Часть 1. В неделю мытаря и фарисея

On the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee (do not rely on your own righteousness) The preparatory weeks for Lent have arrived again! Thanks be to the Lord, who has made us worthy to live until this soul-saving time! Let us pray that He will help us and use it according to His good intentions for us. In this regard, however, I do not find it necessary to tell you much. This is not the first time you have encountered this time; More than once we heard an explanation of the meaning of these days and an indication of what we should take as a lesson from them; More than once, it’s true, we have actually experienced how they are carried out for the creation of themselves and how they are carried out for ruin. And what is the need for lengthy instructions? It is enough to say: “Brothers and fathers, do as you already know, as your conscience inspires you and your experience teaches you, only so that everything turns into your creation and the salvation of your souls.” With all this, I do not want, however, to leave you without some, albeit general, reminders as a guide to the salutary passage of the coming time. There are patients who go to the waters for treatment. How from afar they begin to think about the upcoming journey and how carefully they prepare everything so that they can quickly and conveniently reach the healing waters and make the most fruitful use of the appointed time for treatment! So we are approaching our own course of saving healing for our souls - holy fasting. And we will be here and bathe in the tearful waters of repentance, and take inside the multi-healing medicine - the Body and Blood of our Lord. We also need to prepare for it, and moreover, as much as the soul is higher than the body, our concern for this should be stronger and more effective than that of those. There is no need to burden yourself with much for the first time. Let us only take care to enter into the intentions of our mother, the Church, and reproduce in ourselves the preparatory dispositions she indicates. During Lent we will work to cleanse our conscience and correct our lives. And since the success of these works depends on the softening of the heart through contrition, the Holy Church predisposes us to this feeling and in various ways wants to arouse and strengthen it in us. Now, with the parable of the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:10-14), she inspires us that the surest path to contrition is the destruction of the Pharisee’s self-conceit and rooting in the heart of the publican the repentant cry: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). The next Sunday, with the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), she teaches that no matter how deep one’s fall may be, if he turns to the Lord with a contrite and humble heart, crying out: “I am not worthy to be called Your son; accept me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19), will be received into the arms of the merciful Heavenly Father. If whose soul turned out to be too petrified and insensible, the Holy Church, further, wants to crush it by depicting the Last Judgment. If someone has become so accustomed to his humiliating state in sin that he would consider it his natural position, and not imagining a better one, the Holy Church remembers for such a person the fall of his ancestors in order to irritate in his heart the sorrow for what was lost and arouse jealousy for its return, bringing to mind how great it was and how it is therefore worth regretting it and working in every possible way to again become its owner. These are the intentions of the Holy Church of God! Enter them and walk according to the instructions of your protective mother! For this day and for the entire next week, let's take a lesson from the publican and the Pharisee and study it. It is short: do not rely on your own righteousness, but with all the wealth of good deeds, place all hope of salvation in the mercy of God, crying out from the depths of your soul: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Looking at a rooted Pharisee, do not think that deeds of truth, piety, charity and strict abstinence mean nothing in the eyes of God. No! The Lord reproached the Pharisee not for his deeds, but because he began to boast about them, that he based all his hope on them alone, forgetting about sins, from which, of course, he was not free. Likewise, looking at the tax collector, do not think that sins are unimportant before God. No! The Lord praises the publican not because by his sins he put himself in such a state that he was not worthy to look up to heaven, but because, having brought himself to this by his evil will, he regretted and lamented that in the grace of God alone he would find salvation for himself - he praises him for this turn from sin to the Lord, for the spirit of humility and heartache, in which he cried out: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Having now taken what is true from both persons, we will receive the following lesson: “Work and work diligently for the Lord, according to the entire breadth of His commandments, but place the hope of salvation - all - in the single mercy of God. You will never reach the point of always being correct in everything before the eyes of God, therefore, despite all your apparent correctness, do not cease to cry from your heart: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Here is a lesson - imprint it on your heart! For this guide, do this: briefly run through your