Humility in approaching God: The Pharisee is a good man. He comes from the parisim, meaning a group separate, set apart. They try to live up to the sacred Law of Moses completely. You would like the Pharisee as your next-door neighbor. You could count on him to be honest, to respect your property, and to do everything right.
In Jesus’ parable, the righteousness of the Pharisee considerably exceeds the standards prescribed by the Mosaic Law. For instance, the Law prescribes one day of fast a year (the Day of Atonement), but he, like many Pharisees, holds a complete fast, with no food or drink until after sundown, twice a week: Mondays and Thursdays. The Law commands tithes of farm produce profits; this Pharisee tithes himself on everything.
The Pharisee of Jesus’ story is a snob who attributes all his many virtues to his own merits, reminds God of all the good he is doing, and makes God out to be in debt to him. He is full of himself; the key word in his prayer is “I.” And he uses his prayer to speak ill of his fellow human beings.
The teaching of Jesus about prayer stresses the need to approach God in a humble spirit. We do not speak in an attitude of Pharisaic pride. “Only when we humbly acknowledge that ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought’ are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. ‘Man is a beggar before God’ ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n 2559).