The Power of Humility and Contrition.

Homily for March 21, 2017.

Recognizing that their collective sins has brought them to their present position (exile in a foreign land), Azaiah intercedes on behalf of the people for God to look with mercy on them and forgive their offences.

They couldn’t afford to offer huge sacrifices of rams and bulls but one thing he was certain of, was their humility and sorrow over their sinfulness.

In seeking forgiveness from God or even from any one whom we have offended, those two elements must be present; first, humility by acknowledging our imperfection and contrition of heart; that is, we must express sorrow.

A really proud person never begs for forgiveness because he never sees anything wrong with what he does; He is always right, while everyone else is at fault.

Somehow, each of us has an element of pride in us; we hate to acknowledge that we are wrong, hence it becomes a sort of sacrifice on our part to even ask for forgiveness. It demands a lot from us; it demands that we put ourselves in other peoples’ shoes and it can be very painful.

Humility and contrition helps us to see ourselves as we really are; weak creatures struggling daily to be good.

The Good News is that once we are able to accept our nothingness, we become sympathetic with other people; we stop expecting from others the very things we ourselves are incapable of giving. This is the essence of forgiveness.

The servant in today’s Gospel passage threw his fellow servant into prison forgetting that just as his fellow servant lacked the capacity to pay back 100 denarii, he too also lacked the capacity to pay back the huge sum which he owed his master.

That is just life. We often forget the log in our eye and start chasing after the speck in other people’s eyes. We hunt people down and finish them for the wrongs they did to us but we forget we ourselves have done greater wrongs to God.

We enjoy making fun of others when they sin and we so easily point out people’s faults but we do not realize that when a fellow man sins, it is just a reflection of what we ourselves are capable of doing.

The next time you are finding it hard to forgive someone, put yourself in the position of God and try to pass judgement on yourself for all the sins of your past life.

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, help me conquer my pride and learn to forgive others. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. Tuesday of the 3^rd Week of Lent. Bible Study: Daniel 3:2-20 and Matthew 18:21-35).

Fr. Abu.