When it’s wrong to be right

Everything began to go wrong the day he convinced himself he was right.  Right because he was.  Right because others were wrong.  Right because he kept the rules.  Right because he decided what right was.  That was the Pharisee in the Temple - proud that he was right, and no one could say otherwise:  the measure of his own morality.

And because he was right, all who don’t measure up are wrong - i.e. this tax collector here.  And even God agrees, because God is merely a reflection of himself.  And prayer is personal projection - he said this prayer to himself. 

It’s wrong to be right when right reduces God to a reflection of myself, it’s wrong to be right when right ridicules and wrongs the rights of others.  And, finally, it’s right to be wrong if wrong puts me right with God - “God be merciful to me a sinner.” 

Fr. Eamon Devlin, C.M.

28th October 2007