Homily One for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself,
‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men —
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican'" (Luke 18:11).
Being teachers of the faith among the Jewish people, the Pharisees boasted of their knowledge of the law, and meanwhile, more than anyone else, they dishonored God by breaking the law and their extreme hypocrisy. The Savior assessed them well, saying that they loved the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces (Luke 20:46). This unfortunate passion of exaltation arose in them from a false exaggeration of their merits, since, being public teachers of the faith, they knew well the law of Moses, which very many of the Jews did not know. The publicans were tax collectors, and, according to their rank, they very often resorted to illegal means of their levies. In the Gospel we see an amazing example of humility and self-denial of one publican in Zacchaeus, the chief of the publicans. When the Savior came to his house, Zacchaeus, in a deep feeling of repentance, said to the Lord: “Behold, half of my goods, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have wronged anyone in any way, I will restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8).
Pharisees and publicans, not by name but by deeds, exist even now. The passion of arrogance and self-praise reigns even now in the sons of fallen Adam. Let us discuss, at the call of our mother the Church, how pernicious this passion is and the incentives for humility. Where does the passion of arrogance and self-praise come from in us? From the same place where all our sins came from: from the first ancestral sin. Man was created so that he would love God, as the author of his existence, more than anything, so that he would look upon His perfections and imitate them, sacredly fulfilling His will. But he loved himself more than God, wanted to appropriate His perfection to himself, wished to be as great as God, wanted to be a self-righteous person, was subjected to self-love and pride and fell. Thus, arrogance or pride is a soul-destroying passion of man, making him hostile to God and contemptuous of his neighbors. Can God look with favor upon a creature that is puffed up with some of its own perfections and finds no equal in them, as if we had anything of our own? This is the beginning of our passion for self-exaltation. As a passion, it is naturally a disease of our soul, which infected it in the moments of the fall of the first people. As a false opinion of one’s perfections, as an unlawful movement of the will, it is, at the same time, the fruit of the suggestions of the evil spirit, which itself, having fallen through pride and envy, drew man to the fall through the same sins. We know that people fell not of themselves, but through temptation from the devil. Is it necessary to expatiate on the fact that pride or self-praise, combined with the humiliation of others, is a disease of our soul? To be convinced of this, one only needs to look at a proud man with the eye of holy faith. What is a man in his present state? A fallen man, broken, all in wounds. Does this comparison seem exaggerated to you? Remember the Parable of the Samaritan and the Man Who Fell Among the Thieves (Luke 10:30–37). Who does this man, beaten and wounded, who fell among the thieves, represent? Who, if not us, tormented by passions, the world and the devil? If such a person were to claim that he was completely healthy and did not feel any pain, what would we say about him? We would not say that he was too sick and close to death: because his body no longer had the sensitivity that reveals the presence of life forces in it. This, certainly the same, we must say about a proud person.
Pride, furthermore, is the fruit of the suggestions of the evil spirit. Is it difficult to be convinced of this? Pride is a false, exaggerated opinion of one's own perfections, real or imagined, combined with the hurtful humiliation of others. False opinion: where in the world do lies come from? God is the truth. The Holy Scriptures point us to one source, one father of lies: "You are of your father the devil,” says the Savior to the Jews, “and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it" (John 8:44). He whispers to a person preoccupied with himself, with his good deeds, that he is the most perfect being, at whom all others should marvel, that all others are despicable creatures who live in vain on this earth, and only sin. How false this is, judge for yourself. Is this impudent boaster really the most perfect being, and is his neighbor, who is so brazenly offended by him, really such a one? Perhaps, at the very time when he was condemned, he repented, shed tears over his sins before Him “who searches the hearts” (Rev. 2:23) of all, God, and received forgiveness. Meanwhile, the perfections of the one who exalts himself are suspicious already because he proclaims, trumpets about them before God, either only in the temple, or to everyone and everything. True perfection, true virtue is modest: it loves to hide in secret and does not dare to ascribe its own perfections to itself, much less to humiliate others. You say of yourself that you are kind, merciful to all, zealous for the faith and the holy Church, that you exhaust your flesh with fasting. Excellent. But who gave you the right to call yourself by the names of these venerable virtues? Who proclaimed you kind, merciful, zealous for the Church and her holy statutes? God? An angel? Or have you yourself assessed your virtue? And how can we assess our deeds? How shall we weigh them? What measure shall we adopt in this? Do we know well our impure heart, which always, or at least most of the time, takes a great part in the performance of good deeds? Do not our virtues include thoughts of self-love, or other unseemly motives? How easily the evil motive that was the cause of our good deed sometimes hides from our own consciousness. The poison of sin has penetrated deeply into our souls and, unnoticed by us, it poisons almost all our virtues. Is it not better to look into ourselves more often and more closely and notice our shortcomings in the depths of our souls in order to correct them, rather than to display our perfections? And why display them, to evaluate them ourselves, when there is the most impartial appraiser of them in heaven – the Lord God, Who, having “to give to each one a reward according to his works” (Rev. 22:12; Jer. 17:10), of course, knows how to evaluate our deeds. Let us leave it to Him to judge our virtues, and let us “work out our own salvation in the fear” of God, without arrogance" (Phil. 2:12).
