DAILY HOMILIES #understanding

As a child, I never doubted God. It was very easy to believe everything I was told. The biblical stories made sense to me because I could see their lessons. Even though I had no evidence, I never asked: “Did that really happen?” The stories were real to me as long as I could imagine them. We must have this attitude about God’s kingdom: a deep sense of humility, the willingness to learn, never claiming to know more than one’s teacher, and a readiness to follow instructions to the letter with a sense of trust in God.

The Prophet Isaiah asks in our first reading today, “can the ax exult itself over the one who uses it?” or “will the saw consider itself greater than the man who cuts with it?” Indeed, pride goes before a fall. We are nothing but mere instruments in the hands of God. Without humility, we cannot understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

Today, our Psalmist encourages us to turn that faith towards God because He alone deserves the title: kind and full of compassion. Only God is kind because He alone owns everything in this world and He alone gives freely without demanding repayment. People may sympathize with us when we are down but only God is full of compassion – only God can understand what we are going through; only God can “passion with” us; only God can suffer with us.