Saturday of the 34th Week

1 Timothy 6:11-16

Timothy, my son, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen. 

Luke 20:46-21:4

The Lord said to his disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the market-places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Last Sunday we began the season of the Triodion, and this week abstained from fasting lest we, like the Pharisee, think we are made righteous just because we “fast twice a week” (Lk. 18:12). As we approach the beginning of Great Lent, we are reminded that those who merely act religious, who show off their piety, and who for a pretence make long prayers, will receive, not a reward, but the greater condemnation. Let us therefore not make a show of our Lenten observance, but “anoint our head and wash our face, that our fasting may not be seen by others but by our Father who is in secret (Matt. 6:17-18). The offering of the widow was accepted because it was truly an offering, whereas those of the rich, although greater in amount, were just for show, being only a tiny percentage of their actual wealth. We may see a beggar on the street, give them some money and feel rather pleased with ourselves. But how much of our wealth are we actually giving away? How often would we buy dinner for that beggar while going hungry ourselves? We should remember that this is one of the primary reasons for fasting. We eat less so that we can have more to give others. If I, during the fast, spend £3 on dinner instead of £10, the £7 I save belong to the poor.

What the Gospel also reminds us, however, is that we need to give our all, not just of our material possessions, but also of ourselves. In the case of fasting and prayer, for example, we often remind ourselves that we are only expected to do what we can, but we normally confuse what we can do with what we want to do and what won’t make us feel uncomfortable. But our spiritual life is not supposed to be comfortable, it’s supposed to be a struggle. We are called to be “transformed by the renewal of our mind” (Rom. 12:1), and that certainly won’t happen by staying within our comfort zone. Christianity without the Cross is not Christianity. We need to fight the good fight and take hold of the eternal life to which we were called. Lent is an opportunity for us to intensify our spiritual struggle, to increase not only the amount of money we give to charity, but the amount of ourselves we give to God. We spend a little longer at prayer, a little longer studying the Scriptures, a little longer helping those around us, working to become like that widow who, although she was poor, put in all she had. 

Friday of the 34th Week

1 John 2:7-17

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides for ever. 

Mark 14:3-9

At that time, while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

The commandment to love was not a new one, but was  an old commandment that you had from the beginning. When Christ said "whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matt. 7:12), many of His hearers would probably have remembered the words of Rabbi Hillel a generation before Him: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn". And yet, there was nonetheless something new about Christ's teachings because the incarnation changed everything. The love we are required to have for God and one another is no longer theoretical, but has been shown true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. As long as the word of God abides in you, then you have overcome the evil one, and the commandment to love is not an unattainable goal, but an ever present reality.

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. If you don't love your brother you don't love God. "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" (Matt. 25:45). The disciples were outraged because they could not square the centrality of helping the poor in the Gospel message with the woman's apparent waste of the expensive ointment, although Judas was outraged "not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it" (John 12:6). What today's Gospel reading teaches us is that the converse is also true: you cannot truly love your brother without first loving God. Only after loving God can you realise the true worth of the human person created in His image. Secondly, it reminds us that the things done in honour of God is not without profit for others. The woman, by doing a beautiful thing to Christ, did it to the whole world, preparing the Lord for His burial, for His descent into Hades whereby He destroyed its power and freed its captives, 'trampling down death by death, and to those in the tomb bestowing life'. Those who cite concern for the poor when they criticise the building of a beautiful church, for example, seem to forget that the doors of the church are open for rich and poor alike.

When He says that you always have the poor with you, we must remember that the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides for ever. To care for the poor and needy is an absolute obligation for Christians, it is the thing on which we will be judged, but a person's poverty ends at their death, just as the wealth of the rich man, which is why love of the world is so dangerous. Spiritual poverty and spiritual wealth, however, continue into eternity. The message of today's Gospel passage, then, does not in any way undermine the need for charity, but is a question of priorities.

Thursday of the 34th Week

1 John 1:8-2:6

Brethren, if we say 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 we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 

Mark 13:31-14:2

The Lord said to his disciples, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

The Lord leaves us with the promise of His return, but to know the exact time has not been given to human nature, nor to the angels. When Christ tells us that the Son does not know, we should not imagine that Christ as God is ignorant of His own coming, but that, according to His humanity, He made manifest only that knowledge which was appropriate to human nature, just as we are told that he “increased in wisdom” as a child (Luke 2:52), “because God the Word gradually manifested His wisdom proportionably to the age which the body had attained” (Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke).

As Solomon says, “Do not withhold to do good to the needy, when your hand can help. Do not say, ‘Go, come back, and tomorrow I will give,’ for you do now know what the next day will bring”(Prov. 3:28-29). If we were to know the moment at which Christ would return or, more relevant to most of us, the moment at which we would die, we would live as we pleased, enslaved to the passions, with the intention to repent and mend our ways just before the end. Indeed, in the early Church the practice of death-bed baptism was a great problem against which the Fathers fought tirelessly. People thought they could live a life of sin, and then have it all washed away just before the moment of death. To paraphrase the famous verse from Isaiah, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall repent” (cf. 22:13).

