LENT DAY 22: THE SACRIFICE OF A HUMBLE CONTRITE HEART. (Homily for March 5, 2016. Saturday of the Third Week of Lent)


Bible Study: Hosea 6, 1 to 6. Luke 18, 9 to 14.


If you have been taking this period of lent seriously, I am very sure you must have made significant progress in your spiritual life. Today, Jesus wants you to know that holiness or spirituality should never become a reason to boast or become proud by rating yourself higher than other people.

Two men went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee prayed to himself, not to God, he gave an account of his good deeds and condemned others. But the tax did not even lift up his eyes to heaven, yet because of his humility, heaven itself bowed low to listen to him.

It is very important to note that whatever progress you have made amounts to nothing if you lack the virtue of humility. What does it mean to be humble? Does it mean looking down on yourself? No! Does humility mean accepting insults freely from others? No! Does humility mean pretending to be senseless or acting a clown? No!

To be humble is not a matter of downgrading yourself or denying your gifts. Rather, humility is having the consciousness that your gifts are from God and their presence is an indication of God’s presence in you. Humility is coming to terms with the fact that whatever good deed you have ever done and whatever act of holiness you may have achieved is a direct intervention of God in your life.

Humility is being able to “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” In this case, you are able to see that left to yourself, you would be worse than any sinner you can ever imagine on earth. That you are able to overcome even the slightest temptation is not by your own power, it is God himself working in you.

So when you see people misbehaving, falling again and again into sin, you dare not look down on them, instead you become more humble knowing that left to your own human strength, you wouldn’t have been able to do better. When you see or hear the sins of others, first tell yourself that you are more than capable of doing worse things if not for God working in you. This should simple move you to pray for their conversion and thank God for his graces enabling you to avoid sin.

Humility is a sacrifice; a sacrifice more pleasing to God than tens of thousands of fat rams and bulls. It is not all that easy to be humble or to say “I am sorry, it is my fault”. People always find it very difficult to see anything wrong in what they do, they tend to blame everyone else as responsible just like Adam and Eve did. It makes God happy to know that one is able to acknowledge his sins and God never turns away a humbled contrite heart.

Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, teach me to be humble and never look down at anybody. Amen.


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

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