 Tissot - The Prophet Joel What lies at the root of all religion, it has long been held, is not so much a belief about a supernatural world, as an awareness of the character of this one. Nothing about the world in which we find ourselves is guaranteed. When it comes to all the things that matter most to human beings -- success and failure, prosperity and deprivation, health and illness, joy and sorrow -- we are completely at the mercy of time and circumstance. Our best laid plans, our most successful political systems and our most ingenious technologies, can secure great benefits, but they never give us absolute control -- of life or of death. True religion starts in awe, a profound awareness of the world as far exceeding our understanding and management. Yet, at the same time this sense of humanity's awesome vulnerability generates a practical dilemma. How are we to make ourselves at home in such a world? The role of the great religions, in different ways, has been to offer answers to this question.  Volonov -- The Pharisee The Judeo-Christian answer runs through all of this week's readings. In even the most radical contingencies of life, the human heart can find security and a resting place in the eternal God who is both ever present and accessible. Thus the prophet Joel declares: "You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. . . your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions."., and the Psalmists write "My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God". "Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts". In just the same vein Paul writes to Timothy. "The Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so . . . I was rescued from the lion's mouth". Having "fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith", Paul looks forward to a "crown of righteousness".
Against this background we can find an important word of warning in the brief parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel. The greatest spiritual danger human beings face is displacing true righteousness with self-righteousness. The Pharisee’s self-righteousness complacently supposes that some mix of material success and good works makes him secure. But that is precisely to lose the insight in which religion begins. The tax collector, for all his faults, has the humility to understand that human beings cannot be the means of their own salvation.
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