2nd sunday ordinary time 2008
Humility
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Only a person who is humble can always remember why he is here for and then does his duty when the time comes. Today in our Gospel with all his humility St John the Baptist revealed Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. Truly, nothing is more beautiful than to know Christ and to make him known to others.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Only a person who is humble can always remember why he is here for and then does his duty when the time comes. Today in our Gospel with all his humility St John the Baptist revealed Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. Truly, nothing is more beautiful than to know Christ and to make him known to others.
One day a sage came to a King for an interview. The sage had to wait for a long time because the King was very busy. Finally, the King said he could come in. When the sage entered the hall, the first thing he did was to take off his hat and bow to the King. Immediately the King took off his crown and bowed to the sage. The ministers and others who were around the King asked, "What are you doing? He took off his hat because he is an ordinary man. But you are the King. Why should you have to take off your crown?"
The King said to his ministers, "You fools, do you think I wish to remain inferior to an ordinary man? He is humble and modest. His humility is a peerless virtue'. He showed his respect to me. If I did not take off my crown, then I would be showing less humility than an ordinary man, and I would be defeated by him. If I am the King, I should be better than everybody in everything. That is why I took off my crown and bowed to him!”
Humility is the most basic of all of the Christian virtues. A person is humble not because of a poorly conceived self-image, but because he knows of the goodness and the perfection of God and also knows that he himself is lacking in these areas, as in others.
One day, the famous news correspondent, Walter Cronkite, was sailing down the Mystic River in Connecticut, following the channel's tricky turns through a stretch of shallow water. A boatload of young people sped past his boat and its occupants shouted and waved their arms. Cronkite waved back a cheery greeting and his wife said, "Do you know what they were shouting?" "Why, it was 'Hello, Walter,'" Walter Cronkite replied. "No," she said. "They were shouting, "Low water, Low water.'"
Let us think of this great virtue today my dear brothers and sisters; Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” meaning “earth”. Humility is not about demeaning oneself; it is not the baptism of the inferiority complex. Nor is it therefore a question of denying one’s own dignity, giftedness or accomplishments. Humility is more aptly interpreted as “being grounded”, “being earthed”, having a firm foundation in the truth, living and thinking, not in arrogant fantasy, but in the beauty of the truth.
Humility is a way of living and relating with others at a deeper level of their reality. First and foremost, humility is our need to affirm that you and I are children of God; we are sons and daughters of God the Father. This is a very basic and essential reality that we must always keep in mind when we live our lives and relate to others daily.
St. Theresa of Avila gives a definition. She said that humility is living in the truth (“andar en la verdad”). We are supposed to live in the truth in our relationship with God, ourselves, and our neighbor. First of all, we need to remember that God is God and we are not. We live out our relationship with God by being lovingly obedient. Secondly, we live in the truth with ourselves by being just who we are and not trying to be something that we are not. Finally, we live in truth with our neighbor through mutual respect, kindness, and acceptance.
Humility is not an easy virtue to acquire. Benjamin Franklin once wrote: “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility”.
A famous football coach was on vacation with his family in Maine. When they walked into a movie theater and sat down, the handful of people that were present in the theatre applauded. He thought to himself, "I can't believe it. People recognize me all the way up here." Then a man came over to him and said, "Thanks for coming. They won't start the movie for less than ten people."
Humility really means being honest and truthful, seeing God as He is, seeing others as they are and seeing ourselves as we are.
We all limp our way in the life of virtue, for who can say he is without sin? We must be humble, that is, honest and truthful, about other people. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we no longer make ourselves the center of attention. We become free enough to see others as they are, with their strengths and abilities, with their weaknesses and limitations. We can then acknowledge that we are all very similar, prone to that selfishness that leads us to sin yet struggling, with God’s grace, to rise above our sinfulness, to be generous, compassionate, kind and forgiving. We can honestly admit that others are not perfect because we ourselves are not perfect. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we can honestly admit our radical dependence on the Lord, our absolute need for His transforming grace in our lives.
St. John Simachus tells us that humility is the only virtue that the devil cannot imitate. If pride made angels into demons, humility makes demons into angels. There is the story of Satan appearing to one of the desert monks. He kept appearing to him in the form of an angel of light giving him messages and trying to make him feel so special and proud. This monk continued living his life of simplicity and humility. After some time, the devil getting frustrated said to him, “all that you do, I can do; but the only thing you do that I cannot do is your humility.” The monk was able to resist the devil because of his humility.
