I know it couldn’t have happened, but imagine that the Pharisee in the famous Gospel parable had gone to confession. No doubt the exchange with his confessor would have gone something like this: Pharisee: Bless me, Father, for my wife, kids...
In 1980 Mac Davis wrote “Oh, Lord, It’s Hard to be Humble (if you’re perfect in every way)” He was not disparaging humility, of course, but having fun with the human tendency to overweening pride and self-importance. Yet ironically, at that very...
A highly educated, self-important university professor found himself sitting next to an elderly farmer on a long airline flight. The professor had a very high IQ and was used to being the smartest person in the room, so in his arrogance he decided...
Sunday after Sunday we give Jesus a pass. We do not question what he says and what he does because we believe that he is the Son of God; he is our Savior; he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. But this time we cannot give him a pass. In the Gospel...
In the Book of Sirach (3:17), we are told to, “Conduct your affairs with humility.” Likewise, in the Gospel of Luke (14:11), we’re told that “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” So the...
Religious triumphalism is the conviction that one’s religious beliefs are superior to other people’s. Ironically, triumphalism violates the virtue of humility that is extolled by virtually every religion. It is the theological equivalent of sports’...
A twelve-year old Jewish girl named Susanna was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, which is a cancer of the lymph nodes. Her father, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, brought her from their family’s home in New York City out to Stanford University in...
Near the German city of Munich is the small town of Dachau, where, in 1933, the Nazis established the first of their concentration camps after coming to power. After World War II it became possible for tourists to visit the camp, and one group which...
