Омилия II. 2

On Sunday, the parable of the Lord about the Publican and the Pharisee The spiritual prince of evil is resourceful for evil and is skillful at the very beginning, through despair and lack of faith, to overthrow those people who have already implanted the foundations of virtue in their souls; He is equally strong, even halfway, to attack with carelessness and negligence those who have already erected the walls of the house of virtue; but even the one who has already erected the very roof of good deeds (the house of his virtue), he is able to overthrow, through pride and recklessness. But take heart! Don't be horrified! Because the one who is vigilant is more skilled in retaining goodness. And virtue has much greater power in fending off evil, enriched by means from above and the complicity of Him who is strong in everything and, by goodness, invests strength in all lovers of virtue, so that not only it remains unshakable in the face of the equipped, varied and malicious tricks of the adversary, but also awakens and raises those who have fallen into the depths of evil, and with ease, through repentance and humility, led to God. An example of this is a real parable. For this Tax Collector, being a publican and being, one might say, in the abyss of evil, - as a result of a single word, and that too short, became a companion of those who live virtuously, is relieved and exalted and becomes above all sinfulness and is numbered among the righteous, having been justified by the incorruptible Judge Himself. If the Pharisee is condemned because of his word, then this is because he is a Pharisee and has a high opinion of himself, but he is not righteous in truth; in addition, he was quite daring in his words, among which there were quite a few things that provoked God to anger. Why does humility lift you to the heights of righteousness, while pride brings you down to the bottom of sinfulness? - Because someone who thinks highly of himself, and then only in the face of God, is rightly abandoned by God: since he does not consider that he needs His help. He who considers himself to be nothing, and therefore looks to mercy from above, rightly evokes God’s compassion for himself and receives help and grace from Him. For it is said: “The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34). And revealing this through a parable, the Lord says: “Two men went down (orig. ανεβησαν “went up, rose up”) into the Church to pray: one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector” (Luke 18:10). Wanting to clearly present the benefit that came from humility, as well as the harm that came from pride, He divided into two categories all those who came to the church, or better yet, those who ascended into it. For such are those who come to the church of God for the sake of prayer, and this is precisely the property of prayer: it elevates a person from earth to heaven and, rising above everything above heaven, every name and height and dignity, presents him to God Himself, who exists above everything. There was also this ancient church lying on a hill, on the hill of the city, on the top, where once during a pestilence in Jerusalem, David, seeing a deadly Angel drawing a sword on the city, ascended, established an altar to the Lord in that place and offered a sacrifice to God on it, and stopped the pestilence: and this was as a sign of the saving and spiritual ascension, as a result of prayer, and thanks to it - propitiation; if you wish, then also in the image of this our sacred Church, truly resting on height, existing as a certain angelic and super-worldly place, where a bloodless and great Sacrifice, truly favorable to God, is offered for the propitiation of the whole world and for the destruction of death and the abundance of immortal life. That is why He did not say: “two men came into the church,” but said: “they went up into the church.” But even now there are those who, coming to the sacred church, do not ascend, but, it would be more correct to say, lower the Church representing heaven; these are those who come to the church to meet and talk with each other, and display and order goods: for they are similar to each other; because some are goods, and others, exposing words, exchange with each other (some - words, others - goods); and just as the Lord once decisively expelled some from that church, saying to them: “My church, the church of prayer, will be called: but you will make it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:3), so He rejected others with this expression, showing that these are not those who ascend to the church, even if they came daily. The Pharisee and the Publican went up to the church, because they both had the same goal: to pray, although the Pharisee, after he went up, however, brought himself down for the reason that he perverted his direction; So, the goal of ascension for both was identical, but the direction (in the prayer dispensation) was mutually opposite. For one ascended contrite and humble, having learned from the Psalmist-Prophet that God will not despise a contrite and humble heart: since, of course, knowing about himself from experience, the Prophet says: “I humbled myself, and the Lord saved me” (Ps. 115:5). And what am I saying - a prophet - when the God of the Prophets, who for our sake became what we are, humbled Himself, which is why God exalted Him, as the Apostle says (Phil. 2:8)! But the Pharisee went up very arrogant and arrogant, presenting himself as a righteous man, and