{"id":6944,"date":"2020-12-27T11:52:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T01:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6944"},"modified":"2020-12-27T11:59:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T01:59:36","slug":"the-rewards-of-humility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-rewards-of-humility\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rewards of Humility"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Rewards of Humility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Elijah Iskander<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Passage: Luke 1: 39-56<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme of the month of Kiahk is humility. The passage of\ntoday is another example of this. St Elizabeth, St Mary and St John the Baptist\nare all great examples of humility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLikewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your\nelders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with\nhumility, for \u201cGod resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.\u201d Therefore\nhumble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due\ntime\u201d <\/em>\u2013 1 Peter 5:5-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the roadmap to humility. If I want to be humble, let\nme start with the first natural opportunities I have every day. I can submit to\nmy elders. For the children, be humble before your parents. We all must remember\nthat we never stop being children to our parents, even to our 40s, 50s and\nbeyond!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a student, it is natural for you to be humble\nbefore your teacher. If you are a staff member, it is natural to be humble before\nthose in authority. If you are a husband, it is natural for you to be humble\nbefore your wife. I can never really be humble unless I start with the natural\nopportunities I am given. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If as a student, I am arrogant when dealing with my\nteachers, or if as a child, I am arrogant with my parents, then how am I\nsupposed to go beyond that and be humble with someone at the same place as me?\nMore still, how could I be humble before those below me, as the Lord was?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I want to be humble, do I first make the most of those\nnatural opportunities? Do I shout back at my parents? Do I disregard the opinion\nof my boss? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only when I learn to be humble to those above me, can I move\non to the next stages of humility. St Peter then writes to be humble to one another.\nIf  I can\u2019t be humble to my mum, how am I\nsupposed to be humble to my sister? Make the most of the natural opportunities\nand then I will be empowered, by God\u2019s grace, to be humble when it\u2019s a bit\nharder to be humble to my sister who is older than me, and then even harder\nstill to be humble to my brother who is perhaps younger than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I can\u2019t be humble to my parents then it is impossible to be\nhumble to my siblings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Peter writes that we ALL be submissive to one another. We\nsee that when St Mary went with HASTE to visit and take care of her cousin\nElizabeth. Because St Mary was humble when she received the message from the\narchangel Gabriel, it was easy for her to be humble and rush to serve her\ncousin in her time of need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I am not humble, then I am less inclined to take\nopportunities to serve. St Peter then says to be CLOTHED with humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The depth of this lies when we consider the One that was\nclothed with humility? This was Jesus Himself at the Incarnation. The Creator,\nthe Divine, God Himself, is clothed in humility when He comes down to earth to\nserve those whom He created. He came as an infant, lower than all. That is to\nbe clothed with humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I cannot submit myself before my elders, if I cannot submit\nmyself to my siblings or co-workers, then how am I supposed to cloth myself\nwith humility? How can I make myself of no reputation, as Christ did\n(Philippians 2)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God was clothed with humility, He emptied Himself. He could\nhave said, \u201cI am the Creator, it is impossible for me to come as the created.\u201d\nYet He went beyond this and came as the created, and accepted mocking,\nwhipping, slapping, all from whom He had created. How could He accept to born\nin a manger? How could He accept to run from the earthly king,  Herod? He was clothed with humility and does\nnot insist on His rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about me? Do I question how others treat me? Do I\nquestion being kept waiting or the manner in which others speak to me? Or, am I\nclothed with humility?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though God is the Creator, He came, as a Man, and\naccepted, and was obedient till the point of death. If I want to accept this injustice\npatiently, as Christ did, I have to start with the natural opportunities to be humble.\nThen I can move on to be humble to those at the same level as me, from there,\nonly then can I be humble where it seems impossible to humble. I can be humble\nwhen I am treated unfairly or when I am disrespected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should we do this when it seems so difficult to achieve?\nFor God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. When I don\u2019t want to\nbe humble because it is not fair, I remember that God gives grace to the\nhumble, and resists the one that would react in pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Mary also says, \u201cHe has shown strength with His arm; He\nhas scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the\nmighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Luke 1:51-52.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proud are scattered, they are put down. It\u2019s not as a\npunishment, but a wake-up call, an important lesson to return to the Lord. Some\nof the church fathers says that they must humble themselves, before God humbles\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The promise of humility comes next- God will exalt the humble in due time. Nobody that has ever humbled themselves for the sake of the Lord has been left regretting their decision. If it is truly for the sake of the Lord that you humble yourself, that you accept ridicule or criticism, that you stay silent in the face of adversity, the promise remains- God will exalt you in due time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Mary continues, \u201cHe has filled the hungry with good things,\nAnd the rich He has sent away empty.\u201d \u2013 Luke 1:53.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I come to the Lord hungry, then I know that He will fill me. If I come to the Lord thinking I am rich, I am already full then I leave empty. Not as a punishment, but because God cannot fill what is already full.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rewards of Humility Adapted from a sermon by Fr Elijah Iskander Passage: Luke 1: 39-56 The theme of the month of Kiahk is humility. The passage of today is another example of this. St Elizabeth, St Mary and St John the Baptist are all great examples of humility. \u201cLikewise you younger people, submit yourselves … Continue reading “The Rewards of Humility”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[82,181,184],"class_list":["post-6944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-humility","tag-obedience","tag-submission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6944"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6947,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944\/revisions\/6947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}