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let us strip off high-mindedness, the mother of sin, and let us embrace moderation, the mother of repentance.

Let us cast off the old man with his deeds, and let us put on the new one with his deeds and with his grace; let us groan from the depth of the heart, praying, so that we may drive away the depth of the furnace of Gehenna, our enemy. For when you groan, he is struck; when you strike your breast, he is wounded; when you receive the blows, he receives the slaughters. For indeed the publican, by striking his breast, struck back at the Pharisee, and reproved the thought in him that worked the delusion of arrogance. For the Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed, saying: God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican; I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

O Pharisee, you have emptied out your reward through your boasting! For this reason you received a vote of condemnation. You say: I am not like the rest of men. He was a man according to nature and God's creation, but irrational according to his partaking of arrogance; a man as having the image, but a beast as possessing boastfulness. For he set himself outside of human nature, he legislated another creation for his own body, he styled himself to be higher than earthly things, he supposed himself greater than any prophet or patriarch. Did you not then remember, O Pharisee, the boast of Elijah who boasted the same things, although not out of conceit but from divine zeal, when he said: Lord, they have killed your prophets, and torn down your altars, and I alone am left? And what was the divine reply to him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

What then? When all had transgressed, there were seven thousand who had divine zeal and were equal to the prophet, and you cry out, I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers? Has then no one under heaven escaped the defilement of greed? Does then no one embrace moderation, O Pharisee? You condemn yourself, you who are condemned by all; you approve of yourself, you who are disapproved by God; you crown yourself through boasting, but you have lost your crown through condemnation; you praise yourself as sinless, but you were shown to be liable for sin; you set yourself up on a pillar as one having fulfilled the law, but by touching the law you have insulted the lawgiver. You cried out your good deeds before all; you have changed them into transgressions. The publican, crying out in silence, moved God the Word to pity, whom you by crying out provoked against yourself. Were you not ashamed to say: I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as the publican, who is defiled by sins, who is sullied with debaucheries, who has profaned the holy place by his entrance, who unworthily prays with me, the worker of all iniquity. But the name is sufficient for a testimony of his own state; for he is a publican, paying to sin the works of wickedness.

These things, even if not written in these very words in the immaculate Gospels, yet still the aim of pride preserves this manner. O Pharisee, you were displeased with the things of the publican, but Christ was well pleased in the publican; you despised him to your own detriment, but Christ crowned him before all. Christ was pleased with the repentance of the publican, seeing shame intertwined in him, and a groan from the depth of his heart being sent up immediately to heaven, and flowing tears; Christ was pleased, or rather He revered the publican, who by his shame had shaken off shame. Well did the ... adapt for himself

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ἁμαρτίας μητέρα ἀποδυ σώμεθα τὴν ὑψηλοφροσύνην, καὶ τὴν τῆς μετανοίας μητέρα περιπλεξώμεθα τὴν σωφροσύνην.

Ἀποβαλώ μεθα τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ περιβαλώμεθα τὸν νέον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τῇ χάριτι αὐτοῦ· στενάξωμεν ἐκ βάθους καρδίας προσευχόμενοι, ἵνα διώξωμεν τὸ βάθος τῆς καμίνου τῆς γεέννης τὸν ἐχθρὸν ἡμῶν. Σοῦ γὰρ στενάξαντος, ἐκεῖνος πλήττεται· σοῦ τὸ στῆθος πλήττοντος, ἐκεῖνος τραυματίζεται· σοῦ τὰς πληγὰς λαμβάνοντος ἐκεῖ νος τὰς σφαγὰς ὑποδέχεται. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ τελώνης πλήττων τὸ στῆθος τὸν Φαρισαῖον ἀντέπληξε, καὶ τὸν ἐν αὐτῷ λογισμὸν τὸν ἐνεργοῦντα τῆς ὑπερηφανίας τὸν τῦφον ἤλεγξεν. Ὁ γὰρ Φαρισαῖος σταθεὶς καθ' ἑαυτὸν προσηύχετο λέγων· Ὁ Θεὸς, εὐχαριστῶ σοι, ὅτι οὐκ εἰμὶ ὥσπερ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἅρπαγες, ἄδι κοι, μοιχοὶ, ἢ καὶ ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης· νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ Σαββάτου, ἀποδεκατῶ πάντα ὅσα κτῶμαι.

