It is Lent again. This is important to us simply because we are alive and walk in this earthly pilgrimage filled with so many temptations and so many possibilities for holiness. Our Christian commitments are revived as once again the voice of the Savior reaches our ears: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). It is a joyful announcement and at the same time a challenging invitation.

Lent always speaks to us in these two voices. On the one hand it seems to ask us to become more passive and receptive. It announces that now is the time of the Lord’s favor, the day of salvation. The Lord is merciful and forgiving and will not hold our trespasses against us. We are prepared to receive this good news by reflecting upon and confessing our sins, failures, and weaknesses. Seeing the hopelessness of our spiritual condition we can only gratefully receive the forgiving grace of the God who does not despise the broken and contrite heart. Just as we are without one plea we come to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Heavy laden we seek rest in the One whose yoke is easy, and whose burden is light (cf Mat 11:28ff).

On the other hand Lent asks us to become more active and responsible. It speaks to us with the exacting voice of spiritual warfare, self-discipline, and practice in virtue. After the penitence of Ash Wednesday the first Sunday of Lent invites us to stand beside Christ and to struggle with Him in the forty-day contest with the devil. The Lenten disciplines of fasting, self-denial, and good works are not forms of self-punishment or self-hatred. They are rather a means by which we identify ourselves with the Savior in His victorious contest with the old enemy. Remembering the athletic language sometimes employed by the New Testament, one might say Lent is a time to “get in shape.” It is oriented toward spiritual health and strength; it trains us to run and to endure so as to obtain the imperishable wreath of victory (cf. Cor 9:25f; Jam 1:12). “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13f).

These two messages of Lent, one passive and the other active are both Scriptural and thus are not contradictory. The recent Lutheran-Roman Catholic agreement on justification brings this out in detailed theological terms. Faith and good works, justification and sanctification can be separated only in a theoretical way. In the spiritual life we experience them as simultaneous. The free, unmerited grace of God, which cleanses us of our sins and makes us right before Him, immediately produces good desires and begins to bring them to effect in words and deeds. Christ for us, who saves us from our sins, is at the same time Christ in us, who serves and glorifies His Father through the good works of His disciples.

In the familiar parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Lk 18:9ff) the Publican who had prayed humbly, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee who in his prayer had pridefully recounted his good works. It is easy to see that the Pharisee had to become like the Publican, but continued reflection leads us to conclude the opposite as well: the Publican, if his change of heart was a true and lasting one, would need to become a lot like the Pharisee. He could not cry crocodile tears in the back of temple and continue to extort money from the poor and make no effort to rectify his unjust ways. His newfound love of God would have to issue forth in love of neighbor and in the grateful generosity, of which the tithes and offerings of the Pharisee were supposed to be a genuine expression. He could not but notice that he is not as he formerly was and would have to be truly thankful for this new life. Eventually he would have to return to the temple and, in a manner purified by humility, pray a thanksgiving prayer not too different from that of the Pharisee. Perhaps the model could be a personalized version of St. Paul’s prayer with reference to his Roman converts: “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart . . . and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:17ff).

I entertain a little fantasy about what happened after the parable. I like to imagine that the Pharisee and the Publican were next-door neighbors. Of course they did not have much to do with each other, but the day after the Publican’s experience in the temple he knocked on his neighbor’s door and asked to speak with him. “You have probably noticed that I have not been too much concerned with religion or even the Ten Commandments, but the other day something happened to change me and I would like to get more serious about our faith. I thought since you’re a Pharisee and educated in the law maybe you would teach me the Torah and the laws and ordinances and traditions of our people. Could you be something like a mentor to me?”

The Pharisee is very surprised and, not unexpectedly, rather skeptical of the sincerity and permanence of his neighbor’s conversion, but, a bit flattered by the request, he agrees to tutor the Publican. As the weeks go by, however, the sincerity of the new convert’s zeal begins to bring about a change in the Pharisee. He sees the humble simplicity of the Publican’s desire to serve God, his eagerness to seek out the deep meaning of the Scripture, and his willingness to be transformed by it. The Pharisee now begins to speak thus with himself: “It is true I have observed all these laws and traditions, but they have been only empty formalities. In attending to the details I have neglected the weightier matters of my religion. I have served God with my lips but in my heart I am as far from God as this Publican formerly was.” Then finally this: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

In my elaboration of the parable the Pharisee and the Publican served each other in the way of salvation. The humility of the Publican, blessed by the mercy of God, breathed new life into the observant but superficial spiritual life of the Pharisee, while the knowledge and outward observance of the Pharisee gave form and substance to the inner religious experience of the Publican. I would like to think that in the end they were not far apart.

Likewise the two voices of Lent, the passive and the active, should serve to build us up in the Christian life. With the Publican we must begin with the humility that is nothing other than the simple truth about ourselves. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 Jn 1:8). We cannot erect a system of salvation by our own behavior; it is the gift of God’s mercy upon the broken and contrite heart. “God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all” (Rom 11:32). Yet this mercy of God is also healing and fruitful. We do not remain helplessly crushed by our sins. The Master who says, “Your sins are forgiven,” also says, “Rise take up your bed and walk” (cf Mk 2:1ff). God’s grace gives us a new life along with forgiveness. As another Pharisee once said, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain” (1 Cor 15:10).

Sincerely,  
Fr. Richard G. Herbel