The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Morally . Behold how great is the dignity, the need, and the power of prayer. The need, that by it we may be delivered from all the temptations and tribulations by which we are every where, and always, surrounded . The dignity, because by means of prayer we converse with God, as do the angels. The power, because by it we overcome all adversities and hardships. “ To pray always,” says S. Chrysostom (Book ii. of Prayer) “is the work of angels, who, wholly intent upon God, teach us while we pray to forget our human nature, and to have no regard to things present, but to conceive of ourselves as standing in the midst of angels, and performing the same sacrifice with them.” He adds, “ Satan does not venture to come too near to a soul fortified by prayer, for he fears the strength and fortitude which prayer confers. Prayer supports the soul more than food supports the body.” And (Book I.), “ As the sun gives light to the body, so does prayer to the soul. If it be a loss to a blind man not to see the sun, how much greater a loss is it to a Christian not to pray assiduously, nor to introduce the light of Christ into his soul ! By it we attain to this end, that we cease to be mortal and of time. By nature we are mortal, but by prayer and our life with God, we pass to the life immortal. For it is inevitable that he who holds communion with God, should come out superior to death and to all that is subject to corruption.”
Ver. 8. — When the Son of man cometh. He comes to the universal judgment, when He will deliver His elect, whom He ordered to be always ready and eager ; and to await that day patiently, preparing themselves for it by prayer and good works. For that day will be sudden and unexpected like lightning, as He Himself has said (chap. xvii. 24). Christ gives the reason why we should always pray, and persevere in prayer ; because from His long absence, faith will fail even in many who believe, so that they will either lose all faith or believe very feebly, scarcely thinking that He will return at all. Secondly, Christ here gives the reason why many are not heard in prayer. Their faith begins to fail and they do not continue steadfast in prayer, nor await the coming of the Lord with patience as they ought.
Thirdly, Theophylact says, “ He rightly connected His words on prayer with those on faith, for the base and foundation of all prayer is faith. He declared at the same time that few would pray, for faith would be found in few.”
Christ says this to add a fresh incentive to unceasing prayer, for faith is failing more and more, and offences and persecutions are therefore increasing.
Shall He find faith — perfect faith, that is ; faith formed by certain confidence (fiducia) and love. “ This,” says S. Augustine (tract xxxvi.), “is scarcely found on earth, for the Church of the faithful is full of imperfect faith, and is, as it were, half dead.” Christ Himself explains it so, S. Matt. xxiv. 13.
This will happen more especially ; at the end of the world before the coming of Christ to judgment, when men shall eat and drink themselves over to pleasure and think not of the judgment, as Christ said, chap. xvii. 27; and S. Peter, 2 Pet. iii. 3. That is, Christians will deny that He is coming to judgment, even when that coming is near at hand (2 Peter iii. 4). As if they had said, “ Nature has made the world : the same Nature continues its course in the same tenor, and always will continue it. There is no God to destroy it : no Deity to judge us and our works, and to punish them.”
Ver. 9. — And He spake also this parable unto certain that trusted in themselves. Which, however, might truly happen, nay often has happened, so that it may be historical. The introduction to the parable shows its scope and the design of its introduction, namely, to rebuke the supremacy of the Pharisees, and their boasting and contempt of other men.
In the former parable Christ taught one condition of prayer —perseverance. In this He teaches another — humility, for the humble prayer is heard by God, the proud one is rejected, as Ecclus. xxxv. 21. See what has been said thereon. The Fathers thus connect these words with the preceding verse, that is with faith. S. Augustine (Serm, xxxvi.), on the words of the Lord that faith is not of the proud but of the humble, says, “Christ subjoins a parable on humility as opposed to pride : ” Theophylact, “ Because pride more than other feelings vexes the minds of men, He very frequently speaks of it : ” The Gloss, “ That no one, from what has been said, may flatter himself on his knowledge, or his confession of faith,” Christ shows that our works, and not our professions, will be judged by God, and amongst these He chiefly notes humility.
