Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins.
REFLECTION
"Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God."
To humble oneself... how can you follow advice like this in this day and age?
To advance in one's career, we have to be very assertive and show how capable we are. At school we need to have the best grades. In everyday life we dress the best we can and spackle our faces with makeup to minimize defects and emphasize "our good side", and in social media we curate our lives to show how much better we are from others.
Humility doesn't mean to beat up oneself all the time because of our nothingness and our shortcomings. Despite these, how can I apply this Sunday's teaching on humility in a practical manner?
Not looking into myself, that is for sure, but to the Virgin Mary.
In the book "The Glories of Mary", St. Alphonsus tells us that " A beggar clothed in a rich man’s garment does not forget his own poverty. When Mary was clothed in God’s riches, she humbled herself even more"
In her example, Mary acknowledges the gifts God has bestowed on her. We need to always be grateful to God for all the gifts He bestows on us. Anything and everything, we owe it all to Him. And I think that is the hardest part, to remember that everything I have, everything I have accomplished is His gift to me. Thus the challenge is to be grateful to Him, and not be filled with hubris for "my" accomplishments, and instead have a peaceful, humble, and grateful attitude to God.
Let us pray to the Virgin Mary to grant us the graces we need to follow her example of humility in life.
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