Homily: October 31, 2022, Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time (Vain Glory).

In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he instructed them, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vain glory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.”

Is it possible to regard others more important than ourselves? Is it possible to be selfless?

Yes, highly possible, but highly difficult too. With God’s grace, we can.

When I was serving at one parish in India, parishioners would give donations on the parish feast day. We would publish the names of donors in the parish bulletin board to acknowledge their generosity. One day, a lady came, gave her donation and said she prefer to be anonymous. Then she thought about it and gave her first name. After a short pause, she said again, “Father, then you must put my last name as well because there is another lady with the same first name.”

For a moment before that, I thought she was a humble and modest donor, not seeking any glory for herself. But the final twist revealed that she did want to be acknowledged and made sure the credit did not mistakenly go to another person.

This incident also made me realise, that many of us do try to be selfless when we are aware of it, but it is just so easy to fall back into self-preservation, self-care, self-centeredness, self-over-others. It seems easier, more natural, more instinctive, to be selfish, doesn’t it?

And so in the gospel incident, Jesus highlighted an unhealthy trend of that time, where people hosting meals and inviting guests often had ulterior motives and hidden agendas, personal or political. They served self, not others, not God. This trend is still prevalent today.

What can we do about it?

We can’t change others, not so easily. Let us work on ourselves first.

For those of us who are serious about getting rid of our own sins of vainglory and selfishness, try this. Do a daily examen - technique of prayerful reflection taught by St. Ignatius of Loyola.

By reflecting on the events of the day, we learn to become aware of God’s presence in our daily life and see God’s hand at work in our everyday existence. We also become sensitive to the deeper motives and rationale of our own decisions and behaviour. It helps us weed out vainglory and selfishness for ourselves.

Try this five-step daily examen which St. Ignatius practised:

1. Become aware of God’s presence.

2. Review the day with gratitude.

3. Pay attention to your emotions.

4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.

5. Look toward tomorrow.

Try it, make it a habit. To God be all glory and may His will be accomplished always. Amen.

Fr. Nivin Scaria