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the publican the saying of wisdom: 62.727 There is a shame that brings on sin. This he pursued in the life of ingratitude.

And there is a shame which is glory and grace. This he attained through the way of repentance, healing opposites by their opposites through faith. Imitating a physician, he places a poultice opposite to the body, corroding the flesh, but cleansing the wound, so that when the living body is revealed, he might recognize the instrument of healing. The channels of pleasures, using his groaning as if a red-hot iron, he stanched, and the swelling wound of passion he soothed with tears and healed, and dressing the opening of the wound through the beating of his hands, he caused it to scar over, and the flow streaming into the soul from the body he dried up, and presented it clean through repentance to the one who formed it.

But let us also hear the remaining words of the Pharisee: I fast twice in the week. He indicates continence on Wednesday and Friday. Now the Sabbath is a rest for the Hebrews. I abstain from various foods; I do not defile my lips with an unclean taste, I am entirely clothed in continence, I am entirely dressed in holiness; and further, of what I possess I offer the tithes to God. O pride breathing insensibility! I fast twice in the week. Is he not disposed as if bestowing his rations on God? I fast twice in the week. Lord, he says, does not my fast provide to God the commandments of the law? And what men have achieved with labor, this I do with purpose? What then of the man-loving judge, the honor-loving giver of prizes for the course of repentance? He bore with the boasting Pharisee, and He was delighted with the repenting publican. But since the one with his words, like violent winds, shook off the fruit of his soul, while the other, having crushed himself, did not wait for another accuser, He assigned to each what was according to 62.728 his worth. For the publican, having become his own accuser, He set free from condemnation; but the Pharisee, who set forth his achievements, He declared poorer than the publican. For both, their manner: for the one, wealth was the cause of poverty; for the other, from wealth a slip into poverty.

For what does the Master say? Truly I say to you, this man went down to his house justified rather than that one. Oh how evil is the sickness of pride! The Pharisee went up adorned, crowned with his achievements as with flowers; with him went the publican, stripped of all defense. The one, readily humbling himself, was exalted; but the other, having hurled himself to an untimely height, endured a laughable stripping. Would it not have been better to use more subdued words? Would it not have been greater to hear the prophetic voice saying: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you? Was it not more advantageous to restrain the tongue, and to guard the wealth which he had acquired with many labors? For the virtues which he gathered over time, he scattered with his voice. Did the Pharisee perhaps not hear what is written, that Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord? Was he not taught the well-spoken word: What your right hand does, let not your left hand know? But perhaps he knew both, but the power of vainglory conquered.

Let us therefore acquire the humility of the publican, and push away the weight of our sins; and let us hate pride, through which the Pharisee lost the wealth of his virtues; For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. To Him be the glory and the power, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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τελώνης τὸ τῆς σοφίας ῥητόν· 62.727 Ἔστιν αἰσχύνη ἐπάγουσα ἁμαρτίαν. Ταύτην μετῆλ θεν ἐν τῷ τῆς ἀγνωμοσύνης βίῳ.

Καὶ ἔστιν αἰσχύνη δόξα καὶ χάρις. Ταύτην ἐπῆλθε διὰ τοῦ τῆς μετανοίας τρόπου, ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων τὰ ἐναντία διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἰασάμενος. Μιμησάμενος ἰατρὸν, ἔμπλαστρον τίθησιν ἐναντίον τῷ σώματι, τὴν μὲν σάρκα ἐκτρῶγον, τὸ δὲ ἕλκος καθαῖρον, ἵνα ἀποκαλυφθέντος τοῦ ζωτικοῦ σώμα τος, ἐπιγνῷ τὸ τῆς θεραπείας μηχάνημα. Τοὺς ὀχετοὺς τῶν ἡδονῶν, οἷον καυστῆρι σιδηρῷ τῷ στεναγμῷ χρησά μενος, ἀπεστόμωσε, καὶ τὸ διοιδαῖνον τοῦ πάθους ἕλκος τοῖς δάκρυσι πραΰνας ἐθεράπευσε, καὶ τὴν ὀπὴν τοῦ ἕλκους μοτώσας διὰ τῆς τῶν χειρῶν πλήξεως ἀπούλωσε, καὶ τὸ ἐπιῤῥέον τῇ ψυχῇ ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ῥεῦμα ἐστεί ρωσε, καὶ καθαρὰν ταύτην διὰ τῆς μετανοίας τῷ πλά σαντι προσήγαγεν.

Ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ῥημάτων τοῦ Φαρισαίου ἀκούσωμεν· Νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ Σαβ βάτου. ∆ηλοῖ τετράδος καὶ παρασκευῆς τὴν ἐγκράτειαν. Τὰ δὲ Σάββατα ἀνάπαυσίς ἐστι τοῖς Ἑβραίοις. Ἀπέχωτῶν διαφόρων βρωμάτων· οὐ ῥυπῶ μου τὰ χείλη ἀκα θάρτῳ γεύσει, ὅλως ἐγκράτειαν περιβέβλημαι, ὅλως ἁγιωσύνην ἠμφίεσμαι· ἔτι δὲ καὶ ὧν κτῶμαι τὰς δεκάτας τῷ Θεῷ προσκομίζω. Ὢ τῦφος ἀναισθησίας ἀναπνέων! Νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ Σαββατοῦ. Οὐ διάκειται, ὡς τὰ σιτηρέσια αὐτοῦ τῷ Θεῷ χαριζόμενος; Νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ Σαββάτου. Κύριε, μὴ νηστεία, φησὶ, τῷ Θεῷ παρ έχει τὰ τοῦ νόμου ἐντάλματα; καὶ ὃ οἱ ἄνθρωποι κόπῳ κατώρθωσαν, τοῦτο ἐγὼ προθέσει ποιῶ; Τί οὖν ὁ φιλάν θρωπος δικαστὴς, ὁ φιλότιμος ἀγωνοθέτης τὸν τῆς μετανοίας δρόμον; Καὶ τοῦ Φαρισαίου μεγαλαυχοῦντος ἠνείχετο, καὶ τοῦ τελώνου μετανοοῦντος ἐτέρπετο. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὁ μὲν τοῖς ῥήμασιν, ὥσπερ ἀνέμοις σφοδροῖς, τῆς ψυχῆς τὸν καρπὸν ἀπετίναξεν, ὁ δὲ συντρίψας ἑαυτὸν οὐκ ἐξεδέχετο ἄλλον κατήγορον, ἑκάστῳ τὸ πρὸς 62.728 τὴν ἀξίαν ἀπένειμε. Τὸν μὲν γὰρ τελώνην ἑαυτοῦ γεγενημένον κατήγορον, ἐλεύθερον ἀφῆκε τῆς κατα κρίσεως· τὸν δὲ Φαρισαῖον εἰς μέσον προθέντα τὰ κατορθώματα, πενέστερον τοῦ τελώνου ἀπέφηνεν. Ἀμφοτέροις ὁ τρόπος· τῷ μὲν ὑπόθεσις πενίας ὁ πλοῦτος, τῷ δὲ ἐκ πλούτου πενίας ὀλίσθημα.

Τί γάρ φησιν ὁ ∆εσπότης; Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, κατέβη οὗτος δεδικαιωμένος εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ, ἤπερ ἐκεῖνος. Ὢ πῶς κακὸν τῆς ὑπερηφανίας τὸ νόσημα! Κατάκομος ἀνῆλθεν ὁ Φαρισαῖος, ὥσπερ ἄνθεσι, τοῖς κατορ θώμασι στεφανούμενος· συνώδευσε τούτῳ ὁ τελώνης πάσης ἀπολογίας γυμνός. Ἄλλος μὲν εὐχερῶς ἑαυτὸν ταπεινώσας ὑψώθη· ὁ δὲ πρὸς ἄκαιρον ὕψος ἀκοντίσας ἑαυτὸν, καταγέλαστον ὑπέμεινε γύμνωσιν. Οὐκ ἦν βέλτιον ὑφειμέναις χρήσασθαι ταῖς φωναῖς; οὐκ ἦν κρεῖττον ἀκοῦσαι τῆς προφητικῆς φωνῆς λεγούσης· Ταπεινώθητε ἐνώπιον Κυρίου, καὶ ὑψώσει ὑμᾶς; οὐκ ἦν μᾶλλον κρατῆσαι τῆς γλώσσης συμφέρον, καὶ φυλάξαι τὸν πλοῦτον, ὃν πόνοις πολλοῖς ἐκτήσατο; Ἃς γὰρ ἐν χρόνῳ συνήγαγεν ἀρετὰς, τῇ φωνῇ διεσκόρπισεν. Οὐκ ἤκουσε τάχα ὁ Φαρισαῖος τὸ γεγραμμένον, ὅτι Ἀκάθαρτος ἐναντίον Κυρίου πᾶς ὑψηλοκάρδιος; οὐκ ἐδιδάχθη τὸ καλῶς εἰρημένον· Ὃ ποιεῖ ἡ δεξιά σου, μὴ γνῷ ἡ ἀριστερά σου. Τάχα δὲ ἐγίνωσκεν ἀμφότερα, ἀλλ' ἡ ἰσχὺς τῆς κενοδοξίας ἐνίκησεν.

Ἡμεῖς οὖν τοῦ τελώνου τὴν ταπείνωσιν κτησώμεθα, καὶ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τὸ βάρος ἀπωσώμεθα· ὑπερηφανίαν δὲ μισήσωμεν, δι' ἧς ὁ Φαρισαῖος τὸν πλοῦτον τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀπώλεσεν· Ὑπερηφάνοις γὰρ Κύριος ἀντιτάσσεται, ταπεινοῖς δὲ δίδωσι χάριν. Αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.