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Our Gospel today speaks of humility and reminded me of John Howard Griffin. John Griffin was a white journalist from Mansfield, Texas. In 1959 he worked with a dermatologist to temporarily darken his skin so he could pass as an African-American man. He traveled for 6 weeks throughout the segregated south and kept a journal. His 1st hand accounts of discrimination provided material for a book and later a movie called “Black Like Me”.
 
Unfortunately, discrimination is still a dark force in our world and is often caused by pride and a warped perspective.
 
In our Gospel today, Jesus calls out the scribes and the Pharisees for their pride and hypocrisy. Their education and position in that religious society encouraged them to practice a form of clericalism. They assumed a perspective of moral superiority over the people and discriminated accordingly. Jesus turns this practice upside down by telling his disciples: “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Rejecting pride and embracing humility is an ongoing spiritual exercise for most of us. Our personal perspective can have a big influence on our success or failure in the strive for humility. With a Christian perspective, we can try seeing ourselves and other people through the eyes of God.

In God’s eyes, we are all unworthy sinners, but due to the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are also His beloved children. Our challenge is to see everyone as God sees us and to live our lives accordingly.
As we reflect on the perfect humility of our Lord in the Eucharist, let us pray for the inspiration to be humble today.