We should not exalt ourselves before others, but humble ourselves. And how many incentives for humility there are for each of us! Man has nothing of his own, everything is God's: his soul, his body, and everything he has, except sin. Every good deed is also from God. What can he boast of? "What have you, O man, that you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you boast that you have not received it" (1 Cor. 4:7)? If he boasts of his virtues, then he sacrilegiously appropriates to himself the glory that belongs to God alone. Furthermore, every person is more or less in a state of sinful relaxation, and at least very many are in a state of sinful insensitivity. How unbearable is this morbid, false confidence in them that they are completely healthy and have no need of a doctor. What an incentive this is not to value highly our good deeds, which may be nothing more than the delirium of our soul. The heavenly, omniscient Judge Himself has taken upon Himself and will value our deeds, and will reward each one for them in due time. How necessary, then, to perform each of our good deeds in the eyes of God and to leave the judgment of it to Him alone, not daring to touch it with our own sinful judgment. But it must be noted that we have very few good deeds, incomparably more bad ones. A new and strong incentive to humility: "I am sinful, but God is just." How can we not have in our thoughts the judgment of God, which may be ready to be accomplished upon us this very day, and not forget, perhaps, the most insignificant good deeds, which in comparison with the multitude of sins mean nothing; because we certainly sin every day, every hour, both in word and deed, and in thought and feeling. Oh! Grant us, O God, to constantly have before our eyes our complete dependence on You, our weakness, our sinfulness, so that we may constantly humble ourselves before You and before our neighbors.
Brothers and sisters! You, without any doubt, cannot help but like the example of the publican’s humility presented in today’s Gospel, since it depicts us as sinners who repent; and we easily recognize and love our own image, outlined for us in the Holy Scriptures; you cannot help but like it especially because you saw how he was pardoned by God for his humility, and although he was a great sinner, because publicans generally lived by oppression and bribery, “he went down to his house and was justified” (Luke 18:14). Let us try to imitate this example of humility. No one, of course, will say that he is not a sinful man, who has no reason, like the publican, to grieve over his sins, beat himself on the chest and humbly ask for forgiveness: “God make atonement for me the sinner” (Luke 18:13).
We are all sinners and stand in need of God's mercy. If the blood of the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world, did not intercede for us, then every day and hour the blows of heavenly justice would thunder over us; we would suffer daily and die in our sinful souls, and we would never taste peace or joy. But the Son of God intercedes for us: and our sins do not cry out so loudly for vengeance against us, for the sake of His merits. God forgives us them, if only we acknowledge them ourselves and repent of them. Yes, God forgives us our sins. We must only grieve over them, ask forgiveness from the Lord Jesus with all our hearts, and He, by the grace and generosity of His love for mankind, will forgive us through His servant all the sins that weigh upon our conscience. Imitating the publican in humility, let us in every way avoid the self-exaltation of the Pharisees.
What unpleasant features are depicted by the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel, who delighted in the sight of his virtues. I do this and that, not like other people, or like this publican. Thank You, he says, for this. It is good for you to thank God for good works: they are not from us, but from God; but why do you boast, exalt yourself with them before the face of God Himself, as if He did not know their worth? Why do you humiliate your brother? Are you not the same condemned and sinful man as the publican; did your virtues suddenly make you a pure and sinless angel? Did you fulfill them yourself with your own strength? How is it that you suddenly forgot about your weaknesses and see only perfections and do not think at all about the humility necessary for you! Why do you think that you are an excellent, virtuous man? Why shouldn’t you, even with your virtues, think that you have only done what you should and remain the same worthless servant, according to the commandment of the Savior: “When you have done all that is commanded you, say, 'We are worthless servants, for we have done what was our duty to do'” (Luke 17:10).
Lord! Without You, “we can do nothing” (John 15:5). Grant us this humility of the publican and drive out from us every thought of Pharisaic pride. May we always remember that we are all Yours with all that we have and all that we see around us, and we have nothing, absolutely nothing to boast about. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
