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Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 |
Source: Orthodox Johannesburg
Repentance, we are told, is the beginning and the condition of a truly Christian life. But what is "repentance" ? There must be a reason why the Church has set apart a special season for repentance and why we are called to a long and sustained spiritual effect.
All this certainly must concern us, our faith, our life, and our membership in the Church. Is it not then our first duty to try and understand the teachings of our Church regarding this, to try and be Orthodox not only in name, but also in practice?
Before the actual beginning of Great Lent, the Church announces its approach and invites us to enter into a period of preparation.
The Church, knowing our inability to change rapidly from one state to another, calls us to meditate on the significance of Lent before it actually arrives. This preparation includes a set of consecutive Sundays, each with a Gospel lesson, dedicated to a fundamental aspect of repentance.
The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee develops the theme of humility.
We are presented with a man who is pleased with himself and thinks that he complies with all the requirements of his religion. In reality, however, he has falsified the meaning of religion. He has reduced it to external observations. The Publican, on the other hand humbles himself. His humility justifies him before God.
If there is a moral quality that is today disregarded or even denied, it is indeed humility. The culture and society in which we live constantly instils in us a sense of pride, self-glorification and self-righteousness. They are built on the assumption that man can achieve anything. Humility - be it individual, corporate or national - is viewed a sign of weakness.
In our mentality we tend to oppose glory and humility because we have identified humility with deficiency or weakness. Our ignorance, our incompetence, ought to make us feel humble. It seems almost impossible to "put across" to modern man, fed on publicity, self - affirmation and endless self - praise, that all which is genuinely perfect, beautiful and good, is at the same time naturally humble. Precisely because it is perfect and good, it does not need "publicity" and external glory of any kind.
How does one become humble? The answer for us is simple: by contemplating Christ, the divine humility incarnate - the One in whom God has revealed once and for all, His glory as humility and His humility as glory.
The Pharisee shows us that even religion becomes a source of pride in human achievements, another form of self - righteousness, if it is not centered on Christ and His humility.
The Triodion period begins with a quest, a prayer for humility, which is the beginning of true repentance. Repentance above all, is a return to the genuine order of things, the restoration of the right vision - the recreating of the original beauty.
We are at the "gates of repentance" and during the Orthros service we sang the troparia that will accompany us throughout the Triodion.
"Open to me the gates of repentance, o Giver of life, for my spirit rises early to pray towards Thy holy temple, bearing the Temple of my body all defiled; but in Thy compassion purify me by the loving kindness of Thy mercy"
Let us approach God in all humility, that like the Publican, we too may be justified in His sight.
Please also read:
Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee by Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov
