SUNDAY OF THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE — Tone 5. Beginning of the Lenten Triodion. St. Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople (806).
Tone 5 Troparion (Resurrection)
Let us, the faithful, praise and worship the Word, co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, born for our salvation from the Virgin; for He willed to be lifted up on the Cross in the flesh, to endure death, and to raise the dead// by His glorious Resurrection.
Tone 4 Troparion (St. Nicholas)
The truth of your deeds has revealed you to your flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of self-control; your humility exalted you; your poverty enriched you.// O Father Bishop Nicholas, pray to Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Tone 3 Kontakion (St. Nicholas)
You proved yourself to be be a holy priest, O Nicholas. You served God in Myra and lived the gospel of Christ. You offered your life for your people, And rescued the innocent from death. Therefore God has glorified you as a trustworthy guide of things divine.
Tone 3 Kontakion (from the Lenten Triodion)
Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee! Let us learn humility from the Publican’s tears! Let us cry to our Savior: “Have mercy on us,// O only merciful One!”
Tone 5 Prokeimenon (Resurrection)
You, O Lord, shall protect us / and preserve us from this generation forever. (Ps. 11:7)
V. Save me, O Lord, for there is no longer any that is godly! (Ps. 11:1a)
1 Timothy 3:10-15 (Epistle)
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra – what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Tone 5
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
V. I will sing of Your mercies, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim Your truth from generation to generation. (Ps. 88:1-2)
V. For You have said: Mercy will be established forever; Your truth will be prepared in the heavens. (Ps. 88:3)
Luke 18:10-14 (Gospel)
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee Beginning of the Lenten Triodion
The Sunday after the Sunday of Zacchaeus is devoted to the Publican and the Pharisee. At Vespers the night before, the Triodion (the liturgical book used in the services of Great Lent) begins.
Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee who scrupulously observed the requirements of religion: he prayed, fasted, and contributed money to the Temple. These are very good things, and should be imitated by anyone who loves God. We who may not fulfill these requirements as well as the Pharisee did should not feel entitled to criticize him for being faithful. His sin was in looking down on the Publican and feeling justified because of his external religious observances.
The second man was a Publican, a tax-collector who was despised by the people. He, however, displayed humility, and this humility justified him before God (Luke 18:14).
The lesson to be learned is that we possess neither the Pharisee’s religious piety, nor the Publican’s repentance, through which we can be saved. We are called to see ourselves as we really are in the light of Christ’s teaching, asking Him to be merciful to us, deliver us from sin, and to lead us on the path of salvation.
Two weeks before the beginning of the Fast, as part of our preparation for Great Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha, the Church prescribes the reading of Saint Mark’s Gospel. From Monday to Friday the focus is on the end times, and the Savior’s death and burial.
Saint Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople
Saint Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople was of illustrious lineage. He was born and raised in Constantinople, where he received a fine education. He was rapidly promoted at the court of the emperor Constantine VI Porphyrogenitos (780-797) and Constantine’s mother, the holy Empress Irene (August 7), and the saint attained the rank of senator.
During these times the Church was agitated by the turmoil of the Iconoclast disturbances. The holy Patriarch Paul (August 30) although he had formerly supported Iconoclasm, later repented and resigned his office. He withdrew to a monastery, where he took the schema. When the holy Empress Irene and her son the emperor came to him, Saint Paul told them that the most worthy successor to him would be Saint Tarasius (who at this time was still a layman).
Tarasius refused for a long time, not considering himself worthy of such high office, but he then gave in to the common accord on the condition, that an Ecumenical Council be convened to address the Iconoclast heresy.
Proceeding through all the clerical ranks in a short while, Saint Tarasius was elevated to the patriarchal throne in the year 784. In the year 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Council was convened in the city of Nicea, with Patriarch Tarasius presiding, and 367 bishops attending. The veneration of holy icons was confirmed at the council. Those bishops who repented of their iconoclasm, were again received by the Church.
