Homily: March 26, 2022, Saturday of the Third week of Lent

 “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted”.

In my home village, there was a man, who was a farmer like the rest of us but he became rich unexpectedly. Sometime in the 1980s, his black pepper plants produced a hundred-fold yield for three consecutive years. He earned big money. Then he built his house bigger, furnished it lavishly and bought a nice car. He also bought a fridge. No one else in the village owned one. My parents could only dream of having electricity in our house at that time.

We were told that when he went to the local butcher, to make sure everyone knew he was rich, he would declare his order loudly, “Give me 3 kilos. No, make it five. I have a fridge to keep the extra.”

Becoming rich is the dream of many people, we think that having money means having a good life. That man in my village was having a good life, a good worldly life. He stopped attending Sunday mass in church. When the parish priest asked him about it, he replied, “Father, I have a TV so I can watch Christmas and Easter masses from the Vatican and that is more than enough.”

The good harvest made him rich. His wealth made him prideful. His pride made him blind. His blindness made him poor, spiritually.

He thought his good harvest would last forever. 

He forgot that God, who gave him everything good for his life, can also take away everything bad for his soul. His good fortune lasted only 3 years. In the following year, there was a huge monsoon storm. It destroyed all his property. He lost everything and became a bankrupt.

I quote Mark Batterson: “When God blesses you financially, don’t raise your standard of living. Raise your standard of giving.”

St. James also wrote that ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’. Pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. It blinds us spiritually, we fail to see the blessings of God in our life. Even the Pharisee, who knew the law of God. His self-righteousness, exterior piety and social status made him prideful. He was so blind, he could not see God nor others, but himself.

So, what is it that could make you prideful? What in your life makes you think that you don’t need God?

Is it your profession, wealth, status, intellect, achievement, social connections, or your possessions?

Or are you so self-assured that you think you are a better disciple, more worthy and less sinful than others?

Let us be humble like the tax collector. Know and admit our unworthiness before the Lord and go home justified by His grace. Amen.