HUMILITY VERSUS PRIDE Once upon a time, two brothers got engaged in an argument. One was humility, the other was pride. As usual, Mr. Pride began to boast, “People love me so much because I make them feel good. I have millions of followers all over the world from the high places to the low places. Without me, no one feels okay about himself.” Mr. Humility responded, “of course, people may love you but the truth is that they don’t need you. You cannot claim to be more important than me because without me, the world would be such a difficult place to live in.” Mr. Pride went on, “You see my brother, if you say they don’t need me, how come they love me so much.” . “Yes, they love you but why is that whenever you are with them, they always stumble and crash” said Humility, “You are not a true friend, you fill them with your nice perfume, they begin to look down on people only for them to go down to square one, mr. pride you need to be sincere with people, stop making them feel like gods when they are still humans.” Mr. Pride laughed loudly, “is it my fault that I make people feel good? Is it my fault that I have a nice aroma? Well those who have been with me and tasted the other side of disgrace should be wiser. Isn’t it? But I wonder why they keep coming back for me. Could it be that each time I deal with them, they forgive so easily and come back again? Perhaps they don’t even know when I am with them.” . . . . In every human being, there is an element of pride. We love to feel good about ourselves. We love to justify our actions before God and before our fellow men. Pride begins with comparing ourselves to others and the feeling that we are better or more privileged than other people. Once we begin to feel we have what others lack, we try to make people ‘see’ our good sides, we want people to bow to us and worship us, we want people to greet us obsequiously in public and acknowledge our goodness. This is what Jesus Christ condemns in today’s gospel passage in the course of his encounter with the Pharisees. In the real sense of the word, no human being is capable of doing anything good entirely on his own. We are like the moon reflecting light from the Sun. Whatever good we do is a reflection of light from God himself. Problem starts when the moon begins to feel that he is a generator of light and takes glory in itself. This is what happens precisely when we feel that we have ‘arrived’ in terms of holiness. The fact that others cannot do the good things we do is not because we are better than them but because in the solar system, they may just be farther from the sun than we are. In fact, there is no need to compare ourselves with others or to judge people in our hearts. You are what you are today simply by the grace of God. Never look down on others. Only God deserves praise and worship, never ascribe to yourself the glory that really belongs to God. Good Morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well With You.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 04:42:10 +0000