God's righteousness is His salvation

"For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8)
This is particularly true when we talk about justice. God's justice is not human justice.
Within our limitations as human beings, we think of justice as "getting even". When God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites as a guideline to their life, God simply told them what to do and what not to do. God did not intend to help them get even. In order to deal with practical daily life situations, the Israelites expanded them into 613 laws. Many of them deal with restitution and restrained retaliation. For example, the famous "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21) Getting even does not come from the Ten Commandments. This concept is of human origin.

Nowadays, the concept of justice is popularized by Michael Sandel's online lecture series and an accompanying book Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? Justice has become the moral principle per se, the right thing to do, over and above the benevolence and harm principles.
What does God think about justice? He only gave the Ten Commandments, the kind of right things He expects us to do. Philosophers try to dig up the underlying principles and justice, meaning "getting even", emerges. However, is "getting even" the intention of God when He gave the Ten Commandments? A categorical no.
"The Lord hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.
He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God." (Psalm 98:2-3, KJV)
From the parallelism of the text, we learn that God's righteousness/justice is his salvation. His salvation is his mercy and his truth. For God, righteousness/justice means salvation, mercy and truth. The Lord God is one. There is no other deity besides Him. Therefore, the idea of getting even is meaningless to God. For God, liberating the oppressed, restoring the dignity of the poor, elevating the lowly and defeating the rich and arrogant etc. show His righteousness. This perspective will help us understand better why, in Jesus' parable, after praying in the Temple, the tax collector was justified while the Pharisee was not (Luke 18:14).
In his prayer, the tax collector confessed that he was a sinner. He acknowledged that he was in need of God's forgiveness and salvation. Therefore, he was forgiven and justified. On the other hand, the arrogant Pharisee showed off his piety and did not see his need of salvation. Therefore, he did not give God an opportunity to save him.

Deacon Tsang spoke well in his homily. The gospel is silent in the details about the tax collector. The Pharisee boasted that he had not committed any extortion, unjust practices and adultery etc. However, he might be blind towards other offences against his neighbour. The Pharisee boasted of his piety. That does not mean the tax collector was not pious. Perhaps all Jews practised a similar piety: fast every week and offer tithes. I am sure the Pharisee did more than other Jews did. It is only that the tax collector did not mention his piety in his prayer. The tax collector focused on his sinfulness, his need of God's salvation. Indeed, God sees us doing our piety. There is no need to remind God of our piety. The Pharisee failed to score this point. Now I know that God intends all men to be saved. Yet some perfect model believers reject salvation.
What a reversal of fortune, a theme running throughout the gospel of Luke!

Dear Lord, remove arrogance from my heart so that I will not be blind to my unworthiness. Amen.