SUNDAY OF THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE

St Luke 18:10 -14

Today we signal our approach to the Great Fast by opening the Service Book of the Lenten Triodion and inwardly we sense a change approaching in which we are urged by the Church to stop, look inside and return to ourselves and God. These prefatory Sundays (before the Great Fast starts on Forgiveness Sunday) are designed to show us who we truly are, how far we are in fact from what we can be in Christ and to inspire us with the vision of the beauty of God
to continue the race set before us, to use St Paul's language, with all the effort we can muster.

The first picture placed before us is that of the Publican and the Pharisee going to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee thanks God for where he is in life and for what he has achieved i.e. for his spiritual uniqueness and superiority. He is distant from other people and separate in more than one sense and this makes him cold, insensitive and aloof. But according to the Lord's words elsewhere it is spiritual blindness which is at the heart of all this and in dire need of healing. In contrast the Publican or tax-collector, who as a professional group Christ did not seem to mind in the Gospels since he had one as a disciple and another, Zaccheus, as a close friend, (perhaps we might guess because the Lord probably paid no taxes)…this man stands at a distance like the Prodigal Son in next week's Gospel and is too ashamed even to lift his eyes to heaven. He knows the full meaning and weight of his sins. He simply beats his breast as a symbol of how much he condemns himself and cries out the words which we, as Orthodox Christians, are taught to utter without ceasing, awake or asleep, at home, in school, at work or in the supermarket, "God be merciful to me a sinner" or "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The conclusion drawn by Christ at the end of this parable is: "Every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." Or to paraphrase the verse which is not read but which introduces this parable: "You cannot trust in your own righteousness simply because the reality is that you don't have any."

Now there is one interesting item which is missing from this parable and that is that there is no mention of the Publican crying in the text. Elsewhere in St Luke's Gospel we read about a woman, a known sinner, pouring a jar of alabaster ointment over the Lord's feet and wiping his feet with her never ending tears. And the Lord comments, "She has wet my feet with her tears….Therefore I tell you her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. And here we are beginning to touch on a deep spiritual relationship between tears and love. Tears are a genuine sign of love for God. That we all cry is not in doubt. Even stiff upper lip Englishmen do it in private and women do it best. But how freeing to be in the presence of the Slav or the Latin peoples who weep spontaneously and unrestrainedly and feel no shame. The causes of tears are many and the Fathers have much of interest to say about them. There are, of course, tears caused by human tragedies and immense joy and on the other hand there is what the Fathers call the spiritual gift of tears.