On the publican and the Pharisee

The passion of the love of money thirsts for profit, but is healed by alms when repentance comes. The habit of fornication seeks sin, but it is also cured by the cry of repentance, which reveals the soul purer than the sun, shining with the virtues of chastity. Inhuman robbery is also healed if a person abandons his bloody deeds and exclaims to Christ: do not deprive me, Christ, of Your kingdom - then his soul enters heaven. The error of idolatry, and even that has its cure for healing, if a person by faith accepts Christ preached to him, renounces the lawless error and is endowed with the grace of piety through Baptism, in which the Holy Trinity is designated by three invocations of God. The filth of hatred is also washed away if people with a good disposition accept the gospel saying: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). Who is not glad to be called the son of God and the Father? God created man and strengthens the world with a humane gesture, and everything follows His will. Through an abundance of goodness He brought everything visible from non-existence into existence, placing man as steward over his creations, so that, remaining faithful, he would receive a reward of five talents and authority over the ten cities about which it is written in the Gospel. And whoever turns out to be lazy - having received one talent, hides it and does not present the master with double the amount, that is, with a sensual person and an intelligent person, but begins to say: “I was afraid of you, because you are a cruel man” (Luke 19:21), and other ungrateful and indecent speeches - even what he has will be taken away from him, and he will be thrown into the fiery furnace. This world is like a lists that brings people either suffering or joy. Whoever experiences both with gratitude will receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as a full-flowing current as a result of a flood produces bubbles, some of which burst immediately after their appearance, and others, having inflated more, then also burst, so the sea of ​​life drowns some not long after their appearance, and covers others also after they have lasted longer. Therefore, let us repeat what was said. Every kind of sin receives quick remission if it has repentance for itself. An incurable disease is rotten exaltation, a reason for misanthropy, a proud fall, a height that falls from itself, a dream and a shadow, a cane shaken by the wind, smoke rising into the air and dissipating into nothingness. Do you think, braggart, that you have anything more than the poor? Nothing. Don't you see a different sky when it is burned by the sun's ray? When the air becomes frosty, are you not warmed by the sun, while the sun shivers from the cold? Doesn't he inhale the same amount of air? Doesn't he walk on the same ground as you? Is he not clothed with the same body? Shouldn't you be more grateful to God, who has entrusted to you as much as the needy can bear? I tell you, brother: it is better for you to turn to humility. The moderate rich man shows philanthropy; and the poor man, unwillingly, has humility. You will show yourself to be great if, of your own free will, you descend to what he has out of necessity. If you are not convinced by this, listen to the Scripture: “Though He mocks the scoffers, He gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3:34). If you neglect this, God will neglect you. Then an insane thought, wanting to lift you to a superior height, will lift you up much in order to throw you down even more. And what is wealth? A substance that jumps from one to another. When death comes, it will leave you behind, but the evil that comes from it will never leave you. See that you do not become arrogant, for you are earth and dust, and do not fall into the error of the Pharisee. Watch yourself, since the Lord also exhorts this, saying the following in the parable: “two men entered the church to pray: one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector” (Luke 18:10). Two people entered, but not two people came out, taking exactly the same path: the Pharisee obviously evaded him. They entered one place to pray, but it turned out that they came out to more than one place. The Pharisee hurried boldly, the publican walked behind with fear - and the one who was in a hurry fell behind, and the one who was behind was ahead of the first. The Pharisee hastened to declare his works of righteousness; the publican was in a hurry to announce his sins. They came in to pray, but one turned out to be arrogant, and the other praying. This is what the Pharisee decided to himself: I am not a debtor of the law, I am not subject to the commands of the prophets, I do not need the teaching of Moses, because I have not sinned against him in anything; however, I go to pray, paying tribute to the custom that my ancestors performed. So you, Pharisee, worship the church for the sake of your ancestors, but for the sake of prayer you don’t even look at the church? Your ancestors gave thanksgiving by faith, and you make a show of thanksgiving so that people will glorify your sacrifice? And the word of David will come true over you: “Let his prayer become sin, and his bishopric may be received by another” (Ps. 109:7-8), that is, the publican. What is a publican like? He goes to the church, condemning himself, considering himself unworthy of prayer. He called himself unworthy, and for this Christ accepted his offering. He said of himself that he was guilty of sin, but Christ showed him to be a minister of righteousness; He granted him absolution in recompense for his offering; He freed him from sin to serve righteousness. Oh, slavery, by which we escape other evil slavery and achieve the freedom of Christ! Oh, slavery, which gives us a light burden and then rewards us with eternal life! Oh, slavery, only in this world called slavery, but in the future giving endless life! Let us resort, brethren, to this slavery in order to experience the freedom of souls. If anyone turns out to be a good servant, the Lord will show him to be truly His son, and then the word of the prophet will be fulfilled on him: “I said: you are gods, and you are all sons of the Most High” (Ps. 82:6). Blessed are those who receive such honor. Blessed are those who have tried to avoid vice. Blessed are those who have acquired freedom through this slavery and with the freedom for which Christ redeemed us, who cry: let us stand, holding the cross on which Christ was crucified! Let us exclaim to Christ: good shepherd, accept us as one of the lost sheep; test us in the thoughts of our hearts and, if you find us lost and ready to fall into the hands of the enemy, gather us into your fold. Consider us one drachma and convert us, bringing us closer to the fire of Your Divinity, and, having found us, rejoice with the saints and angels who are co-present with Your pure Divinity. Receive us as a publican, so that, while praying, we may embrace humility and renounce pride, so