Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
(Isaiah 1:10.16-20; Matthew 23:1-12)
Yesterday’s gospel emphasized mercy. Today’s stresses humility. And tomorrow’s will highlight service. It seems that during this second week of Lent
the Church means to prepare its people for ministry.
Moralist Fr. Richard Gula has written that humility is hard
to understand, much less to cultivate.
Why be humble? Are not those who
promote themselves rewarded? Gula
believes that the humble will foster cooperation among a group to successfully
complete a common task. In baseball, for
example, recruiters no longer pay exclusive attention either to homerun hitters
or to those with the highest batting averages.
What they increasingly want are players who produce runs for their
team. They may do it with a hit, a walk,
being hit by a pitched ball, or even by striking out on a wild pitch.
We don’t have to be introverted or sad to be humble. We just have to recognize that the world, the
community, or the team does not revolve around us. We also have to recognize the contributions
of everyone to the common good. In the
end humility will move us to admit our faults as well as our virtues and to ask
God’s mercy. Then humility will become a
source of our salvation.
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