August 31, 2025 Luke 14:1, 7-14 Today’s readings place before us a treasure that is often overlooked in our world: the virtue of humility. Humility is perhaps one of the most misunderstood gifts in the Christian life. Many people today think that humility is weakness, that it makes us small, timid, or unimportant. Yet in the eyes of God, humility is not weakness but power – the power to see ourselves and others truthfully, the power to draw near to God without fear, the power to love without conditions. In our first reading, the wise teacher Sirach tells us: “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself” (Sirach 3:18). At the time this was written, just as in our own society today, greatness was measured by wealth, power, and social standing. But Sirach flips that upside down. True greatness, he says, is not climbing higher, but bowing lower – before God and before our neighbor. Humility, then, is not about humiliation. It is about truth. The humble person knows: “Everything I am, and everything I have, comes from God.” That’s why St. Augustine said: “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men […]