then - before the face of God, before Whom all our righteousness is no more than tattered rags; This is what the Pharisee did, for he did not listen to him who said: “Everyone with a high heart is unclean before God” (Prov. 16:5); and – “The Lord opposes the proud” (Proverbs 3:34); and - “Woe to those who are wise in themselves and understand themselves” (Is. 5:21). Not only their character and direction, being different, separated them, but also the very form of prayer: for it was also twofold. Because prayer is not only a matter of petition, but also of thanksgiving: thus, one person praying enters the church of God, glorifying and thanking God for the benefits that he has received from Him; and the other - begs for himself what he has not yet received and what he especially lacks at this time; This also applies to the petition for remission of sins. As for the promise to God on our part of what is offered to Him out of piety, this is not called “prayer”, but “vow”; and this was revealed by the one who says: “Pray and give thanks to the Lord our God” (Ps. 75:12); and also the one who says: “What good is not promised to you, than what was promised to you, you will not deliver” (Eccl. 5:4). But both forms of prayer are also encountered with a double type of danger, warning the unwary: thus faith and contrition, in the presence of detachment from evil, make prayer for the remission of sins and forgiveness truly achieving its goal; and despair and coarseness make it ineffective. Thanksgiving for those benefits that are received from God makes humility and lack of insolence towards those who do not have it favorable to Him; and arrogance in thanksgiving, as if it came thanks to one’s own diligence and knowledge, and condemnation of those who do not have this, make thanksgiving displeasing to God. Ailing in both ways, the Pharisee is condemned by himself and his own words; for having gone up to the church, giving thanks, and not begging, he madly and disastrously mixed arrogance and condemnation into the thanksgiving of God. For it is said: “I stood there, praying within myself: God, I give you praise, as I am not like other men, predators, unrighteous, adulterers.” The position taken by the Pharisee is reflected not by slavish obedience, but by reckless pride, a state opposite to the state of one who, out of humility, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven. Indeed, the Pharisee was “praying within himself,” for he did not rise to God, although he did not go unnoticed by the One who sits on the Cherubim and gazes at the depths of the abyss. This was his prayer: saying, “I thank You,” he did not add, “for without any merit on my part, You, having mercy, granted me, weak for the fight, freedom from the traps of the evil one”; for a great feat is necessary for the soul, held by the snares of the adversary and fallen into the net of sinfulness, in order to be able to free itself through repentance. Therefore, affairs regarding us are managed by the best Providence, and often with little or even no concern, we remain with God above many and great misadventures, compassionately alleviated by Him because of our weakness; and we should be grateful for this gift and humble in the face of the Giver, and not arrogant. The Pharisee said, “I thank You,” he says, “God, not because I received help from You, but because I am not like other people; as if by nature himself and thanks to his strength he possessed the quality that he was not a predator, an adulterer and an unrighteous man, if only the truth is that he was not such: for he did not pay attention to himself, so one could believe that he was righteous based on what he says about himself, but it turns out that he looked at others, and not at himself, and everyone - oh, madness! - despising, he believed that the only righteous and chaste person in the world was him; “As I am not,” he says, “like other men, predators, unrighteous people, adulterers, or like this publican.” What madness! - Could someone tell you: if, with the exception of you, all people are robbers and offenders, then where is the place for a victim who suffers predation and damage? What does the expression “this publican” mean and this special mention of him? Being one of the general number and, together with others, belonging to the society you brought, is he not thereby, so to speak, subject to general condemnation? Or should he have been doubly condemned for the reason that he had caught your Pharisaic eyes, although he was far behind? Moreover, in that he is clearly a publican, you see him as a wicked man, but how do you know that he is also an adulterer? Is it because he has wronged others that you are allowed to irresponsibly wrong him? This is impossible, impossible! But he, behold, bearing your proud reproach in the humility of his soul and bringing prayer to God along with his condemnation, will rightly receive from Him the annulment of the condemnation for the untruths that he has committed; and you, who proudly accuse him and all people and, of all people, justify only yourself, will justly be condemned. “For I am not, like other men, predators, unrighteous, adulterers.” These words show the Pharisee's disdain for both God and all people. In addition, they testify to the false direction of his worldview: for he openly despises all people in general, and attributes his abstinence from evil not to God’s power, but to his own personal one. Even if he expresses gratitude, however, immediately through this, he