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.