30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We finish up our four-week series on "Four Prayers That Don't Work" by exploring "The Prayer to Compare".  Comparison seems to be encoded into our nature.  If we know we are better, or better off, than somebody else, then at least we're not in last place.  We claw our way to the top of the pile, believing that besting our neighbour might bring us a sense of peace.  It shouldn't be surprising that this approach backfires on us, because more often than not, our comparisons with others only confirm our sense of inadequacy.  Whenever religion becomes a report card, it leads to hypocrisy rather than humility.