Today's reading continues the theme of God's judgment. It begins by mentioning the turning to God of those who had not thought of Him before and were ready to rely on anything at all except Him (vv. 1-3). But on closer inspection, this turning, as we see, proved rather superficial (vv. 3-5). In principle the situation described can be considered typical: many remember God only when it becomes clear to them that no one and nothing else is able to help. And when help is received, they just as easily forget God, hoping that they will never again have to find themselves in such a position, that what happened to them was something exceptional, the kind of thing that happens to a person once in a lifetime, and even then not to everyone, but only to those especially unlucky.

But such an attitude toward God is usually characteristic of unbelieving people, or of people who do not think about God, those who in days of prosperity hardly remember Him. In Hosea's preaching, however, the matter concerns believers, or at any rate those who considered themselves such. They, at least, should in no way have forgotten God; they should not have waited for a critical situation in order to remember Him.

Why, then, do these religious people in practice behave the same way as unbelievers? The prophet's reminder of the priorities of spiritual life can serve as an answer to the question (v. 6). Hosea, of course, is not speaking here against sacrifice as such. He only reminds them that if there is no mercy in that capacious sense in which the prophet uses the corresponding Hebrew word, sacrifice loses its spiritual meaning. For originally sacrifice was nothing other than a form of communion with God, a shared meal of God and people, which is impossible without mercy, and therefore without the fullness of trust in the Most High. Spiritual life presupposes relationship above all, whether a person's relationship with God or with neighbor. If there is no trust in God, sacrifice ceases to be a spiritual event and becomes only a religious obligation, which, like any religious obligation, can be performed purely mechanically.

Moreover, sacrifice understood in this way easily turned into a kind of tribute that the people paid to God, expecting in return something which, as it seemed to them, they now had the right to demand according to the covenant they had made, and above all, of course, earthly prosperity. And when it disappeared, interest in God disappeared with it, in the God who could not or would not provide such prosperity. Then began the search for something or someone that could guarantee this prosperity independently of God, on whom, as it seemed to the seekers, one could not rely. Thus distrust of God destroys relationship with Him and leads a person first to religious formalism, and then to open paganism.

Still, what exactly is the self-exaltation Jesus is talking about with regard to the Pharisee? Is it bad to keep the commandments and be a religious person? In itself, obviously not, since even the Savior does not condemn the Pharisee; He only says that the tax collector, who has nothing to say to God except words of repentance, is more righteous before Him than the Pharisee, who is ready to list his religious successes and achievements. But the problem, as one can see, is not religiosity as such, and not even that it allows one to look down on a sinner, but that it, paradoxical as it may sound, can sometimes distract a person from God.

In fact, the very fact that the Pharisee, standing in the Temple before God, thinks and speaks about himself, about the tax collector standing nearby, about his religiosity - in short, about anything at all except God - can be considered a spiritual failure, at least in that particular situation. Of course, one failure does not cancel out the Pharisee's achievements, but on that specific day he spent his time in the Temple without any spiritual benefit. And paradoxically, it was his own religiosity that brought him to this result.

But the tax collector did not spend his time in the Temple without spiritual benefit: he did not evaluate either himself or others. He simply communed with God. That turned out to be enough, because God does not need us to evaluate anyone at all. He Himself knows the worth of each of us. We need only look at Him. And then there will be no one before whom we can "exalt ourselves."

The tax collector and the Pharisee are two sides of a person that coexist peacefully within us. At the same time, the Pharisee living in us can be a very worthy person: fasting, prayer, a tithe of everything one has. This is already not so little.

Even the Lord says that "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." That is, the Pharisee received his justification, but not to the same extent as the tax collector. This happened because the Pharisee demanded fair treatment for himself, while the tax collector hoped for mercy.

In the end, we too need not justice, whose triumph the Pharisee within us wants so often; we need mercy, for which the tax collector quietly asks. For according to justice we are entitled to very little, if not to nothing at all, while according to mercy the Kingdom has been promised to us.