Yesterday’s Gospel at Mass was the story told by Luke of two men who went to the Temple to pray – one was a Pharisee and the other was a Tax Collector. One of the pitfalls of personal success is the arrogance that sometimes comes with it. The Pharisee was, no doubt, a very good living devout man but he made himself feel important by putting others down. He even did this in his prayer reminding God of just how good he was in comparison to others. It's a wonder he went to the temple at all because he doesn't seem to need God. All he seems to need is validation. On the other hand, it's a wonder that the tax collector turned up at the temple too, but for very different reasons. Tax collectors were despised in Palestine.

They were Jewish functionaries used by the Roman occupying army to extort the ferocious imperial taxes from the local community. No wonder he stays close to the back door of the temple. He might have had to beat a hasty retreat. But here he is. in prayer, recognising the brokenness of his life and his need for God. There's nothing wrong with being devout and successful. Conversely, there are plenty of dangers in doing a job that demands constant moral compromises, like being a tax collector for the Romans. What Jesus notices is what the life situations are both these men do to them. Hence the social outcast’s humility shows up the haughty Pharisee. The tax collector becomes the model for right behaviour for Luke's community. For far too long we have thought humility meant putting ourselves down, pretending we were nobody's worthy of nothing. This is not Christian humility. Being humble doesn't mean we hide or minimise our God given gifts talents or resources. It means we honour others by sharing our gifts, enabling them to benefit from the goodness of God entrusted to us. Humility comes from the Latin word ‘humus’, meaning close to the earth. The tax collector lived close to the earth and so he was open to conversion to being lifted up by God. The Pharisee was so successful at being religious he was closed to it. He had altitude sickness from taking the high moral ground. Most of us find ourselves somewhere in between these extremes. One of the best ways to make sure we remain humble is to be grounded in reality. It helps if we have friends who make demands on us. They might be economically disadvantaged, disabled, elderly or sick. It's not necessarily easy to be with them, but that's the point. Our response to them keeps us grounded, draws out gifts we sometimes didn't even know we had and at the very least, reminds us how grateful we should be for the gifts we have received. Others can tell a lot about us by the company we keep and the people we shun.

Day 10 Proposed programme 2026 – tomorrow, you will be emailed out a short video link describing a proposed timetable change in 2026. There will also be an FAQ sheet and a link to gather responses from parents. Very keen to get parental feedback on this proposal.