25th Sunday-B

25th Sunday-B 

Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. About two weeks ago, a group of Chinese Catholic came to Mass and as I was talking to them, at one point, I said, “Do you speak Mandarin?” They said, “Yes, we speak Mandarin”. Then, I said, “I am from India and I speak, Orange”. They said, “Please, don’t give up your day job”. 

Once a woman went to confession and said, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned. I have committed the sin of vanity. Yes, every time, I look at myself in the mirror, I think I am the most beautiful woman in the world. I feel and experience my gorgeousness. Please forgive me the sin of vanity”. The priest said, “O Monica, in your case, it’s not a sin at all. It’s just a big mistake”.  

Then Monica came to the priest and said, “Oh Father, my husband won two million dollars and I don’t know how to tell him since he has a heart condition”. The priest said, “That’s nothing bring him here and I will help him. When the man came, the priest looked at him and said, “Bob, if you win a million dollars what will you do? The man said, ‘I would visit my friends in Australia and buy a big house and help my children”. That is fine and tell me if you win two million dollars, what will you do? The man got so excited and said, “I will donate one million dollars to the church”. Imagine what happened, the priest took a heart attack and died. 

Once reporters approached Winston Churchill and said, “Are you proud to see a big crowd every time you give a political talk, the hall is almost overflowing? Then Churchill said, “Whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech, I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big” 

Dear friends in Christ, they say that a great man is always willing to be little. In my case, I am already little” Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less”. 

It’s only because of Christ, we find meaning in our life and it’s only because of Him, we are filled with happiness and joy and it’s only because of Him, we have life to the fullest and that Christ our Lord emptied Himself to become like you and me. Yes, He humbled and emptied Himself and made Himself nothing to be a servant to save us.  

Christ after washing the feet of His own disciples at the last supper said, “You call me Lord and teacher and you are right-for that’s what I am. So, if I the Lord and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example and that you also should do as I have done to you”.  

That is our Lord Jesus Christ, He accepted humiliation and suffering for you. He didn’t need to become a human and He didn’t need to be born among the poor and be rejected by His own creatures and He didn’t need to accept crucifixion and death on a cross. But Christ humbled Himself and died a horrible death on a cross only for you.  

At the age of twelve as He was at the temple in Jerusalem preaching and teaching the love of God, His parents came to Him and said, “Son, why did you do all this to us”. There Christ humbled Himself and went down with them and He was, the Holy Bible says, obedient to them and thus grew in wisdom and knowledge before God and others. Christ humbled Himself to give us life. 

When He appeared first time in His home town Nazareth, His own people rejected Him saying, “We know who you are, and we know your parents and relatives and thus they took offense at Him. They criticized and tried to kill Him. Christ the wounded healer forgave their inability and criticism and moved on from there. 

When His friend Lazarus died, with a snap of his fingers, He might have brought him back to life but even before raising him to life, Christ the Son of God the Alpha and Omega cried for him. He humbled Himself like one of His creatures. 

Before Pilate, Christ the king of the universe was standing like a criminal and accepted the verdict. But the unfortunate thing is Pilate asked Christ, “What is truth?” but before Christ answering him, he walked away from Christ.  

Even while He was hanging on the cross, Christ was so humble and amazing, and forgave the sins of those who judged Him and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Today Christ after announcing His Messianic mission saw how His own disciples fighting among us for power and position and said, “if you want to be exalted, you should humble yourself. if you want to be first and then you should be last of all and servant of all”. 

Conclusion: Following Christ is going against the current. The world will teach children to be adult and Christ teaches us to be like children to enter kingdom of god. The world teaches us to accumulate things here, but Christ teaches us to accumulate wealth in heaven and the world will teach us to hate our enemies, but Christ teaches us to love our enemies and pray for them. Yes, Christ invites us to humble ourselves to experience exaltation not only in this life but the life to come. Amen.