Twenty-Second Sunday-C
Once a man tried his best to find a job but nothing happened and then at last he got a job in a local zoo. All he had to do was just dressing like a monkey and entertain people. Though in the beginning, he could not do it well and then he began to entertain people well jumping up and down, rolling over and screaming and yelling. One day as he was jumping, he fell into the lion’s cage. He knew that he was going to die. He began to cry and cream saying, “ please, Lion let me go and I don’t want to die”. The lion came closer to him and said, ‘Do not scream and we both are going to lose our job”.
Once winston Churchill was asked, "How do you feel about seeing a big crowd coming to hear your speech? what is your reaction about so many people coming to hear your speech? How proud are you to see these things? Then Winston Churchill said, "When I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech, I was being hanged, the crowd could be twice as big".
Every time I go to a new parish, I open my homily with this story. It's about a missionary priest going to different villages and towns to preach the Good News. Once he had to cross a river to go to a village, so he hired a boat. While he was travelling, he began to talk to the boatman. He said, "I know you are catholic and what do you know about the Old Testament?" The boat man said, "O Father, I believe in God but I don't know much about the Old Testament". The priest said, "That means you lost 20 percent of you life.." what about the New testament? I believe in Christ but I don't know much about it. That means you lost 50 percent of your life my friend. The priest who was so proud of his knowdge about God looked at him and said, "What about the sacraments...? He said, "I was baptized and  I don't know much about them...he said that means you lost 70 percent of your life. Mean time, the boat was in the middle of the river and through a small hole from the bottom, water began to come in the boat, the boat man knows it was going to sink. So he asked the priest, "Father, do you know swimming, the priest said, "No". The man with humility looked at the priest and said, "That means you lost whole life".
After that somebody asked me, "Oh Father, do you know swimming? I said, "I live just five k away from Indian ocean and I learned to walk on water too..." what a pride person I am...
Humility does not mean that you are going to think less of yourself but thinking yourself less.
while people are taking the seats of honor, Christ askes them to take the lower place so that the one who invited them, will come and in the presence of others ask to take the higher position. This is called true humility. As we humble ourselves, we will be exalted.
While men searched for a throne to build their kingdoms, Jesus reached for a towel to wash His disciples' feet.  That is called humility.
There is a story of a donkey. It happened right after Palm Sunday. A baby donkey running home crying and the mother was so concerned and asked, "Why?". The baby donkey said, "Mom...yesterday as we walked into the streets of Jerusalem, people through their cloaks before us, they worshipped us and they sang hosanna to us. They were singing and dancing and the same people as I went today, chased me around and they tried to kill me. I don't understand these stupid people. The mother donkey looked at the baby and said, "Son...all those things happened yesterday not for us but for the man called Jesus. Remember as long as we are with Christ, we are something. If not, we are just donkeys.
Chist who is the only Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior and Lord humbled himself to be with us and to be one of us and died on the cross and thus God raised Him above all. The one who humbled himself is exalted above all.
Humility is accepting that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.
 A rich man once went to his Guru & said, "I want to develop humility." The guru suggested that he help someone who is lower than him.
He did that and came back to the guru and said, "I've helped a poor man today with wealth. Am I humble now?" The guru replied No and asked him to help another man lower than him. But after repeated visits to different people, he finally asked his guru, "When will I become humble?"
The wise old man replied, "You will have obtained humility when you can no longer find anyone that you think is lower than you in any way!"
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humble themselves like our Master and Messiah will be exalted.
"Be humble or you'll stumble.