What a contrast between these two men in the Gospel! One of them observes the Law of God perfectly (at least he thinks he does), while the other is unquestionably a sinner, an outcast tax collector who has probably defrauded people countless times. Yet one goes away afterwards "at rights with God" and it is not the apparently religious person. The Pharisee almost seems to feel that God should be grateful to him for being among a small, minority of "good" people. He does not need God; God needs him.

The tax collector, on the other hand, has no illusions of the kind of person he is. He also knows - which the Pharisee does not - that he will never get anywhere except by the mercy of a compassionate God. The most terrible thing is not to be a sinner but to be in denial about one's sinfulness. Is it not this which makes the saint so saintly? The tax collector's awareness of his sinfulness brought him closer to God and made him aware of how dependent he was on God's love and grace.