recognizes all people, with the exception of himself, as unbridled and offenders and robbers, as if God did not deign anyone but him to show virtue. But if all people are like this (as the Pharisee portrays them), then, consequently, the property of the Pharisee should have been subject to plunder by all people of this kind. But this does not seem to be the case; for he himself adds that: “I fast twice on Saturday, I give tithes as much as I can.” He does not say that he gave away a tenth of the property that he had previously acquired, but he says, “which I am acquiring,” thereby showing the addition and growth of his property; This means that he possessed what he had previously acquired and added to this without damage what he could; so how then did all the people, except him, rob and kidnap?! So evil disgraces itself and betrays itself! So lies are always mixed with recklessness! So, he cited the giving of tithes as evidence of the abundance of his righteousness: for how could he be a predator of someone else who gives a tenth of his property? He cites fasting as evidence of his abstinence: for fasting is the mother of chastity. So, let it be this: you are chaste and righteous; if you wish, and wise, and prudent, and courageous, and if you have any other good quality; and if, indeed, you possess this thanks to yourself, and do not have it from God, then why do you clothe lies in the image of prayer, and go up to the church and offer your thanks for nothing? If you possess these qualities because you received them from God, then you did not receive them in order to boast about them, but in order to serve for the edification of others to the glory of the Giver. Yes, it was fitting for you to rejoice, truly, with humility, and also to thank the Giver for the gifts that you received: for the lamp receives light not so much for its own sake, but for the sake of those who look on. Speaking about the Sabbath, the Pharisee does not mean the seventh day of the week, but the week of all days, two of which, fasting, he becomes arrogant, not knowing that virtue is the work of people, but pride is the property of demons; therefore, by doing this, he makes virtues useless, and the pride associated with virtues nullifies them, even if they were true, and even more so if they are false. “The tax collector stood from afar, not wanting to lift his eyes to heaven: but he beat his heart, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Do you see what humility, faith and self-reproach? Do you see how extreme humility of thoughts and feelings was combined with the prayer of this Publican, and at the same time contrition of heart? So, having ascended to the church, praying for the remission of his sins, he brought with him wonderful intermediaries to God: faith that does not shame, self-reproach that frees from condemnation (at the judgment of God), contrition of the heart that is not subject to humiliation, and uplifting humility. Patience also went well with prayer. For it is said: That publican “standing afar off”; Christ did not say “standing,” as they say regarding the Pharisee, but they say “standing,” thereby revealing standing for a long time, as well as the duration of prayer and words of propitiation: for without adding or inventing anything else, he listened only to himself and God, repeating again and again only this shortest prayer, which is the most useful type of prayer. So, standing in the distance, the Publican did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven. His very standing signified patience and humility, and not only the state of a pitiful slave, but also the state of a condemned man. This also represents a soul freed from sins, but far from God, for it has not yet acquired the boldness towards Him acquired by good deeds. It is expected that this soul will draw closer to God, since it has left its sins and has a good disposition. And so, standing so. far away, the Publican did not even want to raise his eyes to heaven, showing both his behavior and appearance of self-condemnation and self-reproach: for he considered himself unworthy of either heaven or an earthly church. Therefore, he stood in the porch, not even daring to look at heaven, much less, much more, to raise his eyes to the God of heaven. But out of strong contrition, striking himself in the chest and presenting himself as worthy of blows here, deeply grieving and sending up groans, and hanging his head, as if condemned, he called himself a sinner and with faith sought mercy, saying: “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” He did this because he believed the one who said: “Reh, let me confess my iniquity to the Lord: and you have forsaken the wickedness of my heart” (Ps. 31:5). How did the matter end? “This one is justified,” says the Lord, “more than he.” As if everyone exalts himself, he will humble himself; he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Just as the devil is pride incarnate, and pride is his evil element - why, when mixed, it gains the upper hand and nullifies all human virtue - so (on the contrary) humility before God is the virtue of the good Angels, and it prevails over all human sinfulness that befalls the one who stumbles: for humility is the chariot of ascension to God, like those clouds, who have to lift up to God those who will abide with God forever, as the Apostle prophesies: “For we will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). For humility, combined with repentance, is like a kind of