But because of our busy lives, we can often find ourselves running about during Lent just as preoccupied as we were before if we don’t 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. In other words, we start to think of all the things we’re doing right instead of focusing on Christ to be and become more of the man or woman of God that Lent is designed to grow us in and internalizing the lessons in faith this holy season affords us.
This is the problem of self-righteousness we find in abundant display in the Pharisee of today’s Gospel. He enumerates all his accomplishments, the things he’s doing ‘right’—all good in and of themselves: fasting, praying, giving, not breaking the Commandments—but it’s all coming back empty because it’s produced in him a spirit of pride and self-reliance over God-reliance.
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, which can only progress with growth in humility and love for God and our neighbor.
Now, let’s be clear: the Pharisee isn’t condemned because he fasts twice a week or because he gives tithes. These actions are commendable: all faithful Orthodox Christians are called to do so. No, rather, it’s his spirit of boastfulness, the lauding of his own actions, thinking that these things justify his self-glorification, that they merit favor with God. These are among the sins of the Pharisee. Proverbs 27:2 reminds us that we should never praise ourselves, but rather, “let a neighbor praise you, and not your own mouth.”
Likewise, we too can commit the sin of the Pharisee if, in our repentance and 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 the sins we commit.
The final sin of the Pharisee is his condemnation of the Publican next to him. 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 reference to the repentance and forgiveness that God offers us all.
The publican, on the other hand, recognizes himself as a sinner—so much so, that he is on his face before God, not even daring to lift 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 openly for her sins, the publican too finds favor with God. King David reminds us of this truth about God in Psalm 50, saying, “a humble and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”
This is the spirit you and I cultivate in Lent if we wish to see growth in the knowledge and love of God, if we desire to deepen our relationship and communion with God. To aid us in discovering more of ourselves, more of where lie the ‘raw’ areas of our soul, the parts of us that are still in need of God’s healing, the parts of us where the passions still too easily reign, we fast, we pray, we worship, we give of ourselves. This is the formula that Christ God has entrusted to us through His Church out of His great love and mercy for us.
You and I can make full use of Great Lent only if we follow the prescription God provides us through His holy Church: the recitation of the Prayer of St. Ephraim, applying it to our own lives, the weekend services of Great Vespers and the Divine Liturgy, and, the Presanctified Liturgies on Wednesdays. These services communicate to us the message of the truth of God you and I need to hear if we are to become less like the Pharisee and more like the Publican.
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, the sin of the Pharisee, it’s prideful self-righteousness. Christ God desires more for us; He desires to grow us in the Truth that He is through increased communion with Him. But in order to grow, we avail ourselves of the formula for growth that has held true for sinners turned Saints throughout the generations of the Church.
Fasting isn’t something we do on our own or on our own terms. Fasting is intended to help us be accountable, obedient, which, in turn, produce in us humility, without which we cannot be in God’s near presence or grow in our communion with Him who is Life itself.
Because of his humility through his confession and prostration, the Publican’s prayers are received by God. He leaves the Temple restored, while the Pharisee in his pridefulness and proclamation of his self-righteousness is condemned—even though he is ‘doing’ all the externals that are important and required of each of us. If the heart is not engaged, if we are 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 and arrive at Pascha furthered in the Kingdom of God.
Now, the question always comes up: what do I do if I feel indifferent in my fasting, prayer, and worship? We never want to be solely reliant on our feelings when it comes to the living out of our faith and life in Christ. If we aren’t using the tools, we’ll never get to that place that the Publican is at in his humility and contrition of heart. Perhaps the greatest struggle in our lives is just making sure we present ourselves, put ourselves in a place we can hear God’s timeless truth over the constant mindless babble that surrounds us in the world.
Every time we pray, every time we prostrate ourselves in humility, every time we say to God, “I desire more, forgive me, have mercy on me, heal me,” God hears us, God works in us, and He deepens our communion with Him. And such conviction is much less likely to occur if we aren’t availing ourselves of our communal worship of God, of the Sacraments, of the prayers and lessons of the Church. Our growth in faith may be almost imperceptible to us; like growing up as a child: we don’t really see it happening until a few years have passed, then the difference is obvious; so it is with us with our growth in faith and life in Christ.
Rest assured, God honors our striving and our struggle to grow, to heal, to deepen our faith. It can begin with a desire or even a desire to desire if we’re willing to prioritize the life that is only in Him, if we’re willing to look inside ourselves during Lent and present ourselves to God, humbly and confessing as did the Publican, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” May this be our prayer as well as we prepare ourselves in body and in soul for the holy season before us.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee
Epistle: II Timothy 3:10-15
Gospel: Luke 18:10-14
