The Humble Will See the Glory of God
Last week, we looked at the first part of this Gospel. Today, we are going to look at the second half and learn something important about it and us.
Last week, we read that Jesus returned to his hometown and read from the scroll of Isaiah about the mission of the Messiah and we realized this is the mission of the Church.
Hear this homily from our radio broadcast
However, remember, this is Jesus’ hometown. So here he is explaining to the people rather starkly that he is here to bring the message of the Gospel to those who hear it, not to those who are expecting to be treated special because of it.
So, he cites two people Naaman the Syrian and the widow of Zarephath both of whom saw powerful healing miracles. Naaman was healed of leprosy but he was not even a Jew he was a member of the Syrian Royal court and the other was a simple widow whose son has just died that Elijah brought back to life.
What is the difference between them and the people before Jesus?
The people in the synagogue knew Jesus when he was a child and develop an attitude at his reading the scroll—who does he think he is?
Jesus responds by making an important comparison. Who are the people who experience God’s glory and power—those who approach him with humility. Naaman is humbled and because he is humbled he sees God’s glory through his healing of leprosy. The Widow of Zarephath simply gives Elijah a cup of water because he was a prophet of God. She in her humility recognizes God’s presence and power.
This becomes the powerful message. Those who look upon Jesus filled with pride will never experience his power and glory. Those who look upon him with humility will experience his power and glory.
It is essential that you are humble before the Lord in prayer.
If you are humble before the Lord you will rely on him and see his power in your life.
What is wrong with our country? Today. People have embraced their own form of power to the exclusion of their consciousness of God. I said some time ago that what is killing our country is not one party or another it is the attitude of people demanding their world their way. What are the roots of this idea? You will find it in the Book of Genesis when the Devil tempts Eve to believe that if they disobey God, they will be like gods. What we teach is Catholics is the pride that is the origin of sin, death and damnation. This is true in the Church and in the country. You hear many people criticizing the universities but the universities are simply institutions and esteemed ones at that. What is wrong in universities, the church, the government and the country is there is a loss of a sense of the divine. We have turned from God and that blinds us to his truth and his glory. Notice I included the Church in that list.
I am not giving as a model the people who wave flags for Jesus many of them are just as blind. So the issue is we have lost a sense of who we truly are and have been blinded by our own accomplishments as a society. This is especially true in our current use of technology. Technology is a good thing but like everything else, it can be distorted and become a source of evil. It is pride that causes this.
Pride blinds us to God’s glory in our lives and leaves us blind to our truly humble state.
This is why our humble prayer is so important.
If people from Harvard to Congress simply turned the Lord and humility asked him to show us his glory our country would change overnight, our institutions would change overnight our church would change overnight and nothing would be the same.
Why because we recognize that we are just human and there is a God who loves us and is leading us down the path to the fullness of our humanity. If we are rather focused on ourselves and if we are demanding our world our way then we become blind to the divine in our lives.
I said last week that the Holy Trinity manifested through Jesus’ actions and everyone who considered themselves a faithful believer saw nothing.
This happens so many times because our own pride will blind us to the truth to which Jesus calls each and every one of us.
I wrote an article for the Fraternity of Priests in which I talked about my use of and promulgation of the practice of praying before a live stream of the Blessed Sacrament. Of course, I taught you before about the Rosary and the importance of a daily rosary. St. Louis de Montfort says that the one who says a daily rosary will be saved, period.
In this and all cases of prayer, we are simply humbly gathered before the lord either individually or even as a family or group and spend time in prayer and in union with Christ. That powerful action is the beginning of what will save our country. Many people including the bishops and others are demanding that certain politicians be restricted from the Eucharist because of their political positions. Notice, I don’t think one of these bishops calling for the denial of communion to a politician has simultaneously told them to be people of prayer and invited them to pray before the Blessed Sacrament which because of such venues as YouTube is ubiquitous. That powerful act of recognizing God as God will do more to change hearts and people in our country than any enforcement of canon law.
I really believe that God has called us as a Church to really foster that relationship with Christ. Maybe he is showing us that we as a church fell into the rules of Church and fell away from the reason for the rules to know Christ better. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord. Let us be people of prayer and let us call all Catholics and other Christians to prayerfully encounter our lord and watch how that more than anything will change our country.
Visit CatholicAudioMedia.com