Reading: From the Gospel according to St. Luke 14: 7- 11, Dear and Respected Brethren, According to the Church calendar, we are observing the ninth Sunday after the feast of Pentecost on this Sunday.

Now let us look back at the way we covered so far during the past few months. As we all know, our spiritual exercise of 120 days started with the beginning of the 3 days Lent and ended with the feast of Pentecost, when and where we commemorated the indwelling of the Holy Spirit among the Christians of the early Church. On all Sundays after the feast of Pentecost till today we were reading/listening about the bread and the bread of life, which turns to be the body of Christ, our redeemer and Savior. Today’s reading deals with a great teaching of our Lord. When we might read this portion or when we might listen the same, we might not realize the depth it carries. In our ordinary minds, humbleness is a good quality and our Lord taught about the unavoidable need of inheriting this quality. This is our usual understanding about this scriptural portion.

In fact there lies the greatness of the Church Fathers who opted and formatted the readings of each Sundays. The Holy Church allows us to go to an experience of following the teachings of our Savior, only after confirming that we are in our Lord and our Lord is in us. Unless and until we are in Him, we cannot enjoy or follow the greatest teachings of our Lord. In other words, today’s scriptural reading is strictly for a faithful if he or she is alive in Lord Jesus. The sum and substance of today’s reading is the 11^th verse, “For whosoever exalts him shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted”. It is to be remembered that the meaning of these verses are beyond our understanding and imagination. We believe that St. Mary is the humblest single person among the mankind. We do praise her for her humbleness. We all must posses five ‘c’s to achieve humbleness of the same grade meant by our Lord.

a)     Communion. It is a term utilized for the Holy Eucharist. It means come in union with God. If you are away from God, come in union. And the only way is the acceptance of His flesh and blood. One who lives on the Holy Sacrament in its full sense only could have real humbleness. St. Paul teaches us about the communion of flesh and blood in 1 Corinthians 10: 16. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, St. Paul asks what communion light has with darkness and exhorts us to uphold the communion of the true light, Lord Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 we read about the communion with the Holy Spirit. If we keep the same and obey the Holy Spirit in our daily routines, we will be really humble.

b)    Confession. Each and every faithful has to confess the faith in God and every time he or she must confess in the mind that Lord Jesus is his or her savior and redeemer. We all have confessed our faith through the baptism once still it is a must to renew the confession every now and then. In Philippians 2:11 we read, And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

c)     Counsel.  We are supposed to seek counsel of the Holy Spirit in us as He is our counselor. In Acts 2: 23 we read about the determinate counsel of God. In Acts 20:27 we read, “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”  Counseling is to take place in the heart, as the hearts are the dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. That is why St. Paul is exhorting us to manifest counsel of the heart. (1 Corinthians 4: 5) Those who could listen to the counsel of the Holy Spirit could uphold the humility. We all know that we must be obedient in listening to the Holy Spirit and hence obedience is a must to have humbleness.

d)     Care. If we could care others around us as our own fellowmen, it will be easy for us to follow the humbleness. Caring is a must for the co-existence, in the family as well as the society. When we would care others, we must be honest in our deeds and words. In 1 Corinthians 12: 25 we read, “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another”. If we care one another sincerely it will be easy for us to be humble in our words and deeds.

e)     Compassion. Being Christians we must be always compassionate, as our Lord was always compassionate to one and all. Beyond the compassion we know, we are advised by St. Paul to have compassion on the ignorant. (Hebrews 5: 2) Let us have compassion on one and all who might support us or oppose us. Let us pray for God’s mercies upon one and all.

If we care for all these ‘c’s we could have enough and more humbleness in our words, deeds and thoughts. May God bless us all

Jose Kurian Puliyeril, Kottayam.