Saint Paul teaches us today about delivering to others what has been received. The gift of the Gospel brings with it the responsibility to proclaim the Gospel to others. We are to deliver to others what we have received: we have received the innumerable blessings of the Gospel and we are to deliver the Gospel to others around us that they will likewise be blessed. Life in Christ crucified and risen is the Gospel, and as Paul received this Gospel and shared it with others unfailingly, we are to be so filled with the light of Christ that others partake in this same Life in Christ crucified and risen. We see that Paul was able to spread the Gospel, despite his sinful background. The same applies for Saint Mary Magdalene, a woman filled with seven demons before she met Christ and through Him was purged of her demons: she was so able to share the Gospel of the risen Christ that she is known as an apostle to the apostles. Saint Peter denied Christ three times, yet became the leader of the apostles proclaiming Christ crucified and risen to many lands.

Yet today a great many Christians do not do this. I wonder if it is the case that, despite good intentions, many Christians are unable to do so. What might hold us back? Something certainly is. Something keeps us from sharing with others the Gospel light of Christ which we have received. The spiritual literature and wisdom of the Church over 20 centuries indicates that what holds Christians back from speaking the truth about Christ in public are hangups that derive from personal sin. And the primary sin is pride. Perhaps it is something within us, some kind of pride, that we must overcome in order to share the Gospel with others. Something about pride, and therefore something as well about humility.

To begin, let us reflect on our Gospel passage. Our Lord Jesus Christ is an incredible storyteller. That is something about Him that is not always appreciated. And we see His profound storytelling preeminently in the parables He tells. The parable we hear today is that of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. We are well familiar with this parable, as it is for us front and center during the season of Lent. And I want us to reflect on the parable again and do so along with the teaching from In the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector, we hear of the Pharisee who compares himself to others and finds himself best. In the words of Jesus at the end of the Parable, the Pharisee is the person who exalts himself. The Pharisee judges others and gives himself the prize. The Pharisee is the image of pride.

Our Lord Jesus also presents to us the Tax Collector. The Tax Collector does not even raise his eyes to heaven, and only says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He judges no one except himself, and again in the words of Jesus, the Tax Collector is he who humbles himself. “Everyone,” Jesus Christ says, “who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The Tax Collector is the image of humility.

As we consider this parable, and think about our own lives, we are drawn to say that I will aim to be like the Tax Collector, and indeed this is what Jesus expects of us. We are to seek to imitate the Tax Collector and in all things regard ourselves with deep humility. Yet as we consider this parable, we might also be drawn to say, “and I will not be like the Pharisee. I will not imitate him. He is not worthy to be imitated.” And while it is understandable to think this way, notice the holy trap our Lord laid for us: in trying to not be like the Pharisee, we in fact are imitating him, because as the Pharisee looked at the Tax Collector and judged himself better than him, if we regard the Pharisee as a person inferior, we are actually imitating the Pharisee, even as we deride him. In seeking to be like the image of humility, we can do this because of pride, a subtle secret pride.

And here is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to Christians proclaiming the Gospel. We are told by Saint Paul to have the fragrance of holiness. In 2 Corinthians 2:14, Paul teaches: “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” Holiness is prerequisite to proclaiming the Gospel. When we are in Christ, members of His Body the Church, God through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere. Holy lives are lives of humility. Without humility, we are not able to be holy. Paul is clear in Hebrews 12: “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Without holiness, we cannot see the Lord. Without seeing the Lord, we cannot share Him with others. And what prevents seeing the Lord, is our blindness. And what makes us blind is sin.

I think what keeps Christians from sharing the Gospel with their neighbors is this kind of pride, the subtle pride of striving outwardly to be like the Tax Collector while secretly thinking ourselves to be special, with a quietly high estimation of ourselves. For us to be able to pass on the Gospel to others, for us to fulfill Christ’s commandment to proclaim the Gospel in our lives to others, we must show ourselves objects of His mercy and pity; and that must be by a very realistic estimation of ourselves. This means a constant sense of our sinfulness, our unworthiness; a constant sense of our need for a Savior, and a profound sense of the mystery of God, with knowledge and awareness of His perfect holiness: that Christ is wholly without sin, ever, even once. Our very life must be like a continual petition for mercy from Him Who is both perfect and Whose property is mercy. We must appeal to God without Whom we can do no good.

Let us not strive for the simple comfort of self-satisfaction seen in the Pharisee. Rather, what we need is that sorrow of the Tax Collector, which precedes true comfort. Let us recognize the spiritual warfare within ourselves, like that poor Tax Collector; warfare in which if we are to lead holy lives, we must earnestly contend with our worldly hearts and desires, spiritual warfare against the demons that live within all of us, including the demon of self-satisfaction; so that in waging the quiet and invisible warfare of the Tax Collector, like him we may long beyond all things for the peace of God; that like him, all we do is beat our breast in repentance and say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” It is that way of life which is true humility; it is that way of life God will truly exalt; it is that way of life that will truly give us the aroma of Christ, the fragrance of life Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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