Saint Tarasius wisely governed the Church for twenty-two years. He led a strict ascetic life. He spent all his money on God-pleasing ends, feeding and giving comfort to the aged, to the impoverished, to widows and orphans, and on Holy Pascha he set out a meal for them, and he served them himself.
The holy Patriarch fearlessly denounced the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos when he slandered his spouse, the empress Maria, the granddaughter of Saint Philaretos the Merciful (December 1), so that he could send Maria to a monastery, thus freeing him to marry his own kinswoman. Saint Tarasius resolutely refused to dissolve the marriage of the emperor, for which the saint fell into disgrace. Soon, however, Constantine was deposed by his own mother, the Empress Irene.
Saint Tarasius died in the year 806. Before his death, devils examined his life from the time of his youth, and they tried to get the saint to admit to sins that he had not committed. “I am innocent of that of which you accuse me,” replied the saint, “and you falsely slander me. You have no power over me at all.”
Mourned by the Church, the saint was buried in a monastery he built on the Bosphorus. Many miracles took place at his tomb.
The Genuine Power and Truth of Humility
Luke 18:9-14
On the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, which marks the beginning of the Triodion, the Lord sets out by His word a pattern of salvation for us. He reveals the mindset the faithful must have in order to enter the arena without ‘tempting the Lord’ so that all their striving throughout Great Lent may not be in vain. In this blessed period, the Book of the Triodion is the best guide for all those who take their work of repentance seriously. Within the five verses of today’s Gospel reading, the Lord presents the paths men take before Him, but also makes Himself known as the God ‘Who shows mercy on us and saves us’, as the ‘Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort’,1 or as He Who ‘came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief ’,2 as the great Apostle Paul says, and along with him all who repent. Man’s entire life, from the moment he sees the light of day until he finally closes his eyes, is one continual presentation before God. For this reason, it becomes urgent for us to seek a pure voice in our prayer and entreaty, so that our presentation may be found well-pleasing before Him. The words of the Gospel express the compassion of God Who desires to show His creature, in every way, how to return to the ‘fatherland for which he longs’3 and from whence he was exiled. Through the transgression of the commandment, man was cast out of Paradise and since then he wanders ‘in darkness and the shadow of death’,4 famished and weak, far from the ‘house of his Father’. Life in the Church is this struggle to return, which was given to us as a possibility through the Lord’s coming in the flesh. He shows us the way, which is none other than the path of humility and descent. In his hatred against God and man, the enemy and author of every evil invented pride and foolishness, despair and unbelief, sloth and despondency. Nevertheless, virtue proves to be stronger than all the devices of the enemy, as it is sustained by gifts from on high and the invincible alliance of the Almighty Lord, Who hastens to strengthen those who labour to keep His commandments. Virtue does not only oppose evil, but it also amends and justifies through repentance and humility those who have fallen, as is shown in today’s Gospel.
Through the figures of the publican and the Pharisee, in the Gospel of the first Sunday of the Triodion, we see the implementation of the word of the Lord: ‘By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’ The publican had a past heavy with sin. Yet through the prayer, ‘God be merciful unto me a sinner,’ he was included in the choir of the just. Whereas the Pharisee, who supposedly worked righteousness, was condemned by his self-conceit, his contemptuous and arrogant speech.
In these two characters, the parable depicts two categories of people and two paths. One is the path of reason and human righteousness, which the Pharisee displays before God, but which is an abomination in His sight, as is all that is held in high esteem by this world that ‘lieth in wickedness’. The second path, as manifested in the attitude of the publican, is the path of the Lord Himself. He first humbled Himself ‘unto death, even the death of the Cross’, ‘He descended into the lower parts of the earth,’ but then ascended ‘on high’ where ‘He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men’. All those who follow Him, in awe at the mystery, curse their own righteousness, blaming themselves for all things and giving glory to God.
— Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou. At the Doors of Holy Lent. Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, Essex, UK.
Sunday Bulletin February 18, 2024