Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
2 Timothy 3:10-15; Luke 18: 10:14.
This Sunday we are reminded about the importance of being humble before the All-Holy Trinity and through this act of humility seeking His forgiveness for our sins. Humility is at the core of our Christian faith. We are reminded in today’s gospel that the All-Holy Trinity values greatly the prayers of a humble heart and rejects the ramblings of a proud and hypocritical heart.
There are some who profess to be Christian who simply break our faith down to a set of proscribed prayers and bows thinking that this will fulfill their obligations before God. Yet this is the opposite of how our Lord and Saviour calls us to pray. Saint John Chrysostom makes this clear when he says:
He who is able to pray correctly, even if he is the poorest of all people, is the richest. And he who does not have proper prayer, is the poorest of all, even if he sits on a throne” (St. John Chrysostom).
Christ teaches us the true attitude we must have when we pray, that is, an attitude which is humble and does not seek to be seen and praised by others. He says in Matthew 6: 6-8:
‘When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father, who is unseen, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. When you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.’
Saint Gregory Palamas interprets this passage as an instruction on how to be present in our prayer for he interprets this passage as saying:
‘The room of the soul is the body; its doors are the five bodily senses. The soul enters its room when the mind does not wander here and there, roaming among the things and affairs of the world, but stays within, in our hearts. Our senses become closed and remain closed when we do not let them be passionately attached to external sensory things and in this way our mind remains free from every worldly attachment, and by secret mental prayer unites with God our Father. (St.Gregory Palamas)
Saint John of Kronstadt further elaborates on the importance of being genuine when you pray for if it is merely just about saying the correct words while your mind wanders then what good is this prayer? Is this not like the Pharisee in today’s gospel and the pagans’ prayers in Matthew 6: 6-8?
Saint John puts it like this:
When you pray, try to let the prayer reach your heart; in other words, it is necessary that your heart should feel what you are talking about in your prayer, that it should wish for the blessing for which you are asking…. Note, during prayer, whether your heart is in agrees with that which you are saying. (St. John of Kronstadt). ‘
What this means then is when you pray, let your heart really be present before the All-Holy Trinity and let it not wander. If your prayer is simply saying long winded prayers while your mind is planning your next meal, then your prayer is simply lip service.
Unfortunately, there are some in the Church who suffer from various forms of scrupulosity regarding their daily prayer routines. This is a spiritual condition that leaves a person in a state of spiritual panic and creates an image of the All-Holy as a jealous monster waiting to punish a person for forgetting to say all their prayers.
Prayer should be a loving conversation with our Creator and exchange grounded in mutual respect and love. The All-Holy Trinity does His part, and it is up to us to do ours by being mentally and spiritually attentive when we pray.
We must give prayer our full attention, in much the same way we teach our children to listen to people when they are talking to them. Saint John Chrysostom says it beautifully when he states:
‘Prayer is a precious way of communicating with God, it gladdens the soul and gives rest to its sentiments. You should not think of prayer as being a matter of words. It is a desire for God, an indescribable love, not of human origin, but the gift of God's grace. As Saint Paul says: we do not know how to pray as we should, but the All-Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.’ (Saint John Chrysostom).
Then there are those who have to be seen to be the most holy people in the Church. These are the ones who tend to reduce the faith to a set of laws that others must see them following. They love to make it look like they are so holy so that they can receive the praise of others – we have all met people like this in our lives. Many times, these same people will look at others in the Church and pass judgement over them as if they are the final spiritual authority.
The issue here is that these same people have missed the point of prayer, for it is not merely a set of routines done because one is commanded to pray and must be seen to be doing so. Rather, prayer is an act which comes from a deep love of the All-Holy Trinity and must be grounded in the love of God and others.
These people have turned others away because of their absolute insistence that the only way to salvation is through following their loveless interpretation of Church Tradition and ignoring the words of Christ in Matthew 23: 1-5:
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Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honour at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues...
If our prayer to God is expressed only through ritual acts done at a certain time which we only do out of a sense of fear, then what good are these prayers said during these ritual acts? Even a robot could be programmed to go through the motions but as it is a robot, where is the love?
Therefore, when we come to pray, whether it be at home or in Church, let this be a time when we sit before God humbly with love in our hearts for, He loves us and already knows what we need! Let us not be like the people who have to be seen to be holier than the rest of the congregation – we know how difficult they make people’s lives with their judgements and gossip!
We come to pray in the services of the Church because we are the Body of Christ, and as Christ made clear, ‘when two or three are gathered in my name I am there (Matthew 18:20). ’This is not to say that when we pray privately, He is not there, for every time we pray to Him in private, He is present.
Do not forget, even when you are not praying physically with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ you are still mystically connected to Christ’s Body - the Communion of Saints, by virtue of your Baptism and the Holy Mysteries (sacraments) of His Church.
Rather, when we pray together, we are showing our joint love for the All-Holy Trinity and by joining in the greatest act of pray the Divine Liturgy we His Body the Church, are given He who is the Manna from on high, who keeps His beloved children unified in a hidden and sacred manner.
This presupposes that when we come to celebrate the Divine Liturgy that we come together because of our love for God and each other. This is why Christ tells us that if we have wronged anyone, we must make peace with them and then offer our offering which is the Holy Eucharist - His very Prescence in our broken world (Matthew 5:23).
Prayer is a gift that enables us to talk to God, it forms us and helps us to conform more and more to His ways and less to our perceptions of His ways. Through prayer, we are changed through the encounter with the Divine, for in prayer we are brought closer to Him, and He guides, nurtures, and teaches us how we can grow in His love. Saint John Chrysostom puts it in this way:
Prayer is the light of the soul, giving us true knowledge of God. It is a link between God and man. By prayer the soul is taken up to heaven and in a marvellous way embraces the Lord. This meeting is like that of an infant crying on its mother, and seeking the best of milk. The soul longs for its own needs and what it receives is better than anything to be seen in the world. (St John Chrysostom).
This is exactly at odds with the intentions of the Pharisee in today’s gospel – he showed no love. He placed heavy burdens on the shoulders of others so that he might appear to be righteous, but he was simply like a whitewashed tomb – he looked good on the outside but inside there was no love so only death, decay, and disorder could prevail (Matthew 23:27).Prayer without love is but a set of empty words that falls to the ground and accomplish nothing! Prayer coming from a place of humility and love accomplishes everything.
We can see this in the lives of the Saints – they turned their whole lives into literal acts of prayer guided by the law of love (Matthew 22:34-40). That is, every action of theirs was a prayer to God grounded in a deep love for Him and others. It was by these great acts of love and faith that they accomplished many miracles and healings through the graces gifted them by the All-Holy Trinity.
Therefore, I encourage you to read about the lives of the Orthodox Saints for their lives can be a source of great inspiration – especially when you are feeling discouraged. The lives of these holy men and women can teach us much on how to pray and live a good Christian life.
Finally, as we are preparing to enter Great Lent let us focus on how we can better our relationship with God through the gift of prayer. Let us try and make everything we do an act of prayer to the All-Holy Trinity for we are called to shine the light of Christ to the world.
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