Dr. Augistine Sokolovski
Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee is the first preparatory Sunday for Great Lent in terms of the composition of the divine service. From this day onwards, a liturgical book called the Lenten Triodion begins to be used. Gradually, the Triodion will be used more and more, and with the beginning of Great Lent, it will completely replace the Octoechos, only to give way to the Octoechos again at the end of Pentecost.
In fact, the entire liturgical year is a preparation for Great Lent, Great Lent is a preparation for Easter, and Easter is an encounter with Christ. For, as the Church Father St. Augustine (354-430) wrote, “Easter contains the Mystery.” The Mystery, or the sacrament is the reality of God's real presence here and now, when in obvious and visible things, water, oil, bread, wine, and others, a person is attached to immortality.
During the liturgy of the first preparatory Sunday, the Gospel reading about the tax collector and the Pharisee is read. According to Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 18, verses 2-8, two men “went into the temple to pray.” The first, who was a Pharisee, praised himself before God, and the second, who was a tax collector, asked for forgiveness: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” This is all described in just five verses of the Gospel.
The parable of the Publican and the Pharisee can be interpreted in a personal moral sense. If we praise yourself, and even more so, humiliate others, then we should expect condemnation. “A certain person, our acquaintance, friend, relative, or just someone, went to church, but then became disappointed,” we often say. In fact, we should say: “A certain person went to church, but for reasons unknown to us, God became disappointed in him.” In such a case, we should pray that God, through the Holy Spirit, will grant such a person grace so that he may return to the Church.
The same parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee can be interpreted in a theological, ecclesial sense. Then, from a personal moral appeal, it becomes an appeal to all believers together. The Church is the Community of Believers. Therefore, the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee is an appeal to the whole Church. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” as it is written in the Book of Revelation (3:22).
The Publican and the Pharisee represent the entire Church. The Symbol of Faith calls the Church “Holy.” The Church is indeed holy and blameless; she is literally filled with righteousness and communicates virtue. At the same time, the Church is a community of people. As the Syrian Father of the Church Ephrem (306-370) said, “the whole Church is a Church of penitents,” as the Latin Father of the Church St. Augustine (354-430) said, “The Church is a complex two-part body, in which one part belongs to Christ and the other belongs to the devil.” Until history ends, sinners, and we are all sinners, must repent; and evil, at the end of history, whether it hides within the Church or outside it, will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).
When the Church forgets that it is “also a tax collector,” that we must always humble ourselves and repent, God subjects the Church to crises, prosperity is replaced by persecution. If the Church forgets its supernatural nature, ceases to praise God for the immeasurable gifts bestowed upon her, which are manifested in the virtues of believers and saints - this is the image of a Pharisee - then its everyday life becomes gray. It sinks into bureaucracy and ceases to attract people with its beauty, ceases to be missionary. In these three weeks remaining before Great Lent, let us be inspired by the teachings of the Gospel.