life in your thoughts and see if there are any sins in it; sins - in word, deed and thought? Oh, of course, there are many, many of them! But if so, then how can we not cry out to everyone: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Then collect all your good deeds or those that your self-praise considers good, and see how many of them there are? How much could we and how much should we do in three hundred and sixty-five days of the year; what did they do?! And is it really worth putting this little thing on display, trumpeting: “I am not like others” (Luke 18:11), especially when there are iniquities against it, they are countless! For out of twenty-four hours of each of three hundred and sixty-five days, how many are there that would not be marked by something sinful?! And having realized this, how can one not cry out: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Moreover, is all this little thing clean? Is the reflection of the glory of God visible in each of these few deeds? By working on them, weren’t we pleasing ourselves and people more than God? And if so, then how can you give them any value and, looking at them, become self-deceived, saying to yourself: “Not like others”? No! Just bring to your deeds the undeceiving mirror of justice inscribed in the word of God - it is difficult to believe that your conscience does not force each of you to cry out: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” It may be that among you there are no such people who, in self-praise, would impudently say out loud: “Not like others”; but I think there is a rare person who would not descend into self-conceit and well-being, when without words thoughts pass through the heart, giving considerable significance to our labors and our activities among others. Wrong and this feeling of complacency! We must feel, and feel deeply, that we are worth absolutely nothing and cannot rely on anything of our own. We have one support - the mercy of God; and these internal self-praises must be driven away. One holy ascetic, every time a thought told him: “This and that is good with you,” suspecting the enemy’s flattery in this, answered: “Cursed be you with this “good” of yours. This is what the Holy Father did; all the more so should we, sinners, do this. In a moral matter there is no more evil thought than the thought of conceit. It directly attacks the feeling of contrition and cools it down. Just as fire cannot be with water, so contrition cannot be combined with the feeling of righteousness. Just as paralysis affects the organs of movement, so well-being cuts off any tension of strength for good. Just as evil dew destroys beautiful flowers, so deceptive complacency destroys everything good in us. Choose, brothers, what is good and reject what is evil! In church songs, a self-righteous Pharisee is compared to one sailing on the sea on a ship, and a self-deprecating publican is compared to one sailing on a thin boat. “But that one,” he says, “was drowned by the storm of self-arrogation with a blow against the stone of pride, and this one the deep silence of self-abasement and the quiet breath of the sighs of the repentant led safely to the haven of Divine justification.” In the same songs, the Pharisee is also compared to one riding in a chariot, and the publican to one walking. “But the latter,” he says, “harnessing humility to contrition, forestalled the former, who blocked his path with stones of self-praise.” Hearing such suggestions, brothers, be wise to “like your mother-in-law, that you may comprehend” (1 Cor. 9:24). May you have the sea - tears, the boat - self-abasement, the winds - sighs, and the publican's voice - all the orders for navigation. And you will undoubtedly reach the refuge of God’s mercy and soon enter the shore of justification, where you will taste the sweet peace of conscience in God’s forgiveness. May the generous goodness of God grant this great benefit to all of us! Amen. On the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee (complacency and self-justification are the most destructive charms) The Lenten Triodion begins today. Behold, the air of Lent begins! We must prepare for his meeting, and not only for him, but especially for what fasting was established for - repentance and correction of a faulty life. And now you hear a tender song: “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver!” Open the doors of repentance! Who shut them?! They are open with a cross: they stand and will remain open for all people as long as the world stands, and for each of us - as long as there is the breath of life in our nostrils. So, the doors of God’s mercy are open - and who will close them? But the entrance to these doors is through other doors - the doors of heartache and contrition. You must first go through these in order to then enter those. Be sick and lament, and the Lord will accept you! Contrite - but the heart is not contrite; get sick - but it doesn’t want to get sick. And so a man locked within himself with a petrified heart and, not having the strength to control himself, cries out to the merciful God: “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver!” Your door is always open, Lord, but mine is locked, and there is no way out for me! Open the door of my stony heart to me with contrition, so that I can go out to You and enter the doors of Your mercy! The Lord listens to the cry of a man in need and lets him know how to act on himself so that the door of his heart opens. Yesterday we sang: “Open the doors of repentance for