February 1st, 2026: Publican and Pharisee

I wish each of you a blessed feast. You know

how it is after Christmas in most neighborhoods,

certainly stores, all the decorations come down

at Halloween. Then the next day after Christmas,

they... The trees are in the garbage on the street.

We also, in the church, begin our Christmas preparations

early, a little bit after Halloween. And that's

been the case since the early church. And we

begin with that fast of 40 days before we celebrate

Christmas. Today, with the Feast of the Meeting

of the Lord in the Temple, which we're celebrating,

this marvelous fresco... You can contemplate

that. We come to the end of another set of 40

days. So we're talking about 80 days here since

we began to prepare for Christmas. During that

time, for Orthodox Christians, we tried to gauge

and direct our lives about this. We heard about

enlightenment. We heard about the temple. We

heard about the heart of man, the baptized person

being the temple of God. We heard about the shining

forth of Christ, his birth, his coming to the

world, his theophany. It's all about salvation.

It's all about Christ, that whole time. And now

that we have celebrated all of that for 80 days.

And we've heard and considered everything that

came before. And this takes some conscientious

and intentional effort. So we can do that. Otherwise

we let the 80 days just slip by. But having heard

all of that, we are now ready to end that. And

we come to another time of preparation. As Orthodox

Christians, our life is about expectation, anticipation.

Fulfillment. A catechumen is preparing. They're

baptized. It's all fulfilled in that baptism

and chrismation. And then they receive the Eucharist.

But then it's about anticipation for the next

week to receive the Eucharist. And then it's

about anticipation for the coming of the Lord

in glory and the resurrection. And we live in

this state. But now the church says, we're preparing

for a new time for preparation. Yes, another

time for preparation. We're preparing for Lent.

Pretty soon, this blue and this gold is going

to purple. Less than a month. That's beautiful.

Because we need it after that. Now we're prepared

for it. We've had all this other stuff. We're

prepared for it. This parable of the... and the

tax collector, the Pharisee. That's the clarion

call. That's the bell that tells us as a community,

not individual Christians, but as a community,

the church, we're getting ready for the 40 -day

great fast, which begins on February 22nd with

Forgiveness Sunday Vespers. And how I look forward

to that. But first I'd like to say something

before I speak about the publican, the tax collector.

Publican, public official, that type of thing.

In Britain, a publican is a guy who runs the

bar. So that's not this guy. You heard about

the publican last week. I know that because I

heard the sermon, which was wonderful. I don't

need to go into what a publican is. I'd like

to say something about today's feast first, though.

We have this Feast of the Meeting of the Lord,

the end of the Christmas season. It's on February

2nd. We moved it to today with the blessing of

the bishop. Luke tells us that after long years

of waiting and expectation, the elder Simeon,

he was not a priest. You see, we have this reading

from the Epistle of the Hebrews. It might sound...

complicated to us, but really it's just telling

us there was no priest there to receive Christ

because he is the priest. That's what that's

telling us. After long years of expectation,

the elder Simeon is there in the temple of God.

We have two scenes from temples today. And he

receives the 40 day old Jesus in his arms. And

he recognizes him. He recognizes him in the spirit

as the Savior of all mankind. He and the righteous

Anna, because they are prophets. And they recognize

Jesus, though there could be hundreds of children

coming that day to be offered to dedication to

the Lord. Those two immediately see it in the

spirit of God. And they praise God. It's a day

of joy. It's a day of sorrow also. Because the

Theotokos is told that there will be severe pain

and sorrow and grief with the crucifixion of

her son. And she holds all of these things in

her heart. Father Alexander Schmemann remarks

in his wonderful sermon on this day, he says,

how unspeakably good that the long -awaited light

and joy comes to the elder Simeon through a child.

Imagine the old man's trembling hands as he takes

in his arm the 40 -day infant so tenderly, so

carefully, his eyes gazing on the tiny being

and filling with an outpouring of praise. Lord,

now lettest thou thy servant depart. He calls

this child his Lord. Amazing. I have held in

mine arms, I have embraced the meaning of life.

