Some years ago in Florida, the St. Petersburg’s Times carried a very interesting story about Don Shula, the former head coach of the professional football team, Miami Dolphins, were undefeated in ’72, ’73 and won the Superbowl. The only undefeated team to win the Superbowl. Shula will be remembered for that. So Shula was vacationing with his family in a small town in Northern Maine after they won the Superbowl that year. One afternoon it was raining, so Shula, his wife and five children decided to attend a matinee movie in the small town’s only theater. Now when they arrived, the house lights were still on in the theater. There were only six people present for the showing of this movie. When Don Shula, his entire family of six walked in, all six people in the theater stood up and gave the Shula family a standing ovation. Shula waved and smiled at the small group. Now Shula sat down, he turned to his wife and said we are a thousand miles from Miami, and they’re giving me a standing ovation in this small town here in Northern Maine. They must get the Miami Dolphins’ football games on television way up here in Maine. So, a man then came up to Don Shula to shake Don Shula’s hand. Shula beamed and said how did you recognize me as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins? The man replied mister, I don’t have a clue who you are. All I know is this. That just before you and your family walked in, the theater manager told us that unless four more people showed up, we wouldn’t have a movie today. We listened to today’s first reading from Sirach. My children, conduct your affairs with humility. And you will be loved more than the giver of gifts. Always humble yourself. Your life has a way of keeping us humble. We need to be able to not only take life too seriously, we also need to be able, at times, to laugh at ourselves. When we are young we have dreams of where life will take us as we grow older. We have moved down roads we have never dreamed about. Some good, and not some too good at all. The beautiful line is this. Life is what happened while I was making other plans. Life is what happened while I was making other plans. We are not put on this earth to see through one another, but rather to see one another through. Life is a gift. Life is a gift always given from God. Be humble.