2 Timothy 3: 10-15; Luke 18: 10-14.
In today’s Gospel, we have recounted for us the parable of the ‘Publican and the Pharisee’. In this parable, we are confronted with an issue that is at the heat of our Orthodox faith – humility in repentance before the All-Holy Trinity.
Unfortunately, many Christians have given the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour a bad name by their conceit towards others. Many are the people of the world and greater even than this reality is the All-Holy Trinity’s love for them.
In today’s Gospel, we have shown for us how not to appear in the house of God! This Pharisee in the Temple of old, stood confident that he was righteous before the Lord because he had kept the precepts of the law. However, he had failed on two important levels - that of humility and love for others.
He forgot that he too is a sinner, and unlike the tax collector who humbled himself before the All-Holy Trinity he was confident in his conceit, that he and not the tax collector was just.
However, Christ showed us through his very incarnation, death and resurrection that a heart that is humbled is what the Lord desires.
This is not to say that we have to grovel before the All-Holy Trinity as if we are worthless pathetic worms – clearly, we are not, or the Second Person of the All-Holy Trinity would have not been incarnated, died and resurrected on our behalf.
Rather, we are to follow the example of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane here we see the example of perfect prayer. Here our Lord and Saviour prays to the Father in perfect humility. Not once does He bring up the reality of His divinity but in this prayer before His Cross, we see the God-man humbly praying to Father showing mankind what true prayer looks like an act of deep communion with the God-Head.
Moreover, there is an epidemic of Pharisaism in the Church at the moment in that there are many clergy and laity who think that they are better than everyone else.
The All-Holy Trinity did not let the Temple fall to be replaced with a copy of that same Temple of old filled with men who exemplified the exact same attitudes as the Pharisees of old!
No, the All-Holy Trinity willed that the Church of the New Covenant- the new Israel – be a place where all come to be fed by the Divine Love and Life that is present in the Mysteries of His Holy Orthodox Church.
Many are the clergy and laity who make a show of denying sinners the only medicine that can heal their brokenness- the Mysteries of His Holy Church. Yet in so doing they condemn themselves before the All-Holy Trinity. Many of the people that approach them are repentant yet these people seek to make an example of them to boost their good standing amongst each other.
The Church is the hospital for mankind’s brokenness - it is in her mysteries that mankind is made whole.
In so doing judging these people have put themselves on the same level as a pharmaceutical company that has a cure but makes this cure practically impossible to afford! These people have become the very wolves that feed off the brokenness of the little ones seeking the wholeness and healings that Christ provides.
Did these Pharisees not read that Christ tells them to take out the log in their own eye before telling their brother to take the splinter out of his own eye (Matthew 7:5)?
Perhaps they fear admitting that they too are flawed – if they did so- they would truly weep for the pain that they have caused others who came seeking the love of the All-Holy Trinity. Perhaps it is too difficult for them to face the reality that when a spiritual child of theirs came before them asking for bread they gave them a bag of stones (Matthew 7:9-11)!
Many people in this age have been hurt by these men and women who should have shown the love of Christ to those in their care. This has been a great reason for many leaving any form of Christian faith.
The only way this situation can be remedied is for all in Christ’s Body the Orthodox Church to be like the tax collector and pray that the All-Holy Trinity give us the grace to confess our sins and seek His forgiveness.
This week we celebrate the great Feast of the Presentation in the Temple of our Lord and Saviour by His parents. This is a wonderful feast for in it we celebrate the hope that a child provided to a people burdened down by the consequences of their sinfulness.
Here a little baby is presented to Saint Simeon, this baby though the God-man, frail in his humanity, yet strong in his divinity is the perfect example for us in how to live the Christian life. In that, Christ though God, shows for all to see the path of humility that leads to the All-Holy Trinity.
King of kings He is, yet in His ministry He did not lord that over His people! He did not expect to be waited on hand and foot as King Herod in His day would have expected. When He did accept being waited on it was out of love for the other who was waiting on him - oftentimes people need to give to the other to feel better about their faults.
This King is our hope, joy and road which leads to our eternal home in Heaven! If we actively seek to live a good Christian life in the service of the other we will gradually be perfected and made ready to enter eternal life.
Let us always reflect on this gift of hope that was given us in the form of a little tiny baby. Through His incarnation, death and resurrection our Lord and Saviour lifted man out of the bonds of sin that held him captive.
We are to be a people of hope and love not a people who are fixated on all our faults. People who always reflect on how sinful they are all the time never grow and are stuck in spiritual infancy. Sin we may but if we come to our Lord and Saviour in the Mysteries of His Church He will forgive us if we are truly sorry for our sins.
Never forget that the All-Holy Trinity is a God who loves all and in this love, He calls all to Him in the Holy Orthodox Church to salvation through His Holy Mysteries. We are the ones that say yes or no to His Wedding Feast- the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist. We are the ones who choose if we will respond to His freely given invitation.
Therefore, let us be like the great Prophet Saint Samuel who said yes to the voice of the Lord calling in the night (1 Samuel 3). Each and every one of us is loved by the All-Holy Trinity never let anyone tell you that this is not the case! Those who dare to tell people that they are not loved have put the millstone over their own necks (Luke 17: 1-2).
Finally, in honour of our Lord and Saviour’s presentation let us pray for all who have children that the Lord may bless them and help them in their vocation as parents.
Like the little baby who was presented at the temple was a gift to all, so too are children to the Body of Christ His Church. Let us pray that the Lord helps parents as they strive to bring their children up to be loving Christians.
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