Humility

Before the gist of everything is gone forever, I wanted to chronicle one of the better sermons I've heard during mass. Yesterday, I went to our subdivision's 8:30am mass that promptly started at around 10 minutes to 9am. The Mass celebrant, surprisingly, was the Parish Priest, Fr. Mhadz Lucero. I personally enjoy his homilies because he always has a fun story and an interesting twist to his sermons.

Unfortunately, the story didn't sit too well with me as much as the sermon that followed. And I really wanted to share it here because well, it applies.So the basic idea was this: "Love your enemies, and pray for your persecutor." It's a funny thing especially in our Philippine society because it's a little inconceivable. The reason it's so difficult to offer love towards your enemies is because of our individual pride. This, he said, was the root of five other sins that our heart sowed. This is what prevents us from loving; from becoming humble.

H - Hatred 
E - Envy
A - Anger
R - Resentment
T - Timidity

Everyone is prone to these sins. Sometimes we express anger and hatred towards others; towards friends, superiors, bosses and what not. We grow envious of others' circumstances. We often keep tabs on other people's allegations towards us that it damages our relationships. And we are just scared of admitting or taking the extra step for fear of failure.

Father Mhadz gave an interesting metaphor to how people should be more humble. He used rice crops would you believe! There are two types of rice crops: those that stood tall and those that were bent over. As you could imagine, those that stood tall represented the proud people, and the ones bent over represented those who were humble. In this analogy, he likened the proud rice crops to be "empty" per se, while those bent over were those that "bore fruit" as it were.

Love is humility, and humility is love. We all need a little more love in the world. And it really is difficult to forgive. But when we become humble, we learn to forgive and forget.