Humility in Christ
Humility is hard. Jesus Christ frequently calls us to be humble, and it is hard. In Sunday’s readings , Jesus is once again calling us all to be humble, especially in prayer before God. Very often, we can find ourselves extolling our greatness before God and lamenting others’ faults. The scriptures very clearly tell us that this is not the way to eternal life. In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us with the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. Both are praying in the temple, but each is praying in a radically different manner. In this parable, the Pharisee is praying in the temple with eyes raised to heaven. In reality, he is not so much praying as informing God of his own wonderful qualities and accomplishments while putting down someone he thinks unworthy, the tax collector. In juxtaposition, the tax collector is truly praying by acknowledging his sinfulness and asking God for mercy. Jesus tells his disciples that the tax collector, who humbled himself before Go