Bible
Study: Ezekiel 28, 1 to 10 and Matthew 19, 23 to 30.
Both our
first reading and Gospel passage this morning address the vice of pride head
on. God strongly condemns the prince of Tyre for laying claim to being a god
when he was nothing but a man. The prince of Tyre obviously saw himself as a
god because through his wisdom, he had gathered so much wealth for himself. And
in our Gospel passage, Jesus says it will be hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God.
Why would
it be hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God? Is it the case that God is
against riches? No. Abraham was the richest man on earth in his time. After Job’s
trials, God restored his riches twice as much as he had before. “The LORD
blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen
thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand
donkeys.” Job 42, 12. Job must have died a very wealthy man.
Even
Solomon, when God asked him for ask for anything and he asked for wisdom, God
decided to add riches as well. If God has a problem with being rich, then God
will not have made Solomon wealthy. “Because you have asked this… I give you
also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other
king shall compare with you. 1 Kings 3, 11 to 13. More still, if a man is rich in any way be it
in money, in wisdom, in children, in friends of whatever, we believe it is God’s
doing. No one can be rich all by himself. Proverbs 10, 22 says: “The blessing
of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.”
So why was
God against the prince of Tyre and why did Jesus say it will be hard for the
rich to enter the kingdom of heaven? The answer is PRIDE. To be proud is to
believe that one has gotten what one has by one’s own strength and power. Pride
is taking glory that does not belong to you. Pride is refusing to acknowledge
God as the source of all that you have. It is like trying to take the place of
God in your own life.
The reason
why a proud person cannot enter heaven is because there is only one God in
heaven, there cannot be two gods. So having become your own god, you cannot
begin to drag recognition with God in heaven. There is no competition in heaven.
So, because God knows you are already a god, he would not want you to come into
heaven but he would take you to a place where you can be your own god. St.
James puts it well when he said: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the
humble.” James 4, 6.
So what
does it mean to be humble? First it must be noted that humility even though it
is the opposite of pride is not the same thing as low self-esteem. To have a
low esteem is to believe that there is something innately with oneself. It is a
refusal to acknowledge that one has been blessed by God or that one is rich. While
pride is knowing that one is rich but refusing to believe that one’s riches
came from God, low self-esteem is refusing to believe that one is even rich in
the first place. In fact, to have low self-esteem is to doubt the existence of
God or to doubt whether God has or is capable of giving anything to you.
Humility is
first of all an acknowledgement of one’s riches but at the same time, a deep
seated sense of gratitude to God and an awareness that everything one has is a
gift of God. You can be rich, indeed very rich and humble at the same time. In that
case, you do not see yourself as a god, yet at the same time, you do not deny
your riches. Heaven is not hard for such persons.
There is
another type of wealth that Jesus encourages in our Gospel passage. It is the
riches that we get when we leave everything behind for sake of the kingdom of
God. As Jesus puts it: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or fields, for my name's sake, will receive a
hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19, 29.
Being an
only son, I thought I would be doomed when I decided to become a priest but now
I see that was not the case. I had only one father before but now I look at my
parishioners and I can count more than a hundred men here who would take care
of me just as my own father would do. There are more than hundred homes I can
enter today and they would receive me like a prince. I used to have just one
mother but today, I have so many mothers who love me like their own son. I would
have had a career if I had become a priest but when I look at my mates, I realise
that by now, I would have been struggling to buy a car or build a house but
having left all that, I drive a car today that I did not buy with my money and I
live in a house that I did not build. If anything happens to my car today, I am
fully sure that in less than a month, I am most likely to get another one. I do
not have money in my account but if I want to do anything, there will be people
who will gladly do it for me. Is that not wealth?
Let us
pray:
Lord
Jesus, purge my pride, help me to remain poor in spirit. Amen
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you.
Happy
anniversary to all priests ordained today and all who are celebrating theirs
this very week. Mary, mother of priests, pray for us.
Fr. Abu
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