Deuteronomy 8:11-20
Isaiah 33:13-24
Philippians 2:1-11 (1:27-2:11)
Mathew 4:12-17 (4:12-5:16)
Today we have entered into the fourth Sunday of the season
of Elijah- Cross- Moses and also it is the first Sunday of the season of Cross.
Mother church gives us the message that “confess that the Lord is Almighty and
be humble.” Church also insists us to be meek and admit the greatness of the
Lord our God in our lives.
Today church gives us four passages for our reflection. The
first reading conveys us the message to be humble when we enjoy the prosperity
of the world which is promised to us. The second reading tells us that God is
all powerful and Almighty. The third reading shows us the model of Jesus
Christ, who humbled himself. And the Gospel projects Jesus as the light to those
who humble themselves and accept his authority. So in nut-shell we can say that
these four readings convey the same idea that “confess that the Lord is
Almighty and be Humble.”
In Deuteronomy, chapter 8:11-20 Moses tells the Israelites
that they should not forget the Lord in their prosperity, because He has helped
them to overcome the slavery of the Pharaoh. Moses knows that when they reach
the Promised Land they may turn against the Lord and they will say that it is
because of their power they have attained this wealth. He knows that they will
forget the Lord in their abundance. And they will run after other gods. That is
why he tells “if you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve
and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.” (Dt
8:19) So he exhorts them to remember the olden days in which God has showered
His enormous blessings. Only then they will understand that Lord is great. So
Moses wants Israelites to be humble in their prosperity accepting the greatness
of God our Lord.
In Isaiah, chapter 33:13-24 tells us that God is the majestic
King. So all the people should accept and acknowledge the might of God. Isaiah
tells that Lord is the judge and the ruler of Zion. So we have to keep His
commandments and we have to lead a righteous life, then he will save us from
all evils. So in this passage Isaiah tells them to accept God’s might and power
and obey his commandments.
Philippians, chapter 2:1-11 is known as the ancient
Christological Hymen. In this Paul tells us about need of imitating the
humility of Jesus Christ. Paul gives us a perfect model for us to imitate in
our daily life. He tells that Jesus Himself is God, but when Jesus took the
form of a man he emptied himself and took a form of a slave. That means God
come down to man. The creator took the form of a creature. Then he was ready to
die on the Cross. That is a greatest form of humility. That itself shows the
love of God towards man. As a result of this meekness God the Father exalted
Jesus and placed him King of Heaven and the earth. Jesus could retain the
position of God and could save mankind, but he took the form of a slave and
offered us salvation. It is to teach us the greatness of humility in our life.
God wants us to be humble in our life too. That is why he has given a perfect
example through his Son Jesus Christ.
When we come to today’s Gospel Passage, Mathew, chapter
4:12-17, we see that those who humbled themselves and accepted Jesus as their
savior could see the true light. Zebulun and Naphtali are gentile regions. So
Jews believed that Gentile’s are living in darkness, when Messiah comes he
could not save these pageants. Here we can see a contradiction, Jews who are
called to be saved by the Messiah could not accept Jesus, the true Messiah.
Instead the Gentiles accepted the Messiah and because of their faith in Jesus,
they are saved. That is why it is told in the Gospel that “the people who sat
in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and
shadow of death light has dawned.”
So faith in the authority of Messiah’s saving power became
the measuring factor of their salvation. The gentiles believed in Jesus the
Messiah and they were saved. At the same time the Israelites ejected the savior
and they too were abandoned by the Messiah. So today through this Gospel
passage Church tells us to believe and accept the authority and power of
Messiah in order to be saved. Throughout the Bible we can see Jesus exhorts us
to live a humble life. The parable of the rich fool. (Lk 12:13-21) Here rich
man could not understand the greatness of Lord in his prosperity and pride
crept into his life resulting his great fall. That is why Jesus tells us
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Mt 5:5)
Now let us turn to ourselves, are we humble in our
behaviors? Are we also accept the Lord our God as all powerful and Savior of
our lives? The saddest thing is that we proclaim and preach the Almighty God
and the need of humility in our lives, but very often our actions contradict
our words. Sometimes we possess many costly things in order to show other that
we are something great. As priests and seminarians we do many things to show
off. We buy costly mobiles, laptops, shirts, but when we are asked to
contribute to a small amount to the mission, then emerges our consciousness of
our poor parents. Jesus told “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45) We are called to be
humble servants not masters. That is why Pope Francis told to all the
Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Religious and all the faithful to be humble in our
lives. He asked the priests and religious to avoid costly cars, mobiles,
laptops etc. He never wanted his priests to become CEO’s, instead he wanted
them to preach the Gospel of our Master Jesus, who lived as poor. So dear friends
let us be humble in our deeds and acknowledge Almighty God in our life. For
this grace let us pray in this Holy Eucharist. Amen.
By
Boby Kaiyalakakathu MST
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