St. Ignatius Brianchaninov - The Pharisee (The Field pg 86...)

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov - The Pharisee (The Field pg 86...)

The main characteristic of a hypocrite-the first arrow, so to speak, that he aims at his neighbor-is judgment. The reasons these hypocrites have for judging others is often invented and falsified, only an apparent rationale for their evildoing, which they have long planned and justified in advance. This temptation of judging others is part of our original infec tion passed on by the sin of Adam, and no matter how well-intentioned a person is in his striving for salvation, this sin is a sign of a spiritual sick ness of especial magnitude and stubbornness. This disease acts against repentance, which is required for our purification. This temptation is an infected assessment of the failings of others, when these failings begin to take on gargantuan, horrific proportions in the imagination. This temptation is a child of self-love that roots itself into the soul, a love that is foreign to the love of one's neighbor and the proper kind of love for oneself. The Lord likens this disease to a log. By comparison, all the sins of all our neighbors are mere specks:

 Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye"; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

 You must forcefully distract yourself from judging others, guarding yourself with fear of God and humility. In order to weaken and (with God's help) completely root out this temptation from your heart, you must descend into yourself with the light of the Gospels, search out your own failings, and scrutinize your own sinful inclinations, movements, and states. When our own sin becomes the object of our search, then we will have no time to watch after the sins of others and notice them. Then all our neighbors will truly seem wonderful and saintly; then every one of us will admit himself to be the greatest sinner in the world, the only sinner in the world; and only then will the wide gates of true and effective repentance open for us.

 St Pimen the Great said, "We and our brothers are like two different pictures. If a person, looking at himself, sees his own failings, then in his brother he sees perfection. If he seems perfect to himself, then he will find all manner of failings in his brother."

 The greatest saints of God took special care to see themselves as sinners, and sinners so foul, that the sins of others, either great or small, would seem to them forgivable and insignificant. St Sisoes said to Abba Or, "Give me instruction."

 "Do you trust me?" asked Abba Or.

 "I do," answered Sisoes.

 "Go and do as I do."

 "What do you do, Father?"

 The elder said, "I see myself as worse than all other people."

 "If a person reaches such a state," said St Pimen the Great, "which is described by Apostle Paul thus: 'to the pure all things are pure', then he will see that he is worse than all creation."

 A brother asked Abba Pimen, "How can I imagine that I am worse than a murderer?"

 Pimen answered, "If a person reaches the state indicated by the apostle and will see a person who committed murder, he will say he killed once, but I murder myself every day."

 The brother reported St Pimen's words to another elder. The elder answered him, "If a person reaches such a state of purity and sees the sins of his brother, then his righteousness will make that sin disappear."

 The brother asked again, "What is this righteousness?" The elder answered, "Constant self-accusation."

... The sin of judgment is so repulsive to God that He is even angered and turns away from his righteous ones when they allow themselves to judge their neighbor. He takes from them the grace of the Holy Spirit, as we see in many examples preserved by Church writers for the good instruction of Christians. No righteousness gives one a right to judge a sinning brother, because God can give that brother true righteousness that is far more established and real than anything that we are capable of on our own. We can only be righteous in the Truth of God, but when we judge our neighbor, we reject the Truth of God, replacing it with our own, which is the definition of Phariseeism. The one who judges another usurps the role of God, who alone has the right to judge His creation and to judge the living and the dead on the last day.