The Pharisee and the Sinner
21
Oct
There are personal and public sins, but the relationship between them is clear, whoever is not honest and morally upright individually will find it difficult to be so in public, and this is
notorious.
False spirituality is one that hides its own interests behind religiosity without actually adhering to the values of solidarity and fraternity necessary for this.
Each culture, religion or social group develops its own rites and languages, and sometimes, this makes manipulation easy by those who do not know in depth what is in each culture, as many have ancestral roots, it can be difficult to understand their social origin and their values, this makes manipulation easier.
However, what really reveals the true face of each culture is its public attitude, because what it really is is revealed in it.
There is an Aesop fable in which a cat becomes the most beautiful woman at a court party and enchants everyone, however when a mouse appears she devours it, showing her true face.
It is no different in religion, those who do not have true spirituality find some difficulty in public life with their values, they do not engage in dialogue because they are intolerant, they do not practice solidarity because they are selfish and they do not love because they are close to the rigidity of hatred and this difficulty see the different, the Other.
There are several biblical passages that refer to the theme, such as the one that calls false religious “whitewashed tombs”, another that says they praise God with words, but the heart is far away, but the clearest passage is that of the sinful who sits at the back because he fears God and the Pharisee who sits at the front to magnify himself, at the end the text says (Lk 18:14): “I tell you, the latter went home justified, the other did not. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
