God knows no favorites, Sirach tells us. He judges justly and affirms the right. Is that true for you? Does everybody get equal treatment from you? If not, why not? Do you feel heard by God?

Humility is the awareness of one's limitations and the capacity to submit oneself to others. In service to God and others, especially the poor and lowly whom God hears, listeners to scripture this weekend can find the way of humility to which God so richly responds.

Humility seeks to be hidden and takes the low road. Yet in the inscrutable gospel reality (where the last shall be first), the humble one is exalted in the end.

When I am rested and spiritually restored, I can quiet the drone of commentary, but the more stressed and exhausted I am, the more I find myself with little patience or kindness for anyone who crosses my path.

We all have the capacity to sin, we all have selfish impulses that run counter to our actual best interests.

Justice is incredibly complex. The temptation to simplify it into a list of right and wrong, do's and don'ts is both tempting and dangerous. Sometimes justice is blind, and there are no clear answers as to why something happens or why God allows life to unfold as it does.

Prayer is essential to the spiritual life, but unless the prayer contains sincerity and humility it is mere window dressing and not worthy of a hearing from God.

Our God is a God of justice and mercy. We ask God for that mercy.

Goodness and badness has been the standard by which we measure for so long, it's hard to move to a standard of humility vs. arrogance.

Unless we perform divine service with every willing act of our life, we never perform it at all.