Publicans Herald Lent

My favorite time of year is fast approaching. Christmas, which was just a few weeks ago, was much fun but Lent is my favorite time of year. This might seem like a strange thing to say, but I like Lent even more than Pascha. Pascha celebrates what happened and what will be. But Lent, it seems to me, meets me where I live today. I am not saying the power of Pascha isn't evident about us. I know I would get no benefit from Lent if Jesus was still in the tomb. His Resurrection is what gives us the ability to go through Lent finding more life in it each day. If it were not for the Resurrection, Lent would benefit us nothing. We'd be like the Stoics, or the Hindu hermits in the high Himalayas. (How was that alliteration?)

Anyway, last week and this week I've been thinking about Publicans. The historian Philo wrote of the publicans:

"They [Romans] deliberately choose as tax collectors men who are absolutely ruthless and savage, and give them the means of satisfying their greed. These people who are mischief-makers by nature, gain added immunity because of their "superior orders," obsequious in everything where their masters are concerned, leave undone no cruelty of any kind and recognize no equity or gentleness . . . as they collect the taxes they spread confusion and chaos everywhere. They exact money not only from people's property but also from their bodies by means of personal injuries, assault and completely unheard of forms of torture." [Philo, De Specialibus Legibus 2.19 (93-95) (trans. Maxwell-Stuart, supra note 35 at 160)]

Last week and this week we heard about publicans. And this means Lent is almost here. It started last week when Fr. David preached about Zacchaeus. In talking about the passage he reminded us that both Zacchaeus and Matthew were Roman publicans. What Fr. David pointed out was that the responses of the two men to Jesus were different: St. Matthew abandoned his position (which was a capital offense) while Zacchaeus remained in it, pledging to repay 4 times all he had over collected. Jesus accepted both.

Today, on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee we were reminded to ask God for mercy and not try to impress him by keeping rules; He's not impressed. He wants us to be like Zacchaeus and Matthew and the unnamed publican in today's Gospel reading, not offering defenses but admitting guilt and leaving sin behind.