me,” now, in response to this, we hear from the Lord the parable of the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:10-14). Next Sunday, in response to the same song, we will hear the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). Further, for the same purpose, we will be reminded of the picture of the Last Judgment and the fall of our primordial ancestors. The Lord seems to be saying to us: “Act according to the instructions of the truths proclaimed to you by these Gospel stories, and perhaps you will achieve the fact that the doors of your heart will finally open through contrition.” He hopes that just as a heavy hammer, hitting a stone, breaks it and makes it smaller, so these truths, one more amazing than the other, will finally crush the hardening of our hearts, extract from it cries of repentance and squeeze out tears of tenderness. Let us, brothers, enter into the intentions of God and follow the saving instructions of the merciful Lord. The Lord changes the heart, but we ourselves need to push and force ourselves and, at least, not hinder the full effect of God’s saving grace in us. The current parable of the publican and the Pharisee indicates the main obstacle in us to contrition of heart in the feeling of our righteousness and teaches us, having driven away this feeling, to establish ourselves in the disposition of the publican’s spirit, so that with his word we cry out: “God, be merciful to us sinners!” (Luke 18:13). The Lord puts forward two people and seems to say to us: “Look, two came to Me: one boldly approached, confident in his righteousness, in his merits before Me, and did not receive justification, and the other could not look at Me, but only beat himself in the chest and asked for mercy, and I had mercy on him. Go ahead and do the same. Throw off this destructive garment of self-justification, put on the sackcloth of self-reproach, and you will receive mercy.” Complacency and self-justification are the most destructive charms in which the enemy manages to detain very many and not entirely bad people. This beauty weakens her legs and stops the procession. Whoever feels righteous, what need does he have to worry a lot and seek mercy? The goal has been achieved - a righteous person, why work? All that remains is to look around, elevate yourself and humiliate others. In reality, this means ruining with your thoughts what has been achieved through labor and ruining yourself. That is why in the paternal instructions the lessons of humility and self-abasement are constantly repeated and reproaches to self-conceit and self-exaltation are given with particular emphasis! Whoever wants to disperse this fog of delusion, let us go and learn this from the Pharisee. The Pharisee, it seems, did not consider it necessary to hide: he openly expressed what was in his soul, and thereby exposed the network of the enemy with which he entangled his poor soul and kept it in self-delusion. “Not like others” (Luke 18:11). First charm! The Pharisee was not of bad behavior. He looked at the obvious sinners and, naturally, considered himself better than them. But why did he need to look at the dysfunctional living? I would look at those living well. He would, of course, see a lot of people who are much higher than him in life, and he would not have said these destructive words: “I am not like the others” (Luke 18:11). This is science for us, brothers. The enemy always has the same trick - now as then. And now, as then, he inspires: “Look, that one is such and such, and that one is such and such, but you are a completely different matter!” A poor man listens to this flattering speech and actually begins to think that he is good, but then he becomes clouded with self-conceit and loses God’s mercy. But why should you look at those who live carelessly? Look at the strict zealots of virtue and piety - and you will be enlightened by the knowledge of your shortcomings. Or, better yet, don’t look at anyone living here, for who is clean? Ignore everyone and keep in your thoughts only those models that the word of God obliges you to imitate. “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1), says the Apostle. “For I have given you an example, that you also should do the same as I have done to you” (John 13:15), or “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), says the Lord. This is who you look at and compare your life with! With the virtues of the holy Apostles, with the deeds of the Lord Savior, with the perfections of the Heavenly Father. Inserting himself into this rank, who would dare to think: “Not like others”? Wouldn’t it be more likely that, covered with shame and eyes downcast, he would let out a cry from his heart: “God, be merciful”? Here the same thing will happen that happens when someone enters a society of the highest tone, not knowing its methods, or appears at a brilliant meeting not in the accepted clothes. Thus, comparing oneself with the highest and most perfect is the most powerful and effective cure against conceit. Further, the Pharisee says: “I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of my income to the poor and to the Church” (Luke 18:12). Here is the second charm! To look only at just deeds, hiding your sins from yourself, and in right deeds to look only at their external side, not paying attention to the internal feelings and dispositions with which they are performed. This is what the Pharisee did and was clouded by conceit. He did not properly examine his deeds and did not follow the right path in this matter. “I,” he says, “did this and that good.” But how many cases were there in which he did not do the good that he could and should have done, and how many were there in which he did evil instead of good—he is silent about this, trying to hide it both from himself and from God. your own, and on the other the whole mass of your evil deeds, look what will happen? And you can guess in advance that if you did this, your tongue would not turn to say: “I am not like other people” (Luke 18:11). Who is this? Then the accusatory voice of conscience will awaken and drown out this vague whispering of self-praise: “Not like others!” If, despite this, your heart is still filled with self-exaltation, reproach it with a severe reproach, saying: “Even though some good was done, you spoiled it all with your evil thoughts and desecrated it either with vanity, or with man-pleasing, or with the desire for some third-party benefits; If, when performing any deeds, there were no such feelings, you are now desecrating them and taking away all their dignity by inhaling them!” Having thus exposed ourselves, we will take away from ourselves all support for self-justification, and we will have nowhere to turn but to the intercession of God’s only mercy, to which we will begin to cry out unhypocritically: “God, be merciful to us sinners!” Oh, if only the Lord would help us to enter into these justifying feelings of the publican and to be established in them! They seem so natural to us, and yet it is not always easy for us to meet them in ourselves. You need to teach yourself this, as well as any good thing. Teach! And here is the method to use for such training: go inside yourself with attention. We have there an undeceiving mirror of our deeds - conscience, but the mirror is abandoned, often dirty. Let us take it out into the middle, clean it out and clarify it with the word of God, definitely restoring in it the writing of all the words, deeds, feelings and thoughts obligatory for us. Let us then install it against our face or consciousness, so that this face has nowhere to hide and nothing can cover itself. Just as it is impossible to see anything without light, let us illuminate our inner church with the fear of God, under the action of which all the features of our face or consciousness, down to the smallest detail, will be clearly visible in the mirror of conscience. When we establish ourselves this way inside, we will undoubtedly enter into the feeling of a publican. Not only deeds, but also all evil thoughts, coming and going from the heart, will be imprinted on the face of consciousness, reflected in the conscience and attract judgment through the action of the fear of God. And just as the publican, standing from afar, did not dare to approach for the sake of fear, did not dare to look up to heaven for the sake of shame from the convictions of his conscience, and beat himself in the chest, being dissatisfied with himself and grieving over his ugliness, so for us, fear will be replaced by shame, shame - by reproof, and reproof - by pain about ourselves. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, and the heart is constantly being “forged by evil” (Proverbs 6:14), there will not be a moment when we do not have the urge to beat ourselves in the chest and cry out: “God, be merciful!” A blessed state that truly attracts God's mercy and justification! We usually hear the word: “I am a sinner, I am a sinner,” a pleasing word to God! But let us make sure that it is not only pronounced by the tongue, but also felt by the heart. Let us convince ourselves that the feeling of righteousness is a deviation towards the path of destruction, and then, little by little it begins to appear, we will drive it away as the most dangerous enemy who creeps up to steal from us our most precious good - justification before God. In order not to indulge this temptation in any way, let us arrange it so that every one of our deeds and enterprises is preceded by a feeling of our sinfulness and it is at the head of everything. Whether you give alms, give with the thought: “I am not worthy to receive God’s mercy for it.” If you fast or impose any other strictness on yourself, have the following thoughts: “Others thereby increase the sum of their praiseworthy deeds, but for me it’s penance, I have to work hard for my sins.” When you go to church or say prayers at home, say to yourself: “I’ll work hard for myself, perhaps the Lord will take pity and forgive me my sins.” And especially in the matter of prayer, turning your mind and heart to God, do not see yourself other than as the most faulty and most in need of God’s mercy, like Saint Pimen, who used to say: “I look at myself as a person who is mired up to his neck in mud and has only lips to cry out: “God, have mercy on me!” Having settled in this way, by the grace of God we will avoid the delusion of conceit and remove the main obstacle to opening the door of heartfelt contrition, by which, of course, we will also open the door of God’s mercy! Amen. On the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee (the conviction to conscience of the soul to have shame and disgust for sin and its sinful state) The Publican and the Pharisee are now presented to our eyes by the Holy Church (Luke 18:10-14). And who would not want to be awarded the blessed fate of the first and avoid the bitter condemnation of the second? We are sinners and, perhaps, sin-loving: but is there anyone who would like to perish in their sins? Come, let us learn from the publican how, despite our sins, we