Homily for Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

“Open to me the doors of repentance, O Life Giver......” sings the Church today
prior to Liturgy for this first of our four Preparatory Sundays for Great Lent.
Indeed, this Sunday could be thought of as a door: a door through which we enter
the sacred period which leads us to Pascha; a door which opens into that
atmosphere of repentance, to that life of repentance which Lent should bring to
each one of us. But we must remember that the word “penitence” or “repentance”
is a translation of the Greek gospel term metanoia, and that this means “change of
spirit.” Much more is involved than the observance of some kind of outward
repentance: what is asked of us is a radical change, renewal, conversion.
The Gospel reading today Luke [18.10-14] is the well-know Parable of the Publican
and the Pharisee. The lesson to be learned is that we possess neither the Pharisee’s
religious piety, nor the Publican’s humility and repentance, through which we can
be saved. We are called to see ourselves as we really are in the light of Christ’s
teachings asking him to be merciful to us, deliver us from sin, and to lead us on the
path of salvation.
The Epistle reading is taken from the Second Letter of Saint Paul to his disciple
Timothy [3.10-15]. In it, Saint Paul exhorts Timothy, who from childhood has been

raised believing in Christ and in the Scriptures, not to be discouraged, and to
persevere with charity and patience.