Humble people are able to look at themselves and say; I have really made wrong choices. People who are not humble would always look for ways to justify away their mistakes. They always look for people to blame for their mistakes. They never appreciate others hard work.
We are told in the book of James 4:10 “if you humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, the lord will lift you up. “
There is a funny saying "Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity."
Please pray with me if you know--Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer:-
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with HimForever in the next.
Amen.
The King said to his ministers, "You fools, do you think I wish to remain inferior to an ordinary man? He is humble and modest. His humility is a peerless virtue'. He showed his respect to me. If I did not take off my crown, then I would be showing less humility than an ordinary man, and I would be defeated by him. If I am the King, I should be better than everybody in everything. That is why I took off my crown and bowed to him!”
Humility is the most basic of all of the Christian virtues. A person is humble not because of a poorly conceived self-image, but because he knows of the goodness and the perfection of God and also knows that he himself is lacking in these areas, as in others.
One day, the famous news correspondent, Walter Cronkite, was sailing down the Mystic River in Connecticut, following the channel's tricky turns through a stretch of shallow water. A boatload of young people sped past his boat and its occupants shouted and waved their arms. Cronkite waved back a cheery greeting and his wife said, "Do you know what they were shouting?" "Why, it was 'Hello, Walter,'" Walter Cronkite replied. "No," she said. "They were shouting, "Low water, Low water.'"
Let us think of this great virtue today my dear brothers and sisters; Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” meaning “earth”. Humility is not about demeaning oneself; it is not the baptism of the inferiority complex. Nor is it therefore a question of denying one’s own dignity, giftedness or accomplishments. Humility is more aptly interpreted as “being grounded”, “being earthed”, having a firm foundation in the truth, living and thinking, not in arrogant fantasy, but in the beauty of the truth.
Humility is a way of living and relating with others at a deeper level of their reality. First and foremost, humility is our need to affirm that you and I are children of God; we are sons and daughters of God the Father. This is a very basic and essential reality that we must always keep in mind when we live our lives and relate to others daily.
St. Theresa of Avila gives a definition. She said that humility is living in the truth (“andar en la verdad”). We are supposed to live in the truth in our relationship with God, ourselves, and our neighbor. First of all, we need to remember that God is God and we are not. We live out our relationship with God by being lovingly obedient. Secondly, we live in the truth with ourselves by being just who we are and not trying to be something that we are not. Finally, we live in truth with our neighbor through mutual respect, kindness, and acceptance.
Humility is not an easy virtue to acquire. Benjamin Franklin once wrote: “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility”.
A famous football coach was on vacation with his family in Maine. When they walked into a movie theater and sat down, the handful of people that were present in the theatre applauded. He thought to himself, "I can't believe it. People recognize me all the way up here." Then a man came over to him and said, "Thanks for coming. They won't start the movie for less than ten people."
Humility really means being honest and truthful, seeing God as He is, seeing others as they are and seeing ourselves as we are.
We all limp our way in the life of virtue, for who can say he is without sin? We must be humble, that is, honest and truthful, about other people. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we no longer make ourselves the center of attention. We become free enough to see others as they are, with their strengths and abilities, with their weaknesses and limitations. We can then acknowledge that we are all very similar, prone to that selfishness that leads us to sin yet struggling, with God’s grace, to rise above our sinfulness, to be generous, compassionate, kind and forgiving. We can honestly admit that others are not perfect because we ourselves are not perfect. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we can honestly admit our radical dependence on the Lord, our absolute need for His transforming grace in our lives.
St. John Simachus tells us that humility is the only virtue that the devil cannot imitate. If pride made angels into demons, humility makes demons into angels. There is the story of Satan appearing to one of the desert monks. He kept appearing to him in the form of an angel of light giving him messages and trying to make him feel so special and proud. This monk continued living his life of simplicity and humility. After some time, the devil getting frustrated said to him, “all that you do, I can do; but the only thing you do that I cannot do is your humility.” The monk was able to resist the devil because of his humility.
Humble people are able to look at themselves and say; I have really made wrong choices. People who are not humble would always look for ways to justify away their mistakes. They always look for people to blame for their mistakes. They never appreciate others hard work.
We are told in the book of James 4:10 “if you humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, the lord will lift you up. “
There is a funny saying "Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity."
Please pray with me if you know--Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer:-
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with HimForever in the next.
Amen.
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