June 5, 2016. 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. A Reflection.

It is 2 PM, Sunday afternoon.  It is hot here in Mabalacat.  

It is the 10th Sunday of that time in Church calendar we call, “Ordinary Time”.   Nothing to celebrate like Christmas or Easter Season. Nothing to truly say we are rejoicing except in that very basic, Christian principle of the Lord’s Resurrection.  Ah yes, that's what SUNDAY really is. 

Our readings today speak to us of one word… one important word… one essential word for us to live our life as real children of God: HUMILITY. 

I feel ashamed to talk about Humility.  Why? The answer is simple.                   I am proud.  

But all the same, I am a priest.  I have to talk about it.  

And all the same, I am called to practice what I preach, as what the bishop told me when he handed me the Book of the Gospels during my ordination as a deacon. 

Anyway, so what does it mean to be HUMBLE?

People in Israel a long time ago actually considered widows as one of the most unfortunate people in their society.  They lost their value when their husbands die.  In fact, it was for them (although, not only them) that the early Church started ordaining deacons, so that they would not feel neglected by the Christian Community.  Widows were nothing in society.  Yet, it was to a widow of Zarephath that Elijah was sent by God so that her son would come back to life.  It was to a widow of Nain that Jesus showed compassion by bringing his dead son back to life.  It was to people who were considered “nothing” that God showed His wonderful Heart.  So, OK, this is what it means to be humble… to be like those widows… to be NOTHING… to have NOTHING. There is nothing in us that can truly make us worthy to stand before God. Not our bank accounts.  Not our educational attainments.  Not our fulfillments and successes.  Nothing.  And when we acknowledge our Nothingness, we are humble… and God loves us all the more!  The humble delights not on his own nothingness, but on the mere fact that he ONLY has God. 

We can also be HUMBLE like St. Paul.  Such a brilliant man… strong, fiery, filled with zeal… able to organize groups that persecuted Christians in his time.  Yet, after his conversion, he was never ashamed to tell people about his proud and persecuting past.  So that is humility… ACKNOWLEDGING our past, with all its sins, mistakes, embarrassments… no matter how sordid or trivial it was.  We need not broadcast them to the world and pretend we are the most sincere people.  But a stinky past can truly be a good buffer for our pride.  Acknowledging in concrete terms our own sinfulness prevents us from judging others and from putting them into boxes.  The least we can do is worry if they still continue to wallow in the mud of objective error. 

To be HUMBLE is to be like Jesus.  He was able to see beyond the person.  He was able to see the needy, have compassion for them… and HELP them.  It takes Humility to truly help a person.  It is because we help them not because they need us, but because we know they have nothing to hold on to.  Helping the needy removes us from the trap of self-centeredness… from the realization that there are people poorer than us, people who suffer more than us, people who have more painful situations.  And it is never an accident that we can see them and have pity for them.  For God, there are no accidents. 

I know I am not humble.  But I have to be one.  

And I thank God He gave me hints!

It is 3 PM.  God has blessed us with a downpour!  Thank you, Lord, for rain!