Four or five points can be taken from todays gospel extract. The first point relates to the image we have, or the Jews had, of God. Two contrasting images or attitudes are exposed in this story: One appeals to the God of justice. The Pharisee says look, not only have I fulfilled the Law. I have been excessive in my observance of it. I have acted above and beyond the call of duty. In justice I have earned my reward. The other character, the publican, recognises the reality of his sinfulness and rests his case with the God of mercy: He says: all I have to bring before you is my own sinfulness, save me in your mercy. Jesus endorses the sentiments of the latter while exposing the attitude of the former as false. The publican recognised the truth of his situation, reality as it is. The Pharisee is living a life of delusion. He is merely using religion to shield himself from an unpleasant reality.

The second point questions the effectiveness or otherwise of religious practice in our lives. When we examine the two characters in the story, our sympathies rest four square with the Publican. Yet, outwardly, the Pharisee is a good-living, upright, and charitable man, fasting twice a week and giving one tenth of his possessions to the poor on a regular basis. The publican, on the other hand, is a self-confessed sinner. But it is clear that the pharisee's upright behaviour is only skin deep. His religion has no effect whatsoever on his general attitudes. He despises those who do not behave as he does, regarding them as contemptible and beneath respect. He sees no inconsistency in regarding the objects of his charity with utter contempt. His attitude is untouched by his religious observance. Unlike the publican, he is blind to his moral poverty. It is a question we could all ask ourselves: how deep does our Christianity go? What part does it play in the decisions we make every day, for example. What effect has Catholicism on the way we live out our lives? In England and the United States in particular, countless surveys have been conducted on the influence of particular religions on behavioural patterns. The results have consistently revealed that the effects are nil. Despite the Church's teachings on divorce and remarriage, there was absolutely no difference in marriage and remarriage patterns of Catholics and non-Catholics. The same applied to the statistics on abortion. When it comes to major decisions, religious convictions are not allowed to intrude, apparently.

The third point to be borne in mind is the place of the virtue of humility in the life of the Christian. Catholic teaching on humility has had an unfortunate history. It was often used as a weapon of control. Humility was confused with self-abasement, of grovelling to your elders and betters. No matter how big a clown your superior was, and I fear clowns were over-represented in that strata, you were expected to submit to his asinine rantings in all humility. The suppression of your own personality was seen as a virtue. This ideology operated as a control mechanism in seminaries throughout the world. This came to be accepted universally and recognised as "the Catholic ethos". This ideology in turn percolated out into the Catholic congregations and parishes. It was employed to ensure a pliant, passive people. The great sin was to question authority, to stand outside the enforced consensus. The ruling caste, the clergy, had the truth. The truth could be gleaned through listening to and obeying the ruling caste.

Like all ideologies, this had its dangers. The principle danger was of course that if you were treated as a maggot you began to behave as one, and in time to believe actually that you were one. There was nothing in this ideology to enhance your dignity as a child and creature of God. Your only claim to vitue was the absence of a backbone. But the humility Jesus advocated was nothing more than a recognition of reality. And that reality extends beyond our sinfulness to embrace our virtues, our talents and our entire human potential. It is as creatures of God that we give glory to God. And St. Iraenus expressed this truth well when he coined the well-known phrase: "The glory of God is man fully alive." True humility alerts us to our sinfulness and our strengths, the full truth of our human predicament.. False humility forces us to wallow in our own worthlessness, leaving us paralysed by a half-truth. The full truth will set us free, Jesus assures us. The half-truth enslaves us, locking us into the prison of our own imagined worthlessness. The Publican got it just about right: while aware of his own sinfulness, he is not overwhelmed by it. His awareness extends to a firm confidence in God's mercy. Such an awareness is not available to the Pharisee. His moral blindness leaves him in the dark, unaware of his own sinfulness and labouring under the illusion that man, through observing the law, saves himself.