Dear in Christ Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the resurrection of the Lord, as well as with the first preparatory week before Great Lent!

In today’s Gospel reading from Luke, we heard the very familiar parable about the publican and the Pharisee. Although it appeared that the Pharisee, who fasted and gave alms, was the righteous one, our Lord Jesus Christ justifies the publican, a tax collector, who, as was customary in the Roman Empire, stole from his fellow Jews to make a living for himself. The Pharisee, despite his good deeds, was full of pride and looked down at others, while the publican had a meek heart and understood the depth of his sinfulness. The Saviour Himself explains why not the Pharisee but the publican, a greedy thief and traitor to his nation, was justified, saying that “every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

This short didactic story of our Saviour was told on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem, not long before the Lord Jesus Christ entered the city of Jericho. Remember that in Jericho our Lord Jesus Christ met Zacchaeus, an old publican (we heard about this in last week’s Gospel reading). Do you see that the Gospel text is offering a nice parallel? The Lord recounted a parable about a humble publican and then, a short while later, a real publican appears in the narrative who, despite his old age, climbs into a tree to catch a glimpse of the Saviour who was passing by, invitesHim into his home, offers Him a meal, brings forth abundant fruits of repentance, for he relinquishes all that he had unjustly taken for himself, and receives from the incarnate God forgiveness of his many sins. First we read in the Gospel the theory, and then an example of how to apply this theory in real life is offered.

Let us, in these preparatory days before Great Lent, apply the idea of today’s Gospel parable to our own lives. To each of us God has given many good gifts and talents, but we unfortunately do not always use them. Sometimes we darken them with our sins and passions, which we ourselves develop over many years. Keeping this in mind, let each of us pray as today’s publican did and say: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner, for you granted me so much, but I in turn sin more often than not and turn away from you. Without you, I can do hardly any good; therefore, show your compassion towards me and forgive me.

priest Alexis