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adulterers. Are all robbers except you, O Pharisee? are all unjust, while you alone happen to be just? are all adulterers, while the achievement of chastity belongs to you alone? I am not like the rest of men, robbers, unjust, adulterers; or even as this tax-collector. Now 59.597 the mind of the man began to grow wings; now it shakes the wing of the soul towards heaven. Why do you pull him down with the weight of your words, preventing his confession from flying up to the benevolent One? Why do you trample on the one who is down? Why do you pile wood upon his fire? Why do you accuse the one who unceasingly strikes his conscience? Or even as this tax-collector.

For what did you see the tax-collector doing, O man? Committing robbery? Plundering the labors of others? Seizing what belongs to others? Reaping what he did not sow? Gathering from where he did not scatter? Spreading his net for travelers? You have seen nothing of the sort, O Pharisee; but you see a pitiable form, worthy of mercy and help. For he lies on his face, he torments his breast as the workshop of evils, he does not dare to lift his eyes to heaven; perhaps he expects an accusation even from the stars themselves, or rather he thinks the multitude of his transgressions has been written in the firmament; from afar he has removed himself from the temple as if judged; he has cried out, "Have mercy," as one already being condemned. Have you not read what is written, "Do not provoke a man in his despair"? He is in despair, his thoughts have encircled him on all sides instead of a multitude of accusers; his conscience has used his right hand to scourge his breast; he has made himself his own executioner.

Does he not move you as he trembles? Does this one, bowing his face downward, not stir you to sympathy? Does it not soften your inhuman disposition, that he does not dare to look up to heaven? For when he was collecting taxes, you should have raised such cries against him; for then it was fitting for him to be reproached not only by you, but by everyone. But when he condemned his own evils, when, seeing the wounds of his soul, he ran to the physician who heals without a fee, when, remembering his transgressions, he fled to the Master who does not remember wrongs; do you then trample on him excessively, O Pharisee? Not even as this tax-collector. For are there not other tax-collectors, who have not yet come to love the sweet lament of repentance? If you have a great desire to accuse sinners, turn your tongue against those who are still entangled in the nets of avarice.

Towards this man, however, your ill-will is superfluous. For not only can you not harm the man, but you will also further provoke the Master, so that he will show his forgiveness more swiftly.

2. But the tax-collector, it says, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes

to the heavens; he himself certainly uttered the cry of Manasseh: I am not worthy to look up and see the height of heaven because of the multitude of my iniquities. For many were the evils then gathered in the soul of the tax-collector, an insatiable desire for money, a longing for injustice that accepts no limit, rapacity having no end; a tax-collector is an evil common to the nature of men, a lawful unjust man, an unaccusable robber, a fearless thief, a blameless bandit, an inescapable harm, a wolf of the rational sheep, a human-shaped beast. With so many evils the tax-collector went up to the temple. For when he had committed all these terrible things, and had made the burden of his transgressions heavy upon his soul, when finally his neck was broken, then he sought to be lightened of the weight, and he did not have the means to shake off the burden; then he had a swift thought, he found a form of freedom; for he remembered the voice of the Master crying out to sinners: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

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μοιχοί. Πάντες ἅρπαγες πλὴν σοῦ, Φαρισαῖε; πάντες ἄδικοι, σὺ δὲ μόνος τυγχάνεις δίκαιος; πάντες μοιχοὶ, σοὶ δὲ μόνῳ τὸ τῆς σωφροσύνης ὑπάρχει κατόρ θωμα; Οὐκ εἰμὶ ὡς οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἅρπα γες, ἄδικοι, μοιχοί· ἢ καὶ ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης. Νῦν 59.597 ἤρξατο πτεροφυεῖν ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διάνοια· νῦν τινάσ σει τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς οὐρανὸν τὸ πτερόν. Τί κατασπᾷς αὐτὸν τῇ τῶν ῥημάτων βαρύτητι, κωλύων ἀναπτῆναι τὴν ἐξομολόγησιν πρὸς τὸν φιλάνθρωπον; τί κατεπεμ βαίνεις τῷ κειμένῳ; τί ἐπιστοιβάζεις ἐπὶ τὸ πῦρ αὐτοῦ ξύλα; τί κατηγορεῖς τοῦ ἀνενδότως τύπτοντος τὴν συν είδησιν; Ἢ καὶ ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης.