that we may strip ourselves of the mother of sin - arrogance - and clothe us with the beginning of repentance - modesty. Let us throw off the old man with his works and put on the new man with his works and grace. Praying, let us weep from the depths of our hearts in order to drive our enemy into the depths of the cave of Gehenna. For when you groan, he is struck; when you hit yourself in the chest, he gets wounded; when you take the blows, he suffers execution. So the publican, striking his chest, did not strike himself, but the Pharisee, and denounced his thoughts, which produced in him the smoke of exaltation. “The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I get” (Luke 18:11-12). Pharisee, you have lost your reward for boasting! For this he received a lot of condemnation. You say: “not like other people.” Yes, he was a man by nature and God’s dispensation, but he became an animal through initiation into pride; was a man, as if he bore the image of God, and became a beast, filled with vanity. He took himself beyond the line of human nature, gave his body a different origin, recognized himself above all earthly things, imagined himself more than any prophet and patriarch. Pharisee, did you not remember the boast of Elijah, who also boasted, although not out of conceit, but out of Divine jealousy, when he said: “They have destroyed Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword; Am I left alone” (1 Kings 19:10)? What was his answer? “I left among the Israelites seven thousand [husbands]; none of these bowed the knee to Baal” (1 Kings 19:18). So what? While all transgressed the law, there were still seven thousand who had the zeal of God and were like the prophet; and you shout: “not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers”! Is there really no one under heaven who has escaped the abomination of greed, is there really no one who kisses chastity? Pharisee, you judge yourself, condemned by everyone; you approve of yourself, rejected by God; you crown yourself in self-praise, but you ruined your crown through condemnation; you praise yourself as sinless, but you turned out to be guilty of sin; you present yourself as having fulfilled the law, but by touching the law you have offended the Lawgiver; shouted in front of everyone about his virtues, and turned them into sins. The publican, who cried out in silence, appeased God the Word, whom you had rebelled against yourself with your loud speech. You were not ashamed to say: “not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican,” defiled by sins, given over to intemperance, insulting a holy place with your coming, praying unworthily with me, committing all kinds of lawlessness. One name is enough to testify to his condition; After all, he is a tax collector who collects the tax of sin by deeds of wickedness. Although this is not literally written in the most pure Gospels, this is precisely the meaning that contains the subject of pride (of the Pharisee). Pharisee, you presented the behavior of the publican as unseemly, but Christ approved of his inner state; you humbled him before yourself, but Christ crowned him before everyone. Christ was touched, seeing in the publican shame combined with repentance, sighing going to heaven from the depths of his heart and flowing tears. Christ was touched, or better yet, moved by the fact that the publican threw off shame through shame. The publican perfectly applied the saying of the Wise One to himself: “there is shame that leads to sin.” He took this shame upon himself in a dishonorable life. “And there is shame and glory” (Sir.4:25). He came to this shame through the method of his repentance, healing through faith the opposite with the opposite. Imitating a doctor, he applies a plaster to the body that corrodes the flesh but clears the abscess, so that later, presenting the healed body, he can prove the success of the treatment. He blocked the streams of lust, using sighing as if it were a cauterizing iron; healed the swollen boil of passion, softening it with tears; He healed the opening of the abscess by applying lint to it by raising his hands; dried up the matter that oozed from the flesh into the soul, and presented the latter to the Creator pure through repentance. However, let us listen to the rest of the Pharisee’s speech. “I fast twice a week.” He speaks of abstinence on Thursday and Friday: and Saturday for the Jews is rest. I abstain from various foods, I do not defile my lips with unclean food, I am fully clothed in abstinence, fully clothed in holiness; and of what I acquire, I bring tenths to God. Oh, vanity, breathing insensibility! “I fast twice a week.” Isn’t he inclined to give his food to God, as it were? “I fast twice a week.” Lord, he says, doesn’t fasting make all the provisions of the law acceptable to God? And what other people do with suffering, I do voluntarily. What does the philanthropic Judge, the generous giver of rewards in the field of repentance, answer? He endured the Pharisee who praised himself, and turned to the repentant publican with favor. Since the first, with his words, as if by strong winds, plucked the fruit of his soul, and the second, crushed within himself, no longer waited for another accuser, He gave each their due. He released the publican, who had become his own accuser, free from condemnation, and He declared the Pharisee, who flaunted his virtues, to be poorer than the publican. For both, there is a corresponding method of retribution: for one, wealth becomes the cause of impoverishment, for the other, poverty is removed from wealth. What exactly does the Lord say? “I tell you that this one went home justified rather than the other” (Luke 18:14). Oh, how malignant is the disease of exaltation! The Pharisee entered with his hair tied up, crowned with virtues like flowers. He was accompanied by a publican, deprived of any (ostentatious) protection. One, having humbled himself, was easily exalted; the other, having perched himself at an inappropriate height, fell into a ridiculous exposure. Wouldn't it be better to speak in a modest voice? Wouldn't it be better to listen to the prophetic word: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10)? Wouldn't it be more useful to hold the tongue, and preserve the wealth that he acquired with great effort? After all, those virtues that he had accumulated over a considerable period of time, he scattered with one speech. The Pharisee must not have heard in Scripture that “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 16:5), and did not comprehend the beautiful saying: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matt. 6:3). Or maybe he knew both, but was overcome by vanity. So, let us acquire the humility of a publican and push away the severity of sins, and we will hate pride, thanks to which the Pharisee lost the wealth of virtues, because “The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34). To him be glory and power, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith”