This Sunday, which is well known as the Sunday of the Publican and the
Pharisee, constitutes an important event within the liturgical life of
our Church. From today we begin to utilize the common prayers of our
church, the Triodion hymns. These prayers are centralised in the meaning
of prayer and repentance and are the means which prepare us spiritually
with faith, love and humility to live the great events of the life of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To learn from His humility, from His
miracles, from His sacrifice on the cross and from the majesty of His
love for the distressed and the deprived, for the ailing, the orphans
and the widows. So that with the help and spiritual advice of our
clergy, we may heal our passions and our weaknesses, so that in the end
we might be able to live the joy of the Resurrection and the common hope
of our salvation through Christ.
Hence, within this timely period of the seventy days before Pascha, our
church urges us through her hymns, to acquire real humility and
repentance – which are the necessary means for attaining the purpose of
our life, namely our salvation through Christ.
Repentance is becoming conscious of the human insufficiency of
independence. At a point when a human being thinks he knows it all, the
result is that he errs, that is, he “makes a mess” he does injustice to
himself and others, he sins and suffers. Repentance is our effort to
live closer to God, obeying His Divine Will. Real repentance is our
effort to live according to the Divine Commandments, to have therefore a
personal communication with God and the people whom we meet on the daily
path of life.
Finally, the matter of our repentance is change in the manner of our
existence; it is the Christian life, like the enlightened example of our
Holy Ones, like the example of Saint John the Forerunner, like the
example of the holy life of our Saints whose names we bear.
Humility and the simplicity of character of our Saint’s lives are their
holy gifts, which motivate them to love all people. For those people
however where conceit and selfishness rule, not only do they not have
the willingness to help their neighbours but they need to criticize and
slander all those who, with humility and simplicity, try to assist their
fellow human beings.
In order to understand the Pharisee of our time however, we must closely
observe the Pharisee in the parable of today’s Gospel extract with the
way in which he comes into the temple in order the pray. This reveals to
us his whole internal psychological world.
We see him with arrogance, having complete trust in himself and his
supposedly good deeds. This is why he considers himself the greatness of
Saints. Namely, he has arrived at a righteousness of himself. He
considers himself to be completely different from others. For the
Pharisee, all people are sinners who must be punished by God.
The Pharisee is without compassion towards his fellow human beings. He
thinks that only he is just and a keeper of God’s law.
This why the Pharisee blames, despises and rejects the Publican, like
every other man, considering them big sinners, who have no hope of
salvation!
The Pharisee relates his good deeds to God, but in order to elevate
himself, he considers himself unconsciously a God, to some extent, he
positions God’s place upon himself. He considers God superfluous in his
life and therefore he becomes a God-player.
Next to the Pharisee is the Publican, who with his continuous humble
prayer and with his entire behaviour in the temple, shows us his great
respect for God, he shows us his great faith, he shows us his
unworthiness and his complete consciousness of his sins.
The publican does not concern himself with the behaviour and the sins of
other people. He remains engrossed in the criticism of himself. He prays
, in a well-intentioned manner, for others and he considers them to be
better than himself, before God. Hence, it is evident that he lives the
condition of humility and simplicity and he is driven by God’s grace
towards complete worthiness and justice from God.
Thus, humility becomes the bridge which connects us to God. Strictness
towards ourselves and leniency towards our fellow human beings, is the
correct attitude in life, as effective and responsible Christians. No
one has the right to feel himself worthy, to condemn others as sinners.
Our responsibility for our fellow human beings, is to pray for them, and
when we can, to help them, just as our Lord Jesus Christ did; just like
His Holy.
