In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today is the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. We could also call it the Sunday of the Tax-collector and the Pharisee. On this Sunday, we start our journey towards Great Lent in a serious way. This week there is no fasting. On Wednesdays and Fridays this week, we have the blessing to eat whatever we like. The reason that we do this is partly to remember that the Pharisee’s way of behaving did not do him any good. He was bragging that he was fasting twice a week, and so when we do not fast this week, we are saying to the Pharisee (as it were) : “Your way of fasting was not doing you any good”. Why was it not doing him any good ? He was making a big production of it. He was pointing out everything that he did. In essence, we might say that every single solitary cent that he gave to the Temple, he had to publish. He had to make everyone know how much money he gave. Every time he did anything that was good and proper, he had to stand up and proclaim it and let everyone see what a good person he was. This man could be compared to some Orthodox Christians today who behave similarly. This is an easy trap for any of us to fall into. However, if we fall into it, we have to get out of it because as the Lord says (as it were) at the end of the Gospel today : “Those who puff themselves up and make something of themselves in front of everyone, are going to have their legs cut off, or at least have the rug pulled out from under them ; they will find themselves sitting instead of standing tall”.
Why is this ? It is because being an egoist cuts a person off from God. It cuts a person off from other people. It cuts a person off from life. Being an egoist, looking after one’s own things, one’s own children, one’s own concerns, one’s own property, one’s own affairs, drives a person back and brings a person no friends (except friends who know that one has money or influence or something else). People who are so self-centered will have friends only who will use the friendship in the same way. People who are self-centered and care only about themselves, will have friends who, when trouble comes, will disappear in a flash. Just as this sort of self-centered person uses other people and relationships with other people only for what can be gotten out it for oneself, other people will use him in exactly the same way. Of course, that is the way of the society in which we live. In this society’s mentality, very often we have friends not because we love the person. Rather, we gather around ourselves the “right sort of friends” who can contribute to our status in society. We become something that we are not, and we become even more inflated. Then, when difficulties and hard times come along, where are these friends ? They are nowhere to be found. When we have become weak, an unwanted and unexpected by-product of our pride, this weakness shows that we have declined in prestige and influence. It shows that we are no longer dependable and that they can get no more from us, and so they leave us alone.
It does not do any of us any good to insist that everyone see what a good Christian I am. It only does me good if the Lord knows that I am trying to be a good Christian. I know myself as a sinner. I know that everything good that I have would not be mine to use unless the Lord gave it to me to use. Each of us is supposed to be like that tax-collector (even though we may not have committed such great sins as he did). Our hearts are supposed to be like his heart. That condition is one of humility. He knew himself. He knew that he was a sinner, and he knew that all he could say was : “‘God, be merciful to me the sinner’”. The Lord was merciful to such a person. If we look in the New Testament, we can see every single solitary time that the Lord is teaching us this very lesson. Time after time there are people who think that they are someone, make a big production of who they are and what their position is in society. The Lord says : “Think again. Find out what your priorities really are”.
We always see Him pointing out the so-called lower person, the people who know who they are, those who have their hearts in the right place and their priorities straight. These are the persons who really know : the ones who are like children in the Kingdom of God. These are the ones who are like children with hearts that are single-minded, directed towards the Lord, and interested in serving Him alone, first and foremost in life. These are the people who are the greatest because they do not make much of themselves. Perhaps they have a lot of money and perhaps they are well off, but that does not mean that they therefore draw attention to this fact. They use what they have well and glorify God in everything that they have. That is what the Lord is asking of us. He says : “Do not be a letter-man with a big “I” on your chest. (That was my Mother’s favourite expression when someone was being a very prideful person. She would say : “That guy is a letter-man all right, with a big ‘I’ all over his chest”). We are not supposed to be this letter-man, with a big “I, I, I, me, me, me” written all over us. We are supposed to be thinking of the Lord first and ourselves second (if not third). The Lord comes first, and the needs of other people come even before ours. The Lord Himself said that we cannot do more for our friend or someone we love than give our life up for someone we love. Sometimes other people’s welfare comes even before our own when we are living in accordance with the Gospel. Sometimes other people’s lives are even more important than our own when we are living in accordance with the Gospel. So we sacrifice our lives for the sake of theirs and for the welfare of the Kingdom of God.
It all boils down to what our priorities are. Are we interested in ourselves only ? Or are we interested in being our true selves, and our true selves as found in relationship with God ? Are we interested in putting Jesus Christ first in our lives and interested in serving Him before anything else ? If we are interested in serving the Lord before anything else, at least we can say : “Thank God. I hope that I am on the right track”. Life is so uncertain that we are never sure of our salvation until we have finished this life completely and crossed into the Kingdom. However, our hope is increased every time we take the Lord’s hand, every time He saves us from our sins, from our selfishness, from our wilfulness and from our pride. Every time we take His hand and He saves us, our hope is renewed that we will be able to live with Him in the Kingdom. Always, in our lives, we have to be aware of the Lord and serve Him first and only. Everything else will be added ; everything else will make sense. Everything else will be fulfilled, and all things necessary will come to pass only when we put the Lord first, as the good publican did.
May the Lord give us the Grace so that our hearts will always be aware of Him and keep Him first in and above everything. May our whole lives glorify the all-holy Trinity : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.