cloud: it removes sources of tears from the eyes, and distinguishes the worthy from the unworthy, and elevates and presents to God the tuna of those justified by virtue of good intentions. So, the Publican, who had previously maliciously appropriated other people’s property for himself, then abandoned the vice and did not justify himself, was acquitted; and the Pharisee, who did not retain for himself the property that belonged to others, but presented himself as righteous, was condemned. But what, then, will those who do not restrain themselves from stealing other people’s property and try to justify themselves be subjected to? “And we will not talk about such people, since the Lord did not say anything about people of this kind, as, perhaps, about those who cannot be taught with words. It happens that when we humble ourselves while praying, then we equally expect to receive justification, like that Publican; but the situation is different: for it is necessary to note that even after the Publican rose from the state of sinfulness, he was despised to his face by the Pharisee, and he himself, despising himself, condemned, not only not contradicting the Pharisee, but also speaking out against himself with him. Thus, when you, having abandoned the sinful habit, do not contradict those who despise you for your sins and revile you, but together with them you condemn yourself, recognizing yourself as truly worthy of this, and in contrition, through prayer, you flow to the only mercy of God, then know that you are saved, even if you were a tax collector. For many call themselves sinners and say so, and in reality are such; but the heart is tested by dishonor. (As for the fact that) although the great Paul is far from Pharisaic arrogance, he nevertheless writes to those speaking in tongues in Corinth: “I thank my God, who spoke in tongues above all of you” (1 Cor. 14:18), then he, who says in another place that he is “the trampling of all” (1 Cor. 4:13), writes this in order to put in proper order those who were arrogant over those who did not possess this for nothing. So, just as Paul, although he wrote this, was far from Pharisee arrogance, so, on the contrary, one can speak the words of this Publican and humble oneself according to his example, and, however, not become justified, as he was justified: for the publican’s words must also be characterized by turning away from evil, and disposition in the soul, and contrition and endurance of it. So David showed that he who considers himself guilty before God and repents must suffer fair and bearable insult and dishonor against himself from others. For, after he committed a sin, he, hearing insults from Shimei, said to those who wanted to avenge him: “Leave him alone and let him curse, for the Lord told him to curse David” (2 Sam. 16:10), saying that for allowing them to sin, he has a commandment from God to revile him; although at that time David was struggling with a terrible and great trouble, for it was then that Absalom rose up against him. And so, with unbearable grief, involuntarily leaving Jerusalem, then running away, he arrived at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and found an addition to his grief: Shimei, throwing stones at him and mercilessly cursing, and shamelessly blaspheming and calling him a bloodsucker and a lawless one, as if bringing reproach in the eyes of the king for the grave crime that he committed against Bathsheba and Uriah. And more than once, and not twice, cursing and throwing stones and words sharper than stones, he stopped doing this, but - they say, the king and all his people walked with him, and Shimei walked along the outskirts of the mountain, from his side, cursing and throwing stones from the side and showering the king with dust. The king had no shortage of people who wanted to intercede for him. So, Abishai the commander, not being able to bear this, said to David: “Why does this dead dog curse my lord the king? Now I will go and take away his head” (2 Samuel 16:9). But the king restrained him and his servants, telling them: “Leave him... the Lord will not look upon my humility, and will return me good instead of his oath” (2 Sam. 16:12). What happened then and was fulfilled in practice, is also, as is clear through this parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, always really accomplished. So, whoever truly considers himself guilty of eternal torment, will he not valiantly endure not only dishonor, but also loss and illness, and any, so to speak, vicissitudes and disaster? Having shown such patience, being, as it were, a debtor and guilty, he, through a lighter and temporary and ending condemnation, is freed from this truly severe and unbearable torment; for on the basis of these now rushing disasters, the beginning of receiving Divine blessings is perceived, as if due for patience. That is why one of those taught by God said: “I will bear the Lord’s punishment: for I have sinned before Him.” May we also be taught by God (in this life) with mercy, but not with anger and rage (in the next century); Let us not fall into cowardice from God's punishment, but, as the Psalmist says, we will correct ourselves to the end, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom is due all glory, honor and worship, with His beginningless Father and the Most Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:17–32. Homilia II. In Dominicam de Publicano et Pharisaeo parabolam. Those. without any merit. You might be interested in: