Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

March 18, 2003

In today's first reading Isaiah speaks to us in regard to a particular service--make justice your aim--redress the wronged, hear the plea of the orphan and widow. If we have eyes to see and hear, the media has made us more than aware of the terrible plight of those whose services have been cut or terminated by budget cuts. There are many charitable organizations like St. Vincent de Paul that will be burdened attempting to pick up the slack.

Make justice your aim and redress the wronged. These words are not addressed to an elite few but to all of us. The call is to be humbled--not humiliated--but humbled. The humble person recognizes his limitations, and understands that the success of his accomplishments is rooted in the strength that God has given to him.

This is perhaps portrayed in the story of a small boy who decided to build a table as a birthday gift for his mom. Since this was the boy’s first attempt at carpentry, his father offered to help him, but he refused the offer saying that he had watched his father at work and was fully capable of making the table on his own.

The boy worked diligently but his unskilled hands were not up to the task; the table legs were uneven and the table wobbled. The boy's gift did not turn out as he planned.

But humility taught him to recognize that our own natural and acquired assets are gifts, not something of our own making. Furthermore the gifts we have (like the father's skills) are not for ourselves alone, but for sharing.

To deny our gifts or accepting the gifts from others prevents us from receiving what God has planned to freely give us. Humility is not a weakness or a denial of who I am, but a spirit of celebration and gratitude. When you encounter a truly humble person you are not likely to see a wimp, but a person whom you can respect for what he does and more important who he is.