Ver. 10. — Two men went up. The one a Pharisee, with the Pharisaical pride, puffed up and haughty. The other a publican, that is a sinner, and deprecating pardon. Publicans were held infamous by the Jews, nay, were termed Parisim — that is, public robbers, for, as Suidas says, from Jamblichus, “ The life of a publican was one of open violence, on account of their exactions and unjust tribute, their unpunished robberies, their unprincipled conduct in business, and their unblushing usury.”
Ver. 11. — The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself. The Jews prayed partly kneeling and partly standing, when their prayer was longer than usual — sacrifice or psalmody. For in the temple there was no place to sit, except for the High Priest and king alone, as I have showed on Ezek. xlvi. 2. The word “ standing ” is added here to show the pride of the Pharisee ; he raised his head to heaven as if to dispute with God, or to claim and exact the measure of his merits. “ For a humble man,” as Theophylact says, “ is humble of aspect, but this Pharisee is seen to be proud both by his habit and bearing.” The Arabic reads, “ The Pharisee stood praying.” The Pharisee, therefore, stood proudly: 1. As being secure and confident in his own merits, and as calling God to judgment. 2. He stood first, or among the first, near the altar. 3. He stood with his neck and face erect and fixed on heaven, as if heaven were his debtor. The publican, however, stood 1. Trembling and fearful, confessing his sins. 2. Afar off, at a distance from the altar, the last, or among the last. 3. With his face cast down towards the ground, not venturing to look up to heaven, showing his fear and penitence by the place in which he stood and by his appearance. Hence Bede says, allegorically , “ The Pharisee is the people of the Jews, exalting their merits by the righteousness of the law. The publican is the Gentile confessing his sin apud se.” The apud se of the Pharisee is referred in the Syriac to “ standing,” standing apud se — relying on himself, trusting to himself, insisting on his own merits and dwelling on them. The Syriac reads “serveto.” Our version more rightly connects the apud se with “orabat.” He prayed with himself in his soul and mind, for the pride in his heart so puffed him up, that he would not pray or speak but with himself — he did not deign to do so before others. He prayed like the Pharisees outwardly, in a grave inflated pompous tone. Hence S. Basil on Isaiah ii. says, “ He prayed apud se not apud Deum — for he acted like himself when he fell into the sin of pride.”
He prayed — In his own way, for he did not pray to God, but he praised himself. S. Augustine (Serm. xxxvi.) on the words of the Lord according to S. Luke : “ What did he ask of God ? Seek from his own words. We find nothing. He went up to pray ; he would not ask of God, but preferred to please himself, and heap insults on the devout publican as well.”
I thank Thee, “ He is not blamed,” said S. Augustine (serm. xxxvi.), “ because he gave thanks, but because he wished for nothing to be given to him. Whoever says ‘I justify myself,’ is worse than the Pharisee who proudly called himself righteous, but who also gave thanks to God.”
“ He gave God thanks,” says S. Bernard (de Grad. Humil.), “ not because he was good, but because he was alone : and not so much for the good which he had himself, as for the evil which he saw in others. He had not cast out the beam from his own eye, and he recounts the motes in his brothers’ eyes. For he says ‘unjust’ —‘extortioners.’”
I am not as other men. He should at least have said “as many others,” for what does “other” mean, but all men except himself? “ I,” he said, “ am righteous, the rest are sinners ;” that is, I alone am righteous, all the rest are wicked. The proud man, to exalt himself the more, especially despises and depreciates others.
S. Gregory (lib. xxiii. Moral. c. 7) describes four species of pride in this Pharisee. The first is, when men think that they have good, e.g., virtue a se. The second, when they ascribe this to their own merits. The third, when they think that they have that which they have not. The fourth, when they wish to be singular, and therefore despise and speak evil of others. The three last of these are clearly shown in the proud and false righteousness of this Pharisee. The first appeared in him because he ascribed his righteousness, not to God but to his own works, and said of God, with the Pagan, “ Let God give me strength, let Him give me wealth, I will order my mind myself.” “ If, in fine,” says Theophylact, “ he had believed that it was the gift of God that he had graces not his own (aliena), he would not have held other men in contempt, remembering that even he himself was naked as far as regards his own virtue.”