“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” Who are you turning out to be? - Daily Reflections March 4,2014

THE GREATNESS OF HUMILITY

 

Mehmet Oz is a well-known cardiologist. More than his skill, he is also known for his smarts and humility. Consider this quote from him: “As a surgeon you have to have a controlled arrogance. If it’s uncontrolled, you kill people, but you have to be pretty arrogant to see through a person’s chest, take out his heart, and believe you can fix it. Then, when you succeed and the patient survives, you pray, because it’s only by the grace of God that you get there.”

       Jesus today has a plain but difficult challenge: “Many who are first shall come last, and the last shall come first.” Elsewhere in the Bible, you will find that God is displeased with arrogance. “I hate pride and arrogance,” we read in Proverbs 8:13. In 1 Samuel 2:3, we are reminded, “Do not let arrogance issue from your mouths.”

       Here are some practical tips to avoid the trap of giving ourselves too much self-importance.

       First, don’t take your successes seriously. Max Lucado is one of the most successful Christian writers/preachers of our time but he makes it a practice to bring his money and count them in a cemetery to remind himself of these words: “People come to the world with nothing, they take with them nothing” (see Ecclesiastes 5:15).

       Secondly, take conscious effort to celebrate the significance of others. John Stockton is the NBA all-time leader in assists made and was recently inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame. For those not into basketball, an assist is a statistic counted when a teammate passes the ball to another to make it possible for that teammate to score a goal easily. As John Stockton said, “In every goal is a hidden assist.” To celebrate the significance of others is to realize that in every goal we have achieved in life, there are people who assisted us in the background, without whom it would not have been easy or even possible. Fr. Joel Jason   

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” Who are you turning out to be?

 

Grant me a humble heart, Lord, and remind me always that without You, I am nothing.