Today's Responsorial Psalm is a prayer begging God to save one from one's enemies. When we have pondered on today's readings, however, we might well find ourselves asking God to protect us from ourselves.

The readings have something in common with the front pages of our daily newspapers.

As we read through the papers we find a painful catalogue of greed, lust for power and brutal selfishness. Thank God, that is only half the story. On the inner pages we find account after account of noble, generous actions by decent people, many of them rich and powerful too. The catalogue of ignoble deeds, however is personal enough to make us look into our own hearts. By 'personal' I mean an account that strikes a recognisable note in myself.

It is staggering to realise that some of Jesus' closest followers exhibited signs of vaulting ambition even after they had seen and heard numerous instances of self effacement on the part of their teacher and master. It took the abasement of Jesus in his humiliating death and the healing effects of his resurrection to finally set the disciples on a course of a selfless exercise of power.

Truly, there is nothing new under the sun. Truly none of us can point an accusing finger at another. I am one with the disciples. I am one with all those on the front page, power hungry men and women. My devils may be smaller devils, but they can be effective nonetheless.