Homily for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee -- On Pride and Humility (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the 33rd Sunday after Pentecost
(Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee)
On Pride and Humility

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts;
for what is exalted among men is an abomination before God.” (Luke 16:15)

Beloved faithful,

In many places of Holy Scripture it is shown how great, how soul-destroying, and how hateful to God the passion of pride is. But no small measure of the wickedness of this sin can also be understood from the teaching of today’s Holy Gospel. Since I am too small and unskilled to show in writing or speech how many forms this evil of pride has and how varied it is, I shall bring before you a most wonderful teaching of Saint John of the Ladder on this subject. From this it will be known how many heads this dreadful beast of pride has, and by this the wise and discerning will understand how multicolored and dangerous this sin is.

Here is what this holy father says about pride:

“Pride is the denial of God, the teaching of demons, the contempt of men, the mother of condemnation, the great-granddaughter of praise, the sign of barrenness, the expulsion of God’s help, madness, the forerunner of falls, the cause of epilepsy, the source of anger, the door of hypocrisy, the strength of demons, the guardian of sins, the cause of mercilessness, ignorance of compassion, the bitter examiner of the faults of others, an inhuman judge, a hostile fighter against God” (Philokalia, vol. IX, Homily 25, On Pride, Bucharest, 1980).

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

(Delivered on January 11, 1915)*

The publican and the Pharisee came to the temple to pray. During his prayer the Pharisee boasted of his deeds and condemned others, while the publican, in deep awareness of his own unworthiness, prayed thus: “God make atonement for me the sinner.” The former the Lord condemned, and the latter He justified, saying: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:13–14).

Dear ones, if we look at outward actions rather than at the inner disposition of the heart, the Pharisee cannot at all be called a bad man. In any case, he was blameless in a civic sense and outwardly pious. And yet his prayer was rejected. On the contrary, the publican was not without sins and vices. He himself acknowledged his sinfulness, and yet his prayer was heard. Why is this so? Here is why: the Pharisee prayed arrogantly, with a disposition of spirit in which he fully revealed himself. For in prayer people show themselves as they truly are and as they live. The Apostle's words can be applied to the life of the Pharisee in the Gospels and his prayer: “Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive… having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:2–5).

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee  

By St. John of Kronstadt

The present week in the Church order of weeks is called the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. It is so named because on this day the Lord’s parable of the publican and the Pharisee is read from the Gospel. In this parable, by the example of the publican and the Pharisee, the Lord teaches us with what disposition of soul we ought to pray in church or wherever we may be. Let us listen to how the Pharisee prayed and how the publican prayed; which of them pleased God by his prayer and which did not; by what one was pleasing and by what the other was not, so that we too may learn always to pray in a way pleasing to God and not unto condemnation. Prayer is a great thing: through prayer a person communes with God, receives from Him various gifts of grace, thanks Him as Benefactor for His unceasing mercies, or glorifies Him as the all-perfect Creator.

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

To certain people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and humiliated others, Jesus Christ told the following parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not as other men are — extortioners, unjust, adulterers — or even as this publican. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ Now the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote himself on the breast, saying, ‘God make atonement for me the sinner.’ I tell you,” Jesus Christ adds, “that this publican went down to his house justified, but not that Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So, this is what it means to boast about oneself and demean others! Look at this Pharisee praying in the temple of God. He took nothing from anyone, did no wrong to anyone, and led a chaste life; he fasted twice a week; he gave a tenth of his estate to the Church and the poor. Who would not say that this Pharisee was a righteous man? Yet it was not he who went home justified, but the tax collector. Yes, this virtuous Pharisee ruined all his virtues by praising himself and demeaning his neighbor.

Holy Martyr Tryphon in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Tryphon was from the village of Lampsacus in the province of Phrygia, during the reign of Gordian, in the two hundred and ninety-fifth year since the reign of Augustus. While he was still very young and engaged in work suitable to his age (for he tended geese, as they say), he was filled with the Holy Spirit and healed every disease and also cast out demons. He even healed the daughter of the emperor, who was possessed by a demon. In this case it is said that the Saint pointed out the demon to those present in the form of a black dog, proclaiming its evil deeds, and that by this miracle he led many to faith in Christ. 

In the time of the emperor Decius, who succeeded Philip, the ruler after Gordian, he was accused before Aquilinus, the prefect of the East, of telling people not to worship demons. He was brought before him to Nicaea, and because he confessed the name of Christ, he was first beaten with swords. Then they bound him to horses and dragged him, in the winter season, through rough and inaccessible places. After this, they dragged him naked over iron spikes. Moreover, they flogged him and burned his sides with flaming torches; and finally they decided to kill him with the sword, which they did not manage to do, for he had already surrendered his spirit to God. 

Prologue in Sermons: February 1

Simplicity of Faith, Combined with Almsgiving, Works Miracles

February 1

(A Homily on Saint Benedict, How He Redeemed a Poor Man by Asking God for Gold.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Simplicity of faith, both in itself and especially when joined with almsgiving, works miracles. Of this we are convinced both by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Fathers. The Lord teaches about simplicity of faith: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, and say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you" (Matt. 17:20). And Saint John Chrysostom says of almsgiving that it possesses “a greater grace than raising the dead.” Is this true, my brothers? Yes, it is truly so, and there should be no doubt about it.

There was, says the Church tradition, in the land of Rome a monk and glorious wonderworker named Benedict, who even raised the dead. He was exceedingly merciful and generous to everyone who asked of him. By his kindness, he was a father to many monasteries and a perfect non-possessor. Because of the alms he distributed so generously, the brethren of his monastery often endured extreme need, and there were days when neither in his own monastery nor in all the other monasteries to which he gave charity could even a single gold coin be found.