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Dear Sisters and Brothers in
the Lord:
This past week we celebrated significant feast days and memorials of
those holy men and women we call saints.
On Monday, Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday we remembered in a special way the lives of St.
Teresa of Avila (St. Teresa of Jesus) a doctor of the Church; St.
Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop and an early father of the Church; St.
Luke, the Apostle and Gospel writer, and the American martyrs: Saints
John De Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and their companions.
These courageous and
charismatic men and woman of faith gave witness to the power and
presence of Jesus in their life and in their death. May their example of
Christian living and faith continue to inspire us.
They were so UNLIKE the Pharisee in today’s gospel from St. Luke. He was
so filled with himself there was no room for God or anyone else. Saints
are those people who not only know what humility is but they embody it —
live it out.
Humility comes from a Latin
word meaning ground or earth. People who are humble are well grounded.
They know who they are and are comfortable in their own skin. Humility
is not self-abasement or degrading.
It is an honest and real
understanding and an acknowledgement that God is God and we are not. |
