Homily for Monday Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 21st June, 2021. The Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

 Homily for Monday Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time  Year B,  21st June, 2021. The Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Reading: Gen. 12:1-9; Ps.33; Matt. 7:1-5

Rev.  Fr. Emmanuel Emenike  Onyia

TAKE AWAY THE LOG OF PRIDE IN YOU, SO AS TO ACCOMMODATE THE SPECK OF WEAKNESS IN OTHERS

One of the ugly attitudes of the human person is the urge to often criticize, judge and condemn others without looking into our own faults. Have we ever experienced a situation where it happened that, while we are condemning other people for their faults and suddenly we realized that our own faults are just as many as theirs, for this do happen often in our relationship with one another. This ugly attitude is what Jesus is addressing today in the Gospel passage, when he said “ Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the speck in your brother’s eye and never notice the log in your own?

Here, Jesus is referring to the improper and prideful attitudes of many of the Pharisees, the scribes and teachers of the Law and many others like them who self acclaimed righteousness has led to criticism and condemnation of other people, as they have failed to see the log in their eye while seeking to remove the speck in other's. But what is this log in our eyes? It is the log of pride, greed and self-righteousness. These log of pride, greed and self-righteousness make us to forget who we are and claim who we are not. Pride as we know is the first capital sin, it makes us to look down on people, pride makes us blind. It makes us not to look into our own lives to see and accept how wrong we can be, because we are people often controlled by our ego and pride, our human ambitions and desires, as we like to always be in control and superior to others. 

But this is not the same with Abram in our first reading today, who because of his humility was called by the Lord for a special mission. For the Lord said to him, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing. Such is God’s grace for those who are humble and accommodative of other peoples weakness. This is exactly what we see in the life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga whose memorial we celebrate today. Though born into a wealthy family, he renounced the world’s riches and honour in order to live a life of service, simplicity, holiness and piety.

Therefore, today we are called to humbly look into our lives and identify all those ugly attitudes of pride in us and get rid of them, so that we can humbly correct and accommodate other peoples weakness. So instead of pointing out what is lacking in others, we must look into ourselves, and find ways or how we can make good use of the opportunities that God has given us to show good examples to others. We are to discard all our prideful, wicked and sinful ways of life and replace them with genuine love for one another, with new zeal and sincere commitment to telling one another the truth in all humility.

Dear friends, we are called not to judge, because, often that which we judge in others, we ourselves are doing worst.  Hence, Jesus is challenging us today to think differently about how we live our lives. Calling us to look into our inner being, our interior life, that part of us that we hide from one another. Let us purify them in humility, so that we can be pure and free to help others in the struggles with their weakness. Therefore, it’s time to look into ourselves and take away our prideful ways of life, so as to humbly accommodate the weakness and faults of others especially in our families, societies and the world at large, knowing that no one is perfect without the other.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, give us the grace of humility and capacity to always look within us in other to be more aware of our inadequacies, and through the intercessions of St. Aloysius of Gonzaga may we become more gentle in dealing with others, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a blessed and graceful week.