On this the second day of the Year of Mercy, the gospel places before us an enormous challenge particularly given the world in which we live. Terrorism appears to be achieving its goal. What separate murder or even mass murder from terrorism is the goal. The goal of terrorism is not simply to kill to be terrorize, to instill fear. As Christians we are told constantly in the New Testament to not be afraid. But today's gospel may be even more difficult to live.
Jesus tells us to:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart
We are supposed to to learn to follow his example and yet how many of us really want to be either meek or humble? We like the words in theory, but if you were to ask Gallup to conduct a poll, and ask people to list the top 10 characteristics of a great leader, where would meek and humble fall? I doubt that those two words would even make the top 20.
More importantly, how many of us strive to been either meek/gentle or humble of heart? And perhaps that is the challenge on this second day of the Year of Mercy. Be gentle. Be humble.
