Homily on the Publican and the Pharisee

Today we begin the Triodion season.  As a hospital led by the Great Physician, the Orthodox Church is very intentional about the way it guides us from our life of delusion and sickness towards a healthy and joyful one lived in the fullness of truth.  This pre-Lenten season is a good example: everything is designed so that Pascha will not be just another day, but a true celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection and our own Resurrection from death to life in Him.

Fasting
For example, one of regimens the Church prescribes for us is fasting.  We invite our dear old friend Hunger to live and dine with us.  But before he comes, we have to get our houses – and our minds – ready.  And so this coming week we have one of the few weeks during the year when there is NO FASTING prescribed AT ALL, even on Wednesday and Friday.  [Among other things, this teaches us that there is nothing “evil” about food, and that fasting is a free-will discipline.]  This is followed by the week of Meatfare, which is a normal fasting week (i.e. we still fast on Wednesday and Friday), during which we empty our homes of all meat and fish.  That week ends with our wonderful celebration on Sunday the 27th when we will bid adieu to meat together.  During the next “Cheesefare” week, the last week before Great Lent, we have completely given up meat, but milk, dairy, and eggs are permitted on every day (even Wednesday and Friday).  As with our last day of meat, it is our tradition to gather together and enjoy our last tastes of eggs, cheese, milk, and cream together.  Roman Catholics have one day – Fat Tuesday – to clean out their pantries and refrigerators: we  have much three weeks; and by the end of it, our minds – and our houses – should be ready for the arrival of our dear friend, Hunger.  I’ll probably talk to you more about him and his best friends “Prayer” and “Charity” later, but you weill have to trust me that he really is a dear family friend and I look forward to hosting him within our community starting in just a few weeks.

Repentance
Another way our Orthodox Treatment Center prepares us for Pascha and a fuller life in Christ is through repentance.  In order for us to participate in Christ’s resurrection, in order to prepare for healthier and joyful life lived in the fullness of truth, we must die to lies and sin.  This means that we must enter Lent with an appreciation of the need for genuine repentance.  The services and readings that the Church prescribes for us are designed to do just this.  Today we have Christ’s parable about the Publican and the Pharisee; next week will have the parable of the Prodigal Son.  The goal here is not to beat you up with the “Jesus Stick”, but rather that you take a real look at your life and the many things that must be changed in order for you to become truly good (“good enough” never really is).  Here is a wonderful teaching from the Apostle and Theologian John (1 John 1: 5-10);

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

If we accept this premise – and all Christians msut – then we are ready for Christ’s challenge to us in today’s lesson on the Publican and the Pharisee.

1.Don’t be a hypocrite.  Honor the rules and your faith, but not your mastery of them.  Do not judge.  Leave the self-righteous “Jesus Stick” at home and focus on that log in your own eye.

2.Do not follow your own opinion of what “good” is (describe how the Pharisee’s hyper-correctness has the same root of our own laxity: prelest/spiritual delusion). 

3.Recognize how you have missed the mark and repent.

If you do these three things, then you will be well on your way to making Great Lent the time of purification is was designed to be, and Pascha the greatest day in the rest of your new life.  And don’t forget, as you meditate on this lesson, to do it over a nice steak; because the days of enjoying that particular blessing are numbered.