SO GOOD QUOTES

Indeed, what can God forgive this righteous’ Pharisee? Which sin can He forgive this person who is righteous in his own eyes, who did not mention a single sin before God so as to seek His forgiveness? If he were a sinner like the tax-collector, he would have asked for mercy like he did, but boastfully he said, “I am not… as this tax-collector”. He did not confess any sin that required forgiveness and did not seek forgiveness, thus alienating himself from forgiveness and from justification by the Blood of Christ. 

Similarly, the Scriptures did not say that God justified the elder son who also did not find anything to blame himself for, but moreover was angry, casting blame on his brother and on his father, saying, “Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends” (Lk. 15:29). Truly, what forgiveness can be given to the one who says, “I never transgressed your commandment”? This same son did not ask for forgiveness, because he did not see in his behaviour a single mistake that needed forgiveness! But his younger brother was justified because he reproached himself and said to his father, “I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Lk. 15:19).

—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Before the Just Judge