Τί γὰρ εἶδες, ἄνθρωπε, τὸν τελώνην ποιοῦντα; λῃστεύοντα; τοὺς ἀλ λοτρίους πόνους συλῶντα; τὰ ἀλλότρια ληϊζόμενον; θερίζοντα, ἅπερ οὐκ ἔσπειρε; συνάγοντα, ὅθεν οὐ δι εσκόρπισεν; ἁπλοῦντα τοῖς ὁδοιπόροις τὸ δίκτυον; Οὐ δὲν τοιοῦτον τεθέασαι, ὦ Φαρισαῖε· ἀλλ' ὁρᾷς σχῆμα ἐλεεινὸν, οἴκτου καὶ βοηθείας ἄξιον. Κεῖται γὰρ ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, βασανίζει τὸ στῆθος ὡς τῶν κακῶν ἐργα στήριον, ἐπᾶραι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς πρὸς οὐρανὸν οὐ τολ μᾷ· τάχα καὶ παρ' αὐτῶν τῶν ἀστέρων κατηγορίαν ἐκδέχεται, ἢ μᾶλλον νομίζει τῶν πλημμελημάτων τὸ πλῆθος γεγράφθαι ἐν τῷ στερεώματι· πόῤῥωθεν ἑαυτὸν ὡσεὶ δικασθεὶς τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἀπέστησε· τὸ, Ἐλέησον, κέ κραγεν ὡς ἤδη καταδικαζόμενος. Οὐκ ἀνέγνως τὸ γε γραμμένον, ὅτι Μὴ παροργίσῃς ἄνδρα ἐν ἀπορίᾳ αὐ τοῦ; Ἄπορός ἐστι, πανταχόθεν ἐκύκλωσαν αὐτὸν οἱ λογισμοὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν κατηγόρων· ἐχρήσατο τῇ δεξιᾷ ἡ συνείδησις κατὰ τοῦ στήθους μαστιζούσῃ· καθ' ἑαυτοῦ ἀπειργάσατο δήμιον.

Οὐκ ἐπικάμπτει σε τρέμων; οὐκ ἐρεθίζει σε πρὸς συμπάθειαν οὗτος κάτω νεύων τὸ πρόσωπον; οὐ μαλάσσει σου τὴν ἀπάνθρωπον γνώμην, μὴ τολμῶν πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἀναβλέψαι; Ὅτε μὲν γὰρ ἐτελώνει, ἐχρῆν σε τὰς τοιαύτας κατ' αὐτοῦ ἀνα βοῆσαι φωνάς· πρέπον γὰρ αὐτῷ τότε οὐ μόνον παρὰ σοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ παντὸς ὀνειδίζεσθαι. Ὅτε μέντοι τῶν οἰκείων κατέγνω κακῶν, ὅτε θεωρήσας τὰ τραύματα τῆς ψυχῆς, ἔδραμε πρὸς τὸν ἰατρὸν τὸν ἀμισθὶ θερα πεύοντα, ὅτε τῶν πλημμελημάτων μνημονεύσας τῷ ἀμνησικάκῳ ∆εσπότῃ προσέφυγε· τότε περισσῶς αὐτῷ κατεπεμβαίνεις, ὦ Φαρισαῖε; Οὔτε ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης. Μὴ γὰρ οὐκ εἰσὶν ἄλλοι τελῶναι, μήπω τὸν γλυκὺν τῆς μετανοίας ἀγαπήσαντες θρῆνον; Εἰ πόθος σοι πολὺς κατηγορεῖν ἁμαρτωλῶν, ἐπ' ἐκείνους στρέψον τὴν σὴν γλῶσσαν, τοὺς ἔτι τοῖς δικτύοις τῆς πλεονεξίας ἐνειλημένους.

Πρὸς τοῦτον μέντοι περιττή σου ἡ δυσμέ νεια. Οὐ μόνον γὰρ τὸν ἄνθρωπον βλάψαι οὐ δύνασαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ πλέον ἐρεθιεῖς τὸν ∆εσπότην, ὥστε συντομω τέραν ἐπιδείξασθαι τὴν συγχώρησιν.

βʹ. Ὁ δὲ τελώνης, φησὶ, μακρόθεν ἑστὼς, οὐκ ἤθε λεν οὐδὲ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς

εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἐπᾶραι· τὴν τοῦ Μανασσῆ πάντως καὶ αὐτὸς φωνὴν ἀπεφθέγξατο· Οὐκ εἰμὶ ἄξιος ἀτενίσαι καὶ ἰδεῖν τὸ ὕψος τοῦ οὐρα νοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν ἀδικιῶν μου. Πολλὰ γὰρ ἦν τότε ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ τοῦ τελώνου συνειλεγμένα κακὰ, ἐπιθυμία χρημάτων ἀκόρεστος, πόθος ἀδικίας μὴ δεχό μενος πέρας, ἁρπαγὴ τέλος οὐκ ἔχουσα· κοινὸν τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων τελώνης κακὸν, νόμιμος ἄδικος, ἅρπαξ ἀκατηγόρητος, ἄφοβος κλέπτης, λῃστὴς ἀνέγκλη τος, δύσφευκτος βλάβη, λύκος τῶν λογικῶν προβάτων, θηρίον ἀνθρωπόμορφον. Μετὰ τοσούτων ἀνῆλθεν ὁ τε λώνης εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν κακῶν. Ὅτε γὰρ πάντα ταῦτα εἰργά σατο τὰ δεινὰ, καὶ βαρὺ κατεσκεύασε τὸ τῶν πλημμε λημάτων φορτίον τῇ ψυχῇ, ὅτε λοιπὸν τὸν αὐχένα κατ έκλασε, τότε ἐζήτει τοῦ βάρους ἐλαφρυνθῆναι, καὶ οὐκ εἶχε τὸ πῶς τὸ φορτίον ἀποτινάξεται· εἶτα γοργὴν ἔσχεν ἔννοιαν, εὗρεν εἶδος ἐλευθερίας· ἐμνημόνευσε γὰρ τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ ∆εσπότου πρὸς τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ἐκβοώσης· ∆εῦτε πρός με, πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμέ νοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς.