The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
1 Corinthians 2:10b-16
Psalm 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13ab, 13cd-14
Luke 4:31-37

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Today’s readings seem to indicate the importance of humility and how true humility leads to obedience. St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila) says, “True humility is knowing who we are and who God is.”

St. Paul makes a point of saying that it is nothing of himself that he preaches, but the wisdom that comes from God. The Psalmist speaks of how wise he is to avoid evil and thus overcome his enemies, how he has more understanding than his teachers and more discernment than the elders. If one wasn’t discerning they might wrongly think that he was being boastful and fail to understand that his great advantages are not of his own doing, but gifts from a loving God who he is determined to follow and serve.

In the Gospel, Jesus continues this theme of humble obedience and proclaims that He is the one that was sent, blessed and favored by God. Those who were not humble could not accept that this simple-appearing carpenter’s son was the longed-for Messiah. Instead, they stubbornly clung to their own concepts and refused to be enlightened.

The question for us then, becomes, “How do I measure up when it comes to humility? Am I all puffed up by my own seeming self-importance and the clever things I might accomplish?” If this is so, then sooner or later the truth of self--who I am and who I am not--and greater still, who God is, will come into focus, or more likely hit me between the eyes.

For my own good, God grant that it might come sooner than later so that no more time is wasted, no more self-deceptions are perpetuated and nothing less than praise of You be in my heart and on my lips.

- Donna Nelson, OCDS
(drn3rd at hughes dot net)