Ὦ Φαρισαῖε, ἐκένωσάς σου τὸν μισθὸν διὰ τῆς καυχή σεως! διὰ τοῦτο ἐδέξω ψῆφον κατακρίσεως. Λέγεις· Οὐκ εἰμὶ ὥσπερ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Ἄνθρωπος μὲν ἦν κατὰ τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ διάπλασιν, ἄλογον δὲ κατὰ τὴν τῆς ὑπερηφανίας μετάληψιν· ἄν θρωπος μὲν ὡς ἔχων τὸ κατ' εἰκόνα, θηρίον δὲ ὡς κεκτημένος τὴν ἀλαζονείαν. Ἔξω γὰρ ἑαυτὸν διέθετο τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσεως, ἄλλην δημιουργίαν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ σώματι ἐνομοθέτησεν, ὑψηλότερον τῶν γηΐνων πραγμάτων εἶναι ἑαυτὸν ἐχρημάτιζε, μείζονα παντὸς προφήτου καὶ πατριάρχου ἑαυτὸν ὑπέλαβεν. Ἄρα οὐκ ἐμνήσθης, ὦ Φαρισαῖε, τῆς τοῦ Ἠλία καυχήσεως ταὐτὰ καυχωμένου, καίτοι οὐκ ἐξ οἰήσεως, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ θείου ζήλου, ὅτε εἶπε· Κύριε, τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτει ναν, καὶ τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου κατέσκαψαν, κἀγὼ ὑπελείφθην μόνος; Καὶ τί πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ χρηματι σμός; Κατέλιπον ἐμαυτῷ ἑπτακισχιλίους ἄνδρας, οἵτινες οὐκ ἔκαμψαν γόνυ τῷ Βαάλ.

Τί οὖν; πάντων παρανομησάντων, ἑπτακισχίλιοι ἦσαν οἱ τὸν θεῖον ζῆ λον ἔχοντες, καὶ τῷ προφήτῃ συνεξισούμενοι, καὶ σὺ βοᾷς, Οὐκ εἰμὶ ὥσπερ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἅρ παγες, ἄδικοι, μοιχοί; ἆρα οὐδεὶς διέφυγεν εἰς τὴν ὑπ' οὐρανὸν τῆς πλεονεξίας τὸ μύσος; ἆρα οὐδεὶς σω φροσύνην ἀσπάζεται, Φαρισαῖε; Ἑαυτὸν κατακρίνεις, ὁ ὑπὸ πάντων κατακρινόμενος· καθ' ἑαυτοῦ δοκιμάζεις, ὁ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποδοκιμαζόμενος· ἑαυτὸν στεφανοῖς διὰ τῆς καυχήσεως, ἀλλὰ ἀπώλεσάς σου τὸν στέφανον διὰ τῆς κατακρίσεως· ἑαυτὸν ἐπαινεῖς ὡς ἀναμάρτητον, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐδείχθης ὑπεύθυνος· ἑαυτὸν στηλι τεύεις ὡς τὸν νόμον πληρώσαντα, ἀλλ' ἁψάμενος τοῦ νόμου τὸν νομοθέτην ἐνύβρισας. Ἔκραξας ἐπὶ πάντων σου τὰ κατορθώματα· μετέβαλες αὐτὰ εἰς παραπτώ ματα. Ὁ τελώνης τῇ σιωπῇ βοήσας, τὸν Θεὸν Λόγον ἐδυσώπησεν, ὃν σὺ κράζων κατὰ σεαυτοῦ παρώξυνας. Οὐκ ἐνετράπης λέγων· Οὐκ εἰμὶ ὥσπερ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἅρπαγες, ἄδικοι, μοιχοὶ, ἢ καὶ ὡς ὁ τε λώνης, ὁ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις μεμιαμμένος, ὁ ταῖς ἀσω τίαις ἐμπεφυρμένος, ὁ τὸν ἱερὸν τόπον κοινώσας τῇ εἰσόδῳ, ὁ ἀναξίως σὺν ἐμοὶ προσευχόμενος, ὁ πάσης ἀνομίας ἐργάτης. Ἀρκεῖ δὲ τὸ ὄνομα πρὸς μαρτυρίαν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ καταστάσεως· ὑπάρχει γὰρ τελώνης, τελῶν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ τὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἔργα.

Ταῦτα εἰ καὶ μὴ αὐ ταῖς ταῖς λέξεσιν ἐν τοῖς ἀχράντοις Εὐαγγελίοις ἐγγέ γραπται, ἀλλ' οὖν γε ὁ σκοπὸς τῆς ὑπερηφανίας τοῦ τον ἀποσώζει τὸν τρόπον. Ὦ Φαρισαῖε, σὺ μὲν ἀπευ δόκησας τὰ τοῦ τελώνου, ὁ δὲ Χριστὸς ηὐδόκησεν ἐν τῷ τελώνῃ· σὺ κατὰ σεαυτοῦ ἐκεῖνον ἐξουδένωσας, ὁ δὲ Χριστὸς αὐτὸν ἐπὶ πάντων ἐστεφάνωσεν. Ἠρέσθη Χριστὸς σὺν τῇ μετανοίᾳ τοῦ τελώνου θεωρήσας αἰσχύνην συμπεπλεγμένην ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ στεναγμὸν ἐκ βάθους καρδίας εἰς οὐρανὸν εὐθέως ἀναπεμπόμενον, καὶ βαδί ζοντα δάκρυα· ἠρέσθη Χριστὸς, μᾶλλον ᾐδέσθη τὸν τελώνην, τῇ αἰσχύνῃ τὴν αἰσχύνην ἀποτιναξάμενον. Καλῶς ἡρμόσατο ἑαυτῷ ὁ