THE GIFT OF HUMILITY. (Homily for January 9, 2016. Saturday after Epiphany).


Bible Study: 1 John 5, 14 to 21. And John 3, 22 to 30.


Since the beginning of this week, our minds have not left the scene of the Epiphany of Jesus where the Magi from the East presented gifts before the infant Jesus. They presented gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Using our readings as guides, we have gone through a series of gifts that we too could present to Jesus in imitation of the action of the Magi. We looked at the Gift of Repentance, the Gift of Time, The Gift of Faith, The Gift of Speech, the Gift of Devotion and today we conclude with the gift of Humility.

Humility is one gift that crowns all the others. It serves as the packaging so to say, the wrapper we use in decorating anything worth presenting to Jesus. You would agree with me that no matter how good a gift may be, the nature of the wrapper can reduce its value before the eyes of one receiving it. At the same time, even the thinnest gift can appear so big if the wrapper is presentable.

When the Magi got to Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew tells us, “they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Matthew 2, 11. They FELL DOWN AND WORSHIPPED HIM. This was their packaging! It was the outward sign of their inner disposition of humility before a king greater than themselves. If they had simply walked in, dropped their gifts and bounced out, I am sure their gold, frankincense and myrrh would not have meant anything to Jesus.

Humility is a precious gift, it is a mind-set that catapults us easily to God. Humility requires that we are able to say with John the Baptist in today’s Gospel passage: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3, 30. Come to think of it, this is John the Baptist, he is older than Jesus with about six months, he started his ministry before Jesus, at a point, he became more popular than Jesus attracting great crowds unto himself, from the way he spoke, people were turning from their sins and wondering if he was the expected Saviour. John the Baptist had what it takes to assume the personality of Christ but he didn’t. He gave to Jesus, the precious gift of humility.

What was the secret of John the Baptist’s humility? He was always conscious of the fact that his ministry was not his personal property. Listen to what he said in today’s Gospel passage: “No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven.” John 3, 27. How often do we remember that there is nothing that we have that was not given to us? How often are we conscious of the fact that we came into this world with absolutely nothing, just like every human being on earth, that basically, we can never really be better than anyone else, that we are only guardians rather than owners of our gifts, talents, abilities, wealth and so on?

St. John sends a message down in today’s first reading by concluding his entire exhortation (that is, First letter of St. John) with a very beautiful line, “Little Children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1st John 5, 21. John knew this letter was meant for the entire Church consisting of people both old and young but he decides to conclude with “Little Children…” No matter what we think we are, we always remain little Children.

The more we see ourselves as little children, the easier it is for us to approach God because a major characteristic of little children is the absence of self-confidence or let me say, the spirit of dependency. Instead of placing all our confidence in ourselves, St. John says, we should place confidence in Jesus. “And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.” 1 John 5, 14 to 15.

God desires that we only approach him with a disposition of humility. Whatever we give to him, we must do so in the spirit of humility. When we bend, bow, kneel even prostrate ourselves in prayer, it is not because we want to do exercise, but because we have an internal disposition that we are approaching God who is greater than anything we can ever imagine or think of. When we give offerings in church, we do so not because we are paying God as if we have suddenly become richer than he is, but we do so as a sign of our internal disposition of loyalty.

If God works through us by giving us special spiritual abilities, we should dare not start giving titles to ourselves or doing things to attract undue attention to ourselves as though we have become gods or special human beings, we dare not talk as if we are better than those who are not as gifted as we are or incapable of doing the things we are doing, we dare not become businessmen or businesswomen by creating new centres, structures or so-called ministries through which we systematically make people pay to benefit from our gifts thereby enriching ourselves, but we are to give of ourselves freely and always see ourselves as humble servants of God.  
 
Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, I realise that I am nothing before you, work through me always that my life may become my gift to you. Amen.


God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Weekend.

No comments:

Post a Comment