two characteristic types of people are presented in the Gospel reading, both of them praying in the temple. They were at opposite poles of society as it was then. One was pious and righteous in the eyes of others, a scholar of the Law, a member of the party of the Pharisees who were the leading religious grouping. The other was a representative of the class of sinners, a member of a profession which was a by-word for extortion, brutality and the expropriation of other people’s property. In the mind of the whole of society at that time, a tax-collector was the lowest of sinners. So what do these two people say in their prayer? Let’s look first at the ...
