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