Are we ashamed?

Some folks are probably wondering why I bothered providing the litany of accomplishments for St. Catherine below. Well, it's true that I have a soft spot for Dominicans, of which she was one, but it's a bit more than that.

It is an intimidating thing to hear the accomplishments of an uneducated woman who only lived to be 33 years old, yet still managed to alter the course of history and achieve an unfathomable unity with God in the process. Many history-changers do so at the cost of their sanctity.

Are folks ashamed to see these accomplishments in relation to their own simple lives? Is that why we tend to shuffle the feasts of our ancestors in the Faith into the background, so that we can have our egos preserved when we look in the mirror?

Possibly.

Not living up the standard of Jesus we can rationalize. Hey, He was God after all. Being surpassed by an ignorant 14th century Italian is not the sort of thing modern folk can readily accept.


Which brings us to today's Gospel:

At that time Jesus declared, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will." Matthew 11:25-30


What is it to us that His will was to exalt babes rather than the wise and understanding? Is it too much to acknowledge that God gives greater grace to some others than He does to us?