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V Lent Wednesday – Proverbs 15:20 – 16:9
20 A wise son gladdens his father; but a foolish son sneers at his mother. 21 The ways of a foolish man are void of sense; but a wise man proceeds on his way aright. 22 They that honour not councils put off deliberation; but counsel abides in the hearts of counsellors. 23 A bad man will by no means attend to counsel; neither will he say anything seasonable, or good for the common weal. 24 The thoughts of the wise are ways of life, that he may turn aside and e scape from hell. 25 The Lord pulls down the houses of scorners; but he establishes the border of the widow. 26 An unrighteous thought is abomination to the Lord; but the sayings of the pure are held in honour. 27 A receiver of bribes destroys himself; but he that hates the receiving of bribes is safe. [By alms and by faithful dealings sins are purged away;] but by the fear of the Lord every one departs from evil. 28 The hearts of the righteous meditate faithfulness; but the mouth of the ungodly answers evil things. The ways of righteous men are acceptable with the Lord; and through them even enemies become friends. 29 God is far from the ungodly; but he hearkens to the prayers of the righteous. Better are small receipts with righteousness, than abundant fruits with unrighteousness. 16:1 Let the heart of a man think justly, that his steps may be rightly ordered of God. The eye that sees rightly rejoices the heart; and a good report fattens the bones. 31 32 He that rejects instruction hates himself; but he that minds reproofs loves his soul. 33 The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom; and the highest honour will correspond therewith. All the works of the humble man are manifest with God; but the ungodly shall perish in an evil day. 5 Every one that is proud in heart is unclean before God, and he that unjustly strikes hands with hand shall not be held guiltless. The beginning of a good way is to do justly; and it is more acceptable with God than to offer sacrifices. He that seeks the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness: and they that rightly seek him shall find peace. All of the works of the Lord are done with righteousness; and the ungodly man is kept for the evil day.
In chapter sixteen, verse five, we read, “Everyone that is proud in heart is unclean before God.” Usually we think of uncleanness – impurity – as being an attribute of carnal sins such as fornication and adultery. But in fact the most unclean sins are not these bodily sins; the most unclean sin is the most refined sin of the soul, the sin we have in common with the demons, who are bodiless yet most unclean. The most unclean sin is pride. St. John Chrysostom says this about it:
Nothing so estranges us from the mercy of God and gives over to the fire of hell as the tyranny of pride. If we possess this within us, all our life becomes impure, even if we practice chastity, virginity, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, or any virtue whatsoever. “Every proud man,” Scripture says, “ is an abomination to the Lord.” Therefore, let us check this puffing up of the soul, and let us cut out this tumor, if we wish to be pure and be rid of the punishment prepared for the devil. – Commentary on the Gospel according to St. John
God does not need our prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. He gives us these exercises in virtue to help us fulfill the commandment to love God and our neighbor, and to show true charity towards ourselves. By prayer we fulfill the commandment to love God. By almsgiving we fulfill the commandment to love our neighbor. By fasting, we show true charity towards ourselves by submitting that which is lower, the needs of the body, to that which is higher, the needs of the soul, thereby bringing our psychosomatic organism into right order, that order directed towards our true good, which is our eternal salvation.
All of these beautiful exercises, however, St. John says, will not do us any good, if we are proud, because by pride all of life becomes impure, no matter how virtuous our outward behavior may be. In saying this, of course, the saint is simply repeating the teaching of the Lord Himself in the Gospel, that He gave to us several Sundays ago when we began the Triodion by listening to His parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. This does not mean that we should stop doing these good works, but rather that we should ask the Lord to show us their true purpose, which is not to fortify our false opinion of ourselves but rather to reveal our weakness and utter dependence on the grace of God. If we really took our Lord’s words seriously, that we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, then we would realize that the greatest deeds of the greatest saints fall short of that perfection to which He commands us to aspire. St. Ignaty Brianchaninov puts it this way, in The Arena:
Never cease studying the Gospel till the end of your life. Do not think you know it enough, even if you know it by heart. The Lord’s commandments are “exceedingly broad” (Ps. 118:96), even though they are expressed in a few words. The Lord’s commandment is infinite, just as the Lord Who uttered it is infinite. The practice of the commandments and progress in them is unlimited. The most perfect Christians, brought to a state of perfection by divine grace, remain imperfect in regard to the commandments of the Gospel. – The Arena, chapter six
When we read such words, we have a choice to make: We can either cling to our pride and fall into despair over our salvation, or we can choose the path of humility, abide in the constant awareness of our imperfection, and trust completely in the Lord to save us, while persisting in the works of virtue, though we fall short many times a day, in order to please God and do His holy will, and out of concern for our neighbor, and not because we imagine that our poor virtues make us something special. There is no plateau at which we aim to arrive, at which point we can imagine ourselves better than we used to be. There is only the life of repentance, which means unceasing pilgrimage until death. This does not make us despondent, because our joy is from the Lord and not from ourselves.
O long-suffering Lord, Who in Thy sacred Passions didst descend to the utmost humility for our salvation, relieve us, by Thy grace, of this terrible burden of our prideful illusions, that we may take up the light yoke of Thy commandments in humility, in order to please Thee and do Thy holy will. Amen.