What this shows is a complete misunderstanding of what the Christian life entails, and what Christ wants from us. Salvation is not a reward for good behaviour. God will not judge our life and, if we passed the test, put us on a cloud where we can play eternity away on a harp while those who failed will be thrown into a torture chamber where they’ll be tormented by sadistic demons. This is the stuff of childish cartoons. Salvation is our relationship with Christ, our union with Him, the transformation of our hearts to the realisation of God’s image and likeness within us, and it starts here and now. The Lord will certainly accept those come at the eleventh hour and reward them as he did with those who came at the first (Matt. 20), but we should not confuse His mercy and patience with a desire for us to delay. St. Paul tells us that it is “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” that we ”rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

We were created to be loved by God, and our salvation consists in the reciprocation of that love so far as our human nature allows. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. Sin is a reality, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and we should take courage in the fact that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That God waits with open arms to any sinner that repents is such an important part of the Christian life that the Church considers confession one of the holy Mysteries. Through the Mystery of Confession, we are reconciled to God and to one another, and we are brought back into the Communion from which we had cut ourselves off through sin. What today’s readings stress is that, once we fall, our repentance must be immediate. We should not delay, because we know neither the time nor the hour, and tomorrow might never come. 

Wednesday of the 34th Week

2 Peter 3:1-18

Beloved, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Final Words Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 

Mark 13:24-31

The Lord said to his disciples, “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

Today's readings.

Tuesday of the 34th Week

2 Peter 2:9-22

Beloved, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and wilful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgement against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” 

Mark 13:14-23

The Lord said to his disciples, “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that it may not happen in winter. For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.

Here are today's readings. Comments to follow, God willing!

Monday of the 34th Week

2 Peter 1:20-2:9

Beloved, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgement; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement. 

Mark 13:9-13

The Lord said to his disciples, “Be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Today’s readings bring us hope that no matter what trials and tribulations we will face, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and that the one who endures to the end will be saved. This is a theme we’ve already covered a few times, and so I’ll only focus on these words of St. Peter: No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. The teachings of the Church are not the musings of philosophers or manmade ideas, but are truths revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. When the Church gathered to produce statements of faith like the Nicene Creed, they were not coming up with something new, but were expressing what right believing Christians had always held, in response to false teachers who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Many of the great heresies throughout history were the result of people reading the Scripture according to their own interpretation, relying on their own fallible human wisdom rather than the Tradition of the Church, which is guided by the Holy Spirit. If we apply the words of the Lord, “you will recognise them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:20), we see that the fruits of the rejection of Holy Tradition as the interpreter of Scripture have been the creation of over 30,000 different denominations who all claim to believe in the same Bible – in other words, it has been the antithesis of the Lord’s prayer “that they may all be one” (John 17:21). Every time another person (mis)understands a particular verse in the Bible a little differently, a new church or sect is born. St. Peter’s warning was certainly not without cause! In today’s Gospel, Christ promises to the persecuted saints that it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. What one notices about the writings of Church Fathers, from Apostolic times to present day, is the harmony of their message, and their singleness of mind – quite the opposite of the disagreement and discord brought about by private interpretation – a sure testimony to the fact that their words were not the product of their own reasoning, but were of the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore remain faithful to the words of Scripture, and take care to understand them in accordance with the Holy Tradition of which they are a part, lest we are led astray by false teachers who bring upon themselves swift destruction. 

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

Matins: 24:13-35

At that time, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. 

2 Corinthians 4:6-15

Brethren, the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke”, we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 

Luke 18:10-14

The Lord said this parable, “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

From the Bulletin of Spiritual Edification (No. 1272)

A Sunday in the Life of a Pharisee

"This church is full of hypocrites. Look at these people! They don't care about religion. Slackers! Nationalists! Oh look! Here's another late comer. Why can't they get their children to shut up? This is a place of prayer! I didn't come to hear screaming babies! Look at that priest! His heart isn't in this at all! And that chanter - what a show off! And that man in the corner with the prayer rope constantly crossing himself is really annoying me. Showing off his piety - Pharisee! Love that Gospel Reading! Really sums up Pharisaic Christians, like that man in the corner. Weren’t you listening to any of that? It was about you! Thank God I'm not like that! Now look! A woman in a mini-skirt taking communion - I bet she had breakfast! Too young to be married, but I bet she has sex. Does she have her spiritual father's permission to take communion? Bet she doesn't know what a spiritual father is! Have any of these people gone to confession or said the prayers before communion like I have? I'm definitely going to a monastery next Sunday - somewhere where I'll find real Christians and pious priests and no screaming babies - somewhere where other so-called Christians won't disturb my prayer". This is how Pharisees think. How do I know? Because there is a Pharisee in me too. There is a Pharisee in all of us.

Synaxarion

With God on this present day we begin the Triodion, the hymns of which were composed by many of our holy and Godbearing Fathers, inspired by the Holy Spirit according to their worthiness... The purpose of the Triodion intended by the Holy Fathers on the feasts of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, and the Second Coming is a kind of preparatory lesson and stimulation to prepare ourselves for the spiritual labours of the Fast, having put aside our usual corrupt habits... The first weapon among the virtues is repentance and humility. And the temptation to attain the greatest humility is pride and arrogance. So they place before us first of all this present trustworthy parable from the Divine Gospel. It encourages us to shun the desire for the pride and arrogance of the Pharisee, and to cultivate the opposite desire of the Publican for humility and repentance.... Through this example the Holy Fathers encourage all not to be proud of their successes, but always to be humble. For the Lord sets Himself against the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Better a man who has sinned, if he knows that he has sinned and repents, than a man who has not sinned and thinks of himself as righteous....This parable reveals that no one should exalt himself, even though he has done good deeds, but rather should always be humble and pray from his heart to God, for even if he should fall into the most serious sin, salvation is not far off.

“Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation… I fast, and turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No matter how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.” (St. John Climacus)