Ten Mile Limit

My admirers keep me humble.  Many will say, "I love to hear you preach."  But it has to be within their ten mile limit.  They don't go beyond ten miles.  This keeps my ego in check.  When I stand outside church after mass, and one person after another says how wonderful the homily, I could get quite full of myself.  But in fact, that church was convenient for them, be it their parish where they go even if the preacher is a jerk, or it is within their ten mile limit.  Whenever I preach beyond the ten mile limit, followers drop off drastically.  It is not a gas thing, or a distance thing.  Some of these same people would travel much farther to hear certain other priests.  It used to bother me.  Now, my ego is a bit more right-sized, and I am merely bemused.