In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Glory to Christ. I could speak to you about some
topics that I'm interested in with some proficiency,
some knowledge about guitars, about audio equipment
and microphones, and live streaming, about masks.
about some things in scripture, history, some
things in theology, liturgics. I could tell you
all about liturgics after I teach some catechism.
So there's a few things I know about. But today,
I'm going to speak to you about something I really
don't know anything about. You know, if you go
to the doctor and you want to know something
about your health, you expect that doctor. to
have some information. You go to your mechanic
about your car, you want someone that has some
proficiency. But today I need to speak about
something that I really am, I lack. And that
is the topic of humility. Humility is usually
not what we think it is. Our society tells us
you can do Anything you set your mind to do.
We just heard this wonderful recording from Father
Sarah from Mo, where he talked about the societal
emphasis on you can get it done. You set your
mind to it. You're good just the way you are.
And this lifting up of the self. And of course
we see sports figures and the way they talk too.
Well, that's not humility. We live in a culture
of pride. And so, if we don't know what humility
is, if we don't have it, it's no surprise. The
first thing I can tell you, though, it's a gift
from God. It's not something you can manufacture.
It's not something you can pretend you have.
This Pharisee and this tax collector story. The
Pharisee, well, he looks pretty good. But is
he the bad guy here? And the publican, he looks
pretty bad, but is he the good guy here? That's
the superficial reading of the story. And by
the way, the term publican in our older English
translations rather than tax collector comes
from the Latin meaning public contractor. The
man who would collect the public taxes for the
Romans under contract. We know about that from
last week. In any case, this parable is not a
moral tale about who was good and who was bad.
The modern view, let's say, if you were looking
at this gospel passage in a university now, in
a literature class, using so -called critical
theory, you would see that the Pharisee was of
the privileged class. And he was oppressing the
tax collector and everybody else. And the tax
collector came from the lower class, so he was
just trying to get by. But he also was an oppressor.
How uninteresting. Lord have mercy. What could
we learn from that? Nothing at all. What we can
learn today is one brief point. This parable
begins with the comment by St. Luke that our
Savior Jesus Christ told the parable while teaching
about prayer and who is first and who comes last
and the last shall be first and the first shall
be last. He begins with this comment. He says,
he said the parable to those who trust in themselves
that they are righteous and look down and despise
others. So, examine yourself, brothers and sisters.
We've all come into the temple. We've all come
to pray. God, I thank thee. And how does it go
from there for us? That I'm a good person. We
have to examine our inner attitude in light of
this parable. The Pharisee who boasted to God
rather than prayed was a zealot for the Lord.
He's the kind of parishioner on the surface you
want. Tithes, fasts, gives alms, prays, like
we're encouraged to do. But he proclaims himself
righteous, that is, right with God and the world.
justified by what he did, and God should be thanking
him instead. The Almighty Father in heaven should
be applauding. Now we contemporary Orthodox,
like me, not proficient in prayer, not very zealous
about fasting, or tithing, or giving alms, works
of mercy to the poor, nothing to boast about.
In that sense, we are not pharisaical, are we?
We're not legalistic about our faith. And often,
we're not judgmental towards others either. We
try not to be. That's good. Kind of. Yet, we
do, many of us, think thusly. Oh God, I am a
good person. Really. Although some terrible things
have happened to me in my life. Not my fault.
I'm a sinner, yes. But I've done pretty well
under the present circumstances. Looking at the
spiritual ledger of my life as if I was writing
it down, I am pretty good. I thank thee, oh God,
that I'm not like that Democrat, that Republican,
that Anti -mask wearer. That homeless man. That
activist. That commentator. All people notice.
All people we don't know for the most part. Let's
reorientate ourselves. Everything. Absolutely
everything. And we can be joyous about this.
All virtue. All holiness, all goodness, all truth,
all beauty, all kindness, all spiritual health,
and all humility comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.
And from being joined to him in his glorious
death and his resurrection when we were baptized.
The humble person is moved by the greatness of
God. who is humble. We're not going to be fasting
this week. You know that, right? Next week we
go back to normal. The week after that we start
to fast, abstain from meat products, and the
week after that, forgiveness Sunday, we will
begin fasting. We're going to be doing all the
things that the Pharisee is congratulating himself
about. That's what we're enjoined to do. And
we're not fasting this week. Not so we get fat
and, you know, put on some extra pounds to take
off during Lent. Not to use up our meat and dairy
products, because Lord knows we're going to go
back to the store. But in order to set our minds
and our hearts straight. That a fast is not a
diet. United with prayer, humble prayer, weak
prayer, poverty of spirit prayer, not knowing
what we're doing prayer, it is a medicine not
just to cure gluttony, but it humbles us further.
Alms is not something we do to feel good. It's
the way God is, and being his servant in this
sad and corrupt world. We are asked to be his
image. We've been created to be his image. Now
we just have to be cleansed to be his image.
Prayer is not something the Almighty God needs
from us. We are invited to draw close to him.
And it was the publican who drew close to God.
Yes, he was a bad man. The Pharisee was a good
man. But the Pharisee couldn't change to become
godlike, whereas the publican was being transformed.
He was giving up his sin. The Pharisee could
not even see his sin. All these Lenten practices
that we're going to do are essential for us,
but none of them could help us. None of them
are worth anything without Jesus Christ. So to
boast in them is insanity. St. Paul says if we're
going to boast, what do we boast in? What did
he tell us? I boast in the cross of Christ. It's
the sign that the Christian suffers. There's
no cross that we can carry that's not going to
bring some suffering. Because it puts our passions
and our sins to death. We can boast that through
the cross Christ is in our heart. in our home,
in our mind, in our body. The boast of the cross
of Christ is what St. Macarius of Optina said.
We can bring our shame, our weakness, our sins,
our failures to Christ, and he is going to love
us. Humility, in the light of that, is knowing
your weaknesses and sins before God without shame
or despondency, but with hope. Because it's a
gift from God. Humility is not wretched abasement.
It's not negativity. It's not hatred of yourself.
It's not woe is me. Humility is self -knowledge.
Again, of one's sinfulness and brokenness before
God and my neighbor. but without shame and without
despondency. Today's gospel, today's message,
which we are invited to meditate on all week,
is given to us so we can reflect on it ourselves.
I can't tell you what to do about it. I can't
say, here are five easy things to do so you can
be humble. One of the saints says that as long
as we run away from humility, the Lord our God
himself is going to continue to chase us and
to humble us in every way possible so that we
will become like him. Today is so that we can
gauge our own attitude when we stand here. when
I stand before my neighbor, when I stand before
the person that I don't know and maybe don't
like. And we see ourselves. Ask yourself right
now, five minutes before this homily started,
as we were singing and praying, what was the
state of your mind and thoughts? Pray to God
that he will illumine you. We all need this,
brothers and sisters, if we are going to fight
the good fight of the great season of the fast.
Amen.