Humility and Gratitude - signs of a Spiritual person

WORD 2day: Thursday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 19, 2024 - 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke 7: 36-50

By the grace of God I am what I am, states St. Paul today in the first reading. That statement brings out two salient features of a truly Spiritual person. The first is Humility; the other quality flows from it - Gratitude.

As we know, humility is a sign that one knows oneself, understands oneself, places oneself in the right perspective and accepts what the Lord has called one towards. It is not abasing or belittling oneself; that would be a misunderstanding and a belittlement of the Creator. Therefore, humility is simple, looking at oneself from the perspective of God!

Flowing directly from humility, is gratitude! The more one is forgiven, the more one loves; because love flows from the goodness that God makes us feel welling up from within us. That is the source of gratitude, feeling the goodness flow from within, well up within, and flowing out of oneself. 

Humility and Gratitude are qualities that are indispensable markers, for a life that wants to define itself with the adjective, "spiritual". A humble person is a grateful person; and a grateful heart is a holy heart. The woman who was forgiven, was offered a totally new life and that made her so exuberantly grateful that she did not hesitate to expess it through all means she thought best. 

A spiritual person is humble and grateful; and a grateful and humble person is definitely a holy person.

Faith, Hope and Love

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 18, 2024 -  1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13; Luke 7: 31-35

These days the Word has been speaking to us about living our faith in action, beginning with the Sunday that has just gone by. And today, we have the discourse about the most concrete and fundamental expression of faith - an essential and exclusive element - Charity. It is essential because without it we cannot make sense of faith; it is exclusive because where there is no charity, there is in fact no faith, what we find is at the most, a fake faith or a misunderstood faith. 

At times Charity could be miunderstood and misinterpreted as approving of everything that the other does, invariable of what it is or what is the value at stake, merely because I have to prove that I love that person. The understanding of the world today is this... while Jesus reminds us, it is childish; it is infantile; Charity would hurt at times, it would cause mutual suffering at times... but always towards the good of the other! 

"Good of the other" - that is the key to understand the right sense of love or Charity! That does away with selfishness, pride and jealousy. That is the key that places the other at the centre and that is the key that can make our regard for God, as the ultimate Other, true and sincere. That is why, it is love that makes our faith authentic and valid. These three, faith, hope and love abide; the greatest of these is love!