It is easy for us to get into a way of thinking that somehow God should be grateful for our efforts to be good Christians. We can begin thinking like the Pharisee in the Gospel who saw himself as superior to the tax collector sitting humbly at the back asking for God's mercy. Yet Jesus reminds us today that every good thing we do is, first of all, done with His help. Without Him, we can do nothing. Secondly, when we live our lives according to the Gospel and the example of Jesus, we are not really being virtuous; we are simply living our lives in the way they ought to be lived. In fact, if we examine our lives a little more closely, we will surely find that we have still a long way to go before living a fully Gospel life. We have little room for complacency. Let us, then, continue to open ourselves to God's guiding hand.