DAILY HOMILIES #humility

If we want our children to grow strong and wise, we must, like Mary and Joseph constantly present them to God. Never neglect to bring your children to church. Let them attend catechism classes. Let them be at Sunday School. It is very important. Do not assume that your children will get to know God or make the right choices in life on their own. Bring them to God. As the book of Proverbs says: “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.” (Proverbs 22:6)

We cannot get to heaven if we are just trying to be average Christians concerned only about doing the minimum. We cannot get to heaven if we are only after material blessing and earthly prosperity. We cannot get to heaven if we are not ready to sacrifice the pleasures of this world. To sell everything one has is to willingly lose those things which the world prides about. It is choosing to live according to the beatitudes, being meek, poor in spirit, merciful, pure in heart, peaceful and hungry for righteousness

Finally, let us join our psalmist today to pray: “O God be gracious and bless us.” It is good to receive powerful prophetic utterances on this first day of the New Year but today should not be your last day of stepping your feet into the church this year. The blessings you receive today are not different from the blessings of every other day. Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread – not our yearly bread. That is to say, Jesus wants us to pray every day. Continue to pray, don’t stop.

John the Baptist speaks in the present tense: “Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees… his winnowing fork is in his hand…” Meaning “now is the time; the harvest has begun already.” Live your life like someone who knows that death is just around the corner.

There is an African proverb that says, if a child washes his hands very well, he would be invited to seat at the table and eat with elders. In other words, if we are humble, regardless of our size and status, we would be granted access to high places.

The Centurion’s action teaches us an important lesson in caring for our workers. The Centurion was in charge of a hundred soldiers yet he found time to come looking for Jesus because of one servant; not even his son or a soldier. How lucky this servant was to have had such a good master. Can those working for me say the same about me?

From His encounter with Zacchaeus, Jesus teaches us today that in winning a soul for God, love must come first. Jesus showed Zacchaeus so much love and honored him by going to eat in Zacchaeus' home. In this way, even without preaching a single verse from the scripture, Zacchaeus was moved to repentance.

The moment we begin to see ourselves as better than others, the moment we begin to talk badly about others as “good-for-nothings,” God teaches us a lesson; He humiliates us before their very eyes.

Pretense (unholy diplomacy) is a virus that we all need to delete from our lives. It is also important to point out the fact that Paul did not go about talking about Peter behind his back but addressed Peter to his face. If you lack the courage to tell people their faults to their face, better keep quiet and pray for them. Do not be a coward.

No matter how powerful or rich we have become (as lay persons or priests), let us never forget we brought nothing to this world. _We are nothing but pencils in the hands of the creator._

When we are proud, we have only one life goal; to outshine others. We never have peace of mind because when the ego is in charge of our lives, we are constantly under threat. We are never satisfied with what is ours. Whatever progress anyone makes becomes a problem to us because as soon we know about it, we refuse to sleep until we achieve something greater. Nothing frightens us more than the laughter of others so we live basically to please people and as a result, despite all that we show to the world, there is always this feeling of emptiness within us.

Respect Children. In fact, fear children. Jesus is saying to us, if you cannot respect the innocence and purity of children, at least, consider the fact that no child is without his or her angels sent by God to guard and guide them. Yes, there are invisible spirits around every child working all round the clock for their good. Be good to children and you will be blessed by their angels. If you want to experience the power of children, gather little children together, go down on your knees and ask them to pray for you.