Publican and the Pharisee 2024

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ. As

you all know, this is an election year. One would

hope that the theme of every election Sort of

the slogan would be that last verse of the gospel.

Did you catch it? Everyone who exalts themselves

shall be humbled. Those who humble themselves

shall be exalted. But even to think like, to

say what I just said and to think in that way

puts us in a very dangerous spiritual condition.

In this wonderful book called The Year of Grace.

by a monk of the Eastern Church. The author,

it's unidentified, the author says, do we have

the right to condemn the Pharisee and to consider

ourselves more righteous than him? If, first

of all, we break the commandments that the Pharisee

observes, prayer, tithing, Fasting. Yes, these

are not optional for the Christians. It's the

way we act in our life. Have we the right to

place ourselves in contrast to the Pharisee on

the same level as the justified publican? We

cannot do that unless our attitude is exactly

the same as that of the publican. Would we dare

to say that we have the publican's humility and

repentance if we ostentatiously condemn the Pharisee

without truly becoming, like the public and ourselves,

we fall into Phariseeism itself. People, enough

with the political memes about your opponents

on social media. You know what I'm talking about.

So today, we begin to prepare ourselves for the

great fast. in which we intentionally change

the course of our life, change our activities

as best as we can. Parents of little kids, this

is a little different story for you, and we talk

about that later. And we start with that realization

of what that intention is going to be with this.

Parable, five verses from chapter 18 of the Gospel

of St. Luke, which begins with St. Luke's comment

that the Lord Jesus told this parable to those

who trusted in themselves and looked down on

others. And then the five verses. Two men went

up into the temple to pray. Instead of analyzing,

brothers and sisters, the Pharisees' intentions

and the publicans' intentions, Let me make this

very simple. What's the underlying lesson that

we have to, one of them, one of them, a simple

one, that we have to acquire today if we are

going to go through the doors of repentance and

start walking the way of Lent? Because this is

our intention. We're Orthodox Christians. The

church is saying, this is the signpost today

on this Sunday. You heard the hymns last night

at Vespers. This is why. Come to Vespers. Such

magnificent hymnography. It teaches us how to

pray, how to worship. So the lesson is this,

that I'd like to ponder just for a moment. Sometimes

people go to Lent, especially that first week

of Lent, Canon of St. Andrew, and... The opinion

might be, well, why should I beat myself up continually

like this? Why should I be so negative? Wretch

that I am. Oh, my soul, you know that you have

failed this and the other thing. On and on it

goes. And perhaps we don't understand what those

hymns are trying to tell us. Perhaps we don't

understand what this parable is trying to tell

us. Let me... suggest to you that we have to

acquire humility, but we don't know what humility

is. We are neither the Pharisee with his zeal

for the commandments and zeal for fasting, zeal

for praying. We're not that. Hardly any of us

can be accused of Phariseeism in... emulating

the virtues that he tries to acquire. This is

a big mistake on our part because those are the

things we should try to acquire. And hardly any

of us feel the sorrow, the alienation from God,

the distance from God that our sins have caused

that the public had felt so that all he could

do was stand at the back by the door with his

head down. And beat his breast, O God, be merciful

to me, a sinner. While the Pharisee up front

is praying out loud, God, I thank thee that I'm

not like other people. You know what I'm talking

about. It wasn't thanks at all. If we are going

to have true humility, true humility like the

story in 2 Samuel. David is running away. He's

not running away. He's being chased away. His

son Absalom has taken control. He's living there

in David's place with David's wives. David shouldn't

have all those wives. And he's leaving, and he's

with his retinue. And there's a man, Shimei,

standing on the side of the road, throwing stones

at him and swearing at him. and telling him what

a loser he is. And David's general says, Lord,

should I go over there and cut that man's head

off? And David says, no, what he is saying is

right. That's because of my sins. That's the

kind of humility which I think we want to acquire.

We're so far from it for myself. Humility can

only be derived, say some of the Holy Fathers,

from looking at two different things, two visions.

On the one hand, we see our own failures. Realistically,

not in a guilty, morbid way, we see our own poverty

of soul. How often do we hear this incredible,

quote, acquire the peace of God and thousands

of souls around him would be saved. But if we

apply that to ourselves, we can see that that's

not true. It was for him, but not for us. So

if we can see our poverty of soul, as St. Gregory

Palamas says, the hideous mask, which covers

the beauty that we have because we're creation,

Of God himself. In his image. In his likeness.

If we can see that. And on the other hand. See

Christ. In his indescribable humility. Much more

than David. Because Christ went to the cross

for us. Father forgive them. For they know not

what they do. His beauty. His love. His compassion.

Everything he did was for someone else. Not for

himself. We have this paradox. We have to have

this two -fold consciousness. My own nothingness,

which is very painful to accept. And we should

find it abhorrent. And on the other hand, the

compassion and the condescension, the humility,

the love of God. This is not a morbid thing.

Lent starts us on this road. And if we don't

understand this, then Lent is going to be a waste

of time. It's not morbid. On the contrary, it

leads us to freedom, the freedom of the children

of God. Because if we see ourselves as unworthy

as that publican did, that tax collector, of

heaven and of earth, and we have condemned and

judged ourselves, we're going to be quick to

want to correct ourselves, number one, and we

will not judge other people. We won't even notice

what other people do. And when we start to fast,

when we begin to pray more, we won't be content

with external works, with the externalness of

Lent. Coming to church, looking pious, you know,

not buying milk and half and half, all that.

We won't be satisfied with that. They might be

good things, but we want the inner life of the

kingdom. Because God does not dispense justice,

as you see in this parable, but gifts and grace

upon his servants. The doors of repentance are

opening. And we're asking and we're praying that

we may be allowed in. And that first step is

the publican's prayer. Heartfelt and self -understanding

and the understanding of God's magnificence.

This is our goal. May God direct each one of

us so that as we begin this preparation time,

we do it with some joy. We're going to sing in

four weeks that magnificent hymn, let us set

out with joy upon the season of the fast and

prepare ourselves for spiritual combat because

God is with us on the right hand and the left

and we are with one another. To our Lord be glory,

now and ever, to ages of ages. Amen.