can avoid the fate of the condemned and attract the merciful, justifying word of the Lord. The publican does not dare to “raise his eyes to heaven”: he is ashamed, shame covers the face of his soul. The publican hits his heart: he recognizes himself as worthy of any punishment for the evil will of his heart. But he does not run from God and does not despair of his salvation, but to the One whom he offended and who is ready to righteously punish him, turning to Himself trustingly, he cries out: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). Let us shame ourselves by accepting the shame and humiliation of sin; let us condemn ourselves, giving all the power to the voice of conscience, or the unfeigned truth of God, which speaks through it; but at the same time, following the tax collector, let us hasten to form the same cry in our souls: “God, be merciful to us sinners!” Still, this depends on you, sinful soul. You yourself, and not someone else, must reproduce all this in yourself and feel it. The publican beat his breasts, but even before that, with the thoughts of his mind, he beat his soul and wounded his heart. Go inside yourself, gather saving thoughts and use them to crush your hardened heart. Rise up the mountain; descend into the underworld; Look around yourself and around you and look everywhere for arrows to kill, scourges to wound, hammers to soften your hardened heart. Remember God's mercies to you - and be ashamed of yourself. Remember His justice - and fear yourself. Remember the nearness of the end - and hasten to appease the unrepentant Decider of your fate. Draw yourself to yourself with the rope of your autocracy and, at least out of a sense of self-preservation, extract from yourself these saving suggestions and penetrate yourself with them. Say to yourself: “The Lord has favored you in creation, Providence, and even more so in Redemption, He has renewed you with the washing of rebirth (Baptism), He has nourished you with His Flesh and Blood, and He has promised you to be one with Him through all eternity; how many times did he restore the fallen, cleanse the unclean, heal the sick in spirit; how many times did He allow you to feel His closeness and the embrace of His love; How many times have you given me to taste the sweetness of remaining in His will and in fulfilling His holy commandments! All this is despised by you; all care for you is worth nothing; all favors towards you have been thrown back. God holds you in His right hand, He is “near” (Ps. 119:151) and sees all the movements of your heart. It was in His presence that you allowed yourself to be combined with evil thoughts that were contrary to Him. It was before His face that you flared up with passions, which are an abomination to Him. It was in His presence that you deed committed the sin conceived within, which offends Him. You knew it was evil, and you didn’t shy away. I didn't have to want it, and I did. I could have chosen not to do it, and I did. Nobody has forced you. Your evil work reigned in you and dragged you along evil paths. Sin attracts with its sweetness, and then torments with corrupting bitterness. And now the light of the mind has dimmed in you, the serpents of passions gnaw at you and the oppression of extreme discontent torments you. You look like a withered branch, like a broken vessel, like a bird with plucked feathers. And this is not the end. Remember that the end of dry brushwood is burning, in which they burn and are not consumed.” Instill these and similar thoughts into your soul, sinner, and make it conscience to feel shame and disgust for your sin and sinful state, to feel annoyance at your evil will and fear for your eternal fate. Do this, and then do it, and don’t fall into the abyss of hopelessness and despair. Don’t run from God, for where can you run from Him?! He holds you in the bonds of existence, and nothingness will not swallow you up, even if you wanted it to. Run to Him and rush into the bosom of His mercy. You still live on earth, the Giver of Life prolongs your life here in order to attract you to Himself with the continuation of mercy. He allows you to live, waiting for you to finally give up sin and turn to Him. You are a fig tree, left for another year in the garden of those living on earth (Luke 13:6-9). Manage to take advantage of this gift. The Jews had cities of refuge (Num. 35:6). Those who took refuge in them avoided the blows of vengeance (Deut. 4:42). For the sinner, the city of refuge is repentance. Run here and hide from the sword of God’s truth. God Himself, ready to punish, shows you this refuge and calls you to it. From the flood there was only one open door of salvation - the door of the ark. There is one door of salvation from the flood of sin - the door of repentance. Do you hear them singing: “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver!” Go! Open, and the hand from within is stretched out to receive you. Look - everyone is in! The confessed thief approaches and inherits paradise; a harlot burdened with sins comes and destroys the handwriting with her tears; Zacchaeus repents before the Lord and is justified; Peter cries and is accepted; and David has been there for a long time. And the whole house is filled with sinners - justified. The Lord of the House Himself kindly introduces all those who repent and through repentance makes them His relatives, who have become estranged from Him. Be inspired! Come and stand next to the publican and cry out in his voice: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”