two righteous men in the world, my son and I are these two. If there is only one, I am he.”
Indeed, few people need voice lessons to sing their own praise. And the person who sings his own praise always gets the wrong pitch. The moral is: If you wish other people to speak well of you, avoid speaking well of yourself all the time.
There are many ways of classifying people, depending on the criteria we use to distinguish them: age, income, educational attainment, religion, and so on. A deeper way of classifying people is to find out how they view themselves, others, and God.
This manner of classification will divide humankind into only two basic categories: the proud and the humble. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-collector, which exemplifies different spiritual attitudes and spiritual tendencies, reveals this reality.
The smallest package is a person so wrapped up in himself.
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