The Triodion, the three weeks before Great Lent, begins today with the Sunday of the Parable of the Publican and Pharisee. This is the time of preparation God affords us to get our spiritual house ready to make the most of the holy season we’re about to enter with Christ. We start thinking now about our fasting, our praying, our priorities, our spiritual goals for Holy Lent. We hear the words of God admonishing us, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”
But because of our busy lives, our culture of distraction, we can often find ourselves running about during Lent just as preoccupied as we were before–If we don’t prepare to set it aside now. In which case, our following of the ‘rules’ of Great Lent, i.e., fasting, increased praying and worshiping, more giving of offerings, can quickly become dry, wrote, and fail to aid us spiritually, fail to have their needed and desired affect for a change, for growth and progress in our participation in the life of the Holy Trinity.
This outward following of the ‘rules’ and the propensity that such an attitude leads to, namely, self-righteousness, is precisely the problem Christ addresses to us in today’s Gospel—even before we begin the Fast. The Pharisee enumerates all his accomplishments, the things he’s doing ‘right’—all good in and of themselves: fasting, praying, giving a tithe (a tenth) of his income, not breaking the Commandments—but, they’re all empty because his heart is not right toward God, where a spirit of pride, self-reliance over God-reliance, reigns.
So, let’s acknowledge for a moment how easy it is to be like the Pharisee! We’re focused on the ‘doing’ of the Faith, our book knowledge, or our ethnic heritage in the Church, our checking of the ‘rules’ of Lent off our list, to the exclusion of its inner meaning and application: our communion (koinonia) and relationship with God, a growing hunger and thirst for Christ, or even, a pleading with God for a change of heart in us, repentance, to give us that thirst that in our dryness, preoccupation, and excuses, are wholly lacking.
Now, let’s be clear: the Pharisee isn’t condemned because he fasts twice a week or because he gives tithes of his income: all the faithful are admonished to do so as the fruit of their love for Christ and His Church. No, rather, it’s his spirit of boastfulness, the lauding of these actions, thinking that these things somehow justify his self-glorification and judgmental spirit, that they merit favor with God. These are among the chief sins of the Pharisee.
So, let’s be honest: We can also commit the sin of the Pharisee if, in our confession, we seek to mitigate or justify ourselves before God for the sins we’ve committed—shifting the blame or, at least, watering it down, lessoning our responsibility for our sins. In which case, we’re not freed of their harm, we’re not released from their bondage or healed from the sickness they cause our souls. Instead, it’s the repentant heart that’s quick to be self-accusatory and is thereby justified. The penitent humbles himself before God, prostrating himself before Him in soul and in body. He’s lifted up and restored by God (not by himself), as we hear today: “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled… he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The final sin of the Pharisee is his condemnation of the Publican. The Pharisee cannot see into the Publican’s heart, but judges him based on what he knows of his occupation or past sins with no recognition of the repentance and forgiveness God offers us all—He who alone can see into our hearts and knows our intentions and our struggles. This too is a warning to us.
The publican, on the other hand, recognizes himself as a sinner—so much so, that he’s on his face before God, not even daring to lift up his face toward heaven. He’s utterly prostrate—in body and in soul, confessing his sins openly. Like the harlot who anoints Christ’s feet, weeping bitterly for her sins, the publican too finds favor with God, and so will we if we humble ourselves before Him in repentance, desiring more of the Life that is only in Christ: “a contrite and humble heart Thou wilt not despise,” Psalm 50 reminds us.
You and I cultivate the spirit of the Publican if we wish to see growth in the knowledge and love of God, if we desire to deepen our relationship and communion with God and make the most of the holy season before us. To aid us in discovering more of ourselves, more of where lie the ‘raw’ areas of our soul, the wounded sin-sick parts of us still in need of God’s healing, we fast, we pray, we worship, we give of ourselves, keeping Christ before us, judging ourselves, repenting, and confessing now, that at the dread Judgment Seat, we may enter then into the joy of our Master, our Creator, our Savior Jesus Christ.
We make full use of Great Lent only if we follow the prescription God provides us through His holy Church: applying the Prayer of St. Ephraim to our lives, prioritizing the weekend services of Great Vespers and the Divine Liturgy—which have a particular theme and lesson for us to learn and interiorize, and, of course, the Presanctified Liturgies on Wednesdays, which feed us spiritually in the course of the week when we are so “in the world,” but have such need to learn to be “not of the world.” We make Christ and the Church the priority so that we may do the hard ‘spade’ work of our repentance and grow in communion. These services communicate to us the message of the truth of God we need to hear if we’re to become less like the Pharisee and more like the Publican, becoming fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. They are an integral part of Christ’s sustenance for us during the Fast, our journey with Him to win the victory over the devil.
To think that we can ‘do Lent on your own’ without the guidance of the Church and our participation in the life of the Church is, well, again, the sin of the Pharisee. Christ God desires more for us; He desires to grow us in the Truth that He is. But in order to grow in faith, we avail ourselves of the formula for growth that’s held true for sinners turned Saints throughout the generations of the Church.
Because of his humility through his confession and contrition of heart, the Publican’s prayers are received as pleasing to God. The publican leaves the Temple restored, freed, healed, while the Pharisee in his pridefulness and self-righteousness is condemned. If the heart isn’t engaged, if we’re not centered on Christ God in our fasting, prayer, and worship, our time, our labors, our will, we cannot expect to grow in our faith or arrive at Pascha furthered in the Kingdom of God.
Every time we pray or prostrate ourselves in humility and contrition of heart, every time we plead with God, “I desire more, forgive me, have mercy on me, heal me,” God hears us, works in us, and deepens our communion with Him—because He loves us. Our growth in faith may be almost imperceptible; like growing up as a child: we don’t really see it until the years pass; only then is the difference obvious. So it is with us and our growth in faith and the life in Christ.
Rest assured, God honors our striving and our struggle for healing and growth in faith. It can begin with a desire or even a desire to desire if we’re willing to prioritize the life that’s only in Him, if we’re willing to look inside ourselves, to judge ourselves, and present ourselves to God, humbly, confessing as did the Publican, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” May this be our prayer as we prepare ourselves in body and soul for the holy season before us and life eternal!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee
Epistle: Romans 6:3-11; II Timothy 3:10-15
Gospel: Matt. 28:16-20; Luke 18:10-14
