Homily of St. Augustine: The Pharisee and the Publican

The publican dared not even lift up his eyes to heaven. Why did he not do so? Because he looked at himself, for he had first to find himself displeasing, and thus he would please God. You, on the contrary, stand erect and hold your head high. But our Lord says to the proud: "You will not look at yourself? Well I will look at you. Do you wish me to turn away my eyes? Then look at yourself." The publican therefore did not dare to lift up his eyes to heaven: he looked upon himself and condemned himself. He was judge unto himself, that God might intercede for him. He punished himself, that God might set him free. He accused himself, that God might defend him. He defended him so well that he declared sentence thus: This man went back home higher in God's favor than the other; everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and the man who humbles himself shall be exalted. 1 He looked at himself, said our Lord, and I would not look at him. I heard him saying: Turn thy eyes away from my sins!2 But who can say this, but he that says also: For I acknowledge my guilt?

As to the Pharisee, my brethren, he also was a sinner. For neither because he said, I am not like the rest of men, who steal and cheat and commit adultery, nor because he fasted twice in the week, nor because he gave tithes, was he not a sinner. And even if he had been without any other sin, his pride itself was enough to accuse him. And yet he dared to speak thus! . . .

But who is without sin? Who dares to boast, My heart is unsullied now, I have cleansed myself of every fault?  Certainly the Pharisee was not such a one, but in his perversity he did not know what he had come to do in the temple. He found himself in the physician's house, as it were, to be healed, and hiding his wounds, showed his sound limbs

Let God cover your wounds: not you yourself. For if you are ashamed to show them, the physician will not cure them. Let the physician cover and cure them with a dressing. The wounds that the physician covers will heal. But if the sick man wishes to cover them himself, he will only succeed in hiding them. And from whom does he hide them? From him who knows all things.