Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
Let the lying lips be put to silence; the lips which speak proudly against the righteous, with pride and scorn. (Psa 31:18)
The Pharisee was fasting, he was obeying the law, but yet he is not considered just by today's Gospel; you might ask yourself why?
The Pharisees were one of the two major Jewish religious and political parties of Israel, the other one being the Sadducees, who apparently gave them their name, perushim, Hebrew for "separatists" or "deviants."
The Pharisees upheld an interpretation of Judaism that was in opposition to the priestly Temple cult. They developed the synagogue as an alternative place of worship to the Temple. By separating Judaism from dependence on the Temple cult, and by stressing the direct relation between the individual and God, the Pharisees laid the groundwork for normative rabbinic Judaism of nowadays. They were in a way, if you want, the Protestants of Judaism.
Lead by rationality alone and by literal interpretation of the Scripture they separated them selves from the spirit of the very Law they were upholding. This only happened because they considered themselves as masters, as leaders as perfect. They were obeying the Law, they were paying their tithe, 10%, to the Temple. They were doing what they were preaching, but their preaching was wrong.
The pride that they were showing was not the kind of pride that we usually refer to in our colloquial language as good, I am proud of being a father, or I am proud of my son being good in school. This is a normal level of pride. But the pride the Pharisee was showing was a pride that was not just boasting about what he has done achieved, his dedication to God and the temple, but was also was demeaning the other ones, considering them inferior. This is where the problem starts.
The Blessed. John Cassian says: There are two types of pride: the first is one that vanquishes those that are of a high spiritual standing, while the second defeats the novices and the carnal. Although both types of pride produce a destructive arrogance before God and people, the first relates directly to God while the second concerns people.
The Pharisee separates himself from the other people, he wants to justify himself in the face of the Lord, but by himself, not with the others, the others are not worthy. But this is the exact opposite of what we have to do. Faith is about communion, is about sharing, is about doing things for the others without boasting or considering them unworthy of our great deeds.
The tax collector on the other side takes a different approach. He knows that he is a sinner, he does not consider himself worthy of anything, and he has a clear acknowledgement of his own limitations. He knows that he is set apart from the rest by sin not by virtue, unlike the Pharisee. Sin is forgiven through repentance, but in order to be forgiven you have to humble yourself first, recognize your place in the great scheme of things and let God heal you. But if you are too proud in your alleged virtue, if you don't let God work in you He cannot do anything because He has made us free. If we isolate ourselves in our pride of being Orthodox, as being Christians, as being born in an Orthodox family and so on, we have isolated ourselves from God in an ivory tower where His grace cannot reach.
We understand now why "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
This is the message of this Sunday that starts the period of Triodion. If you want to start today your journey to God start it with humility, start it in recognizing your sins and the way will be shown to you. To emphasize this even more in preparation for the Great Lent before Pascha the Church has prescribed 3 preparatory weeks: one fast-free week, one normal-fasting week and on week where cheese and eggs are allowed every day. At the end of the second week there is the meatfare when we give up meat, then, at the end of the third week there is the Cheesefare when we give up additionally to meat also diary and eggs.
The reason for the first fast-free week is to put us in the shoes of the Tax collector, eating meat even in a day of fasting so we might not boast in keeping the fasting "rules,". To show us that fasting is only a means, an aid on the path to salvation; it is not a ticket to heaven.
The week after we return to the wise moderation of the Church's discipline, observing the usual Wednesday and Friday fasts. It is called Meat-fare Week, because at the end of that week, on Sunday, we stop eating meat for the duration of Great Lent.
These preparatory weeks lead us gradually towards a stricter abstinence, helping our bodies to adjust to the fasting period ahead.
Immediately following these three weeks of preparation there is the first week of Lent, a week of very strict fasting starting on Clean Monday, the first day of Great Lent. The name "Clean Week" refers to the spiritual cleansing each of the faithful is encouraged to undergo through fasting, prayer, repentance, reception of the Holy Mysteries and begging forgiveness of his neighbor.
In a way this is also an image of the life of one that discovers Christ. Before this moment we live in sin, eating and doing everything without any rule, any abstinence, satisfying all our material needs. But once we hear the voice of the Lord calling first thing we should embrace is humility. There are not enough words to speak about humility because only in this virtue we are truly becoming real Christians. As long as we think we have the slightest idea about how to reach our salvation, we are not there yet. Humility on the other hand opens us to the grace of God, makes us by choice His partners, not that we can do anything, but we let Him do everything, we Let Him guide us to Him.
But this is not easy to accomplish because the way might be shown to us, but climbing it is hard. This is why we should train ourselves in the moderate discipline of the Church, learning from her the right pace, as a marathon runner, so we can make it to the end. The beginning is always the hardest, as is also the first week of Lent. Someone was saying yesterday that the converts should be locked up for 6 month in the Church so they don't run away when they see our practical faith.
The beginning may be hard, but if one is able to go over many things that may or may not understand, or may or may not want to do, but, with a humble heart they are accomplished, the reward is always there, at the end: the light of Resurrection.
May it be that this light, that the darkness cannot overcome, be your guide in the period ahead of us, as we begin our preparation for the Feast of Feasts. May Christ lead us all and give us strength to do His will and not ours. Amin.