Foot-washer

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time St. Agnes Catholic Church https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083125.cfm Sixty-one years ago, a 22-year-old fast-talking Louisvillian shocked the sporting world.  The young man then called Cassius Clay defeated the reigning world boxing champion Sony Liston in what was then considered a major upset.  After the bout, he gave a famous interview in which he proclaimed, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."   The man who later became known as Muhammad Ali would go on to back up his boasts, winning the heavy weight championship a record-breaking three times and being proclaimed by many the greatest sportsman of the 20th century.  Since that era, we have seen a parade of other athletes who are proclaimed to be the “Goat” of their sport.  Goat – meaning the “greatest of all time.”  Michael Phelps is the Goat of swimming.  Tom Brady is the Goat of football.  Simone Biles is...

Galt House October 11, 2024 Mercy Education Conference  Jer 22:1-4 Matt 25:31-46 In 1960, an 18-year old Black man stood over the Ohio River looking down from the Second Street Bridge two blocks east from here.  He had just returned from Rome with an Olympic gold medal around his neck.  Filled with pride, he wore the medal everywhere, expecting every door in his hometown to be open to him.  And yet, he found that in Jim Crow Kentucky, the color of his skin mattered more than the color of his medal.  It mattered more than his talent in the ring, more than the poetry than flowed from his lips, more than his good looks.  “I’m prettier than a girl,” he boasted.   The young Muhammad Ali gazed down at the muddy water—a river that had been a symbol of freedom to his ancestors fleeing slavery to the north and a symbol of hell for slaves sold down river to the cotton fields of the Deep South.  Ali took his medal and threw it into the Ohio River....