In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Beloved, today we begin this Lenten journey and we prepare for the next three weeks. Today you have heard the beautiful song, "Open me the gates of repentance, O Giver of life." This is one of the most beautiful songs of the church during Lent, as the Church prepares us gradually to the fasting. Similarly, when we pray in the Divine Liturgy, the Church prepares us to deliver all earthly cares, because we are about to receive the King of all things.
For a Christian, all that life is a preparation. We work and we give ourselves the pain and we pray and we were married and raising children. All this is preparation. If we are faithful, then we go to heaven and see God's face. This life goes on, but for the life of the faithful in heaven is eternal. That is why the Church has organized this time period that is called repentance. This is a time to return to God, a time when it is transported from earth to heaven.
A person living in this Christian land and sentence because of his weakness and because of the weakness of this world. However, his heart yearns for what is beyond, something more beautiful and perfect. That is why we hear the Gospel and read it. We believe in the Lord Jesus who came to us, as the evangelist John says: "I am come that ye might have life and that you have it more abundantly (John 10:10)." He has prepared for us a better life than the miserable life we live today. We are comforted when we go to church and hear the Gospel. What does today's Gospel? He speaks of two men, one of which has been called a Pharisee and the other a publican.
From what people can see, the Pharisee was special and important, respected by people. He had knowledge and wealth and an important position. However, his guilt in respect of the Lord was not that he had learned his fault that he was proud of what he had. The other man was a publican, that is to say, a collector, he received the tithe. Today, in some Protestant heretics pay tithing. But this tax was stealing money, that is to say, he collected more than necessary and people considered him a thief. Despite this, he went to his knees and pray in the repent and he said: "O God forgive me, a sinner!" Therefore the Lord praised him and gave him reason. He preferred the Pharisee, for he said: "O God, forgive me a sinner!" That is to say he has confessed his sin.
person who has a noble value before God is that when she sins, confess his sin and does not hide it. It was the publican virtue, humility. Therefore the Lord Jesus said, and constantly tells us, these words of the Gospel that are the opposite of the spirit world: "He who humbles himself shall be exalted"
May God grant us in the fast coming to be humble, that He may bless us and lifts us towards the Kingdom of Heaven, Amen.
Version French Claude Lopez-Ginisty
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