And Simeon waited. He waited his entire long

life. And surely this means he pondered, he prayed,

he deepened as he waited so that his whole life

was one continuous expectation of the greatest

thing that could possibly happen. This eve of

a joyful meeting. Isn't it time, Father Alexander

says, that we ask ourselves, What am I waiting

for in the way I live? Is my life a model like

Simeon and the righteous Anna? They see him.

It's an amazing thing. And the Theotokos comes

to the temple to dedicate. Is it a moment of

joy? Yes. But there she is, a model again of

our Christian life. She is going to hear at that

moment of encounter about the profound sufferings

that she will also suffer with Christ to see

her son. And she will remain faithful to her

son from beginning to end. So she's that role

model for us once again, who face sufferings

in this world, those who face social stigma,

those who face social rejection, those who face

sorrow. this is another aspect of this great

and awesome day. And today, in that same temple

where Simeon and Anna were, where Simeon met

our salvation, we hear a parable from Christ

about another encounter. Two encounters. About

a despised man coming to the temple to repent.

He's probably small of stature, like Zacchaeus

last week. It was only last week, so there's

a relationship here. He is much hated for his

cruelty and his greed. And there up front in

the temple is a deeply pious and religious man.

Well respected. Knowledge about... knowledgeable

about the law. He's generous. He's a Pharisee.

He's a religious man. He's dependable. A model

parishioner, I would say. And he's praying, sort

of. And just guessing, our publican probably,

probably could hear this Pharisee praying, Oh

Lord, I thank thee. I'm not like other men. Like

that publican, the tax collector. Well, the tax

collector coming into the temple, how does he

pray? He could have boasted also. It's what I

would have done. Lord, I come before you today

to tell you how great it feels to give half of

my goods to the poor. I never knew I could be

so generous. I gave back. Four times, Lord. Four

times. I hope you notice that. Not just the two

that the law says. And that takes some humility.

And well, I could have given back five times

because I've got plenty of money. Lord, please

forgive that Pharisee. So boastful. So prideful.

What a hypocrite. But that's not what he said.

He said something very, very simple. God be gracious

to me, a sinner. God have mercy on me, a sinner,

for centuries now. As this parable is a clarion

call for Lent, the church is telling us about

a warning, about our attitude. Rightly so. Despising

others is one of the most universal human pleasures.

Just look at the internet. There's very little

that is so necessarily satisfying to one's sense

of self as to put down someone else, especially

people in positions of power that you will never,

ever, ever, ever meet. Jesus was particularly

warning us concerning the way this passion ruins

our hearts and our attempts to live in an upright,

moral, pious manner, a gracious manner. a loving

manner, a humble manner. I know it well. It continues

to trip me up and probably you too sometimes.

This is the first lesson about Lent. And in the

parable, the self -condemnation of the publican

is offered as an example to us of humility. We

cannot pray without that gift. These days, however,

I encounter many people who do not so much despise

others as despise themselves. This is another

side of the same coin. A root cause of this affliction

is a person trusting in themselves. And this

is a big mistake. The first rule of Orthodox

spirituality is never trust yourself. The second

rule is dare to trust others. fully in God alone,

like Simeon, like Anna. So whether we think ourselves

something, or we think ill of ourselves, we're

still making a judgment on our own terms. Our

spiritual life is undertaken in a spirit of humility,

which is about accountability. What do I mean?

Very briefly, Do you know what the Pharisee really

needed? Not just rules. We need those also. He

needed a good spiritual counselor, a confessor,

and a friend. So did the publican. And those

who pray like the publican, for them, the merciful

God does not leave us in captivity of our passions

with a sense of failure. getting swept away again

and again with the circumstances of many sins,

with guilt that will never be resolved. No, no.

Our guardian angel standing near us quietly to

help us inspires us to turn to Jesus Christ when

those thoughts, when that guilt, when that pain

comes. And we give him thanks. Not like the Pharisee.

Not trying to count up all that we did good.

in comparison to the bad. No, but thanks for

his providence, his help, his love. And we offer

the prayer of the publican, God be merciful to

me, a sinner. Amen.