going through life humbly: 12th week tuesday 2012

In our first reading today we hear that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sent a letter to Hezekiah the king of Judah warning him that he is about to attack and defeat Judah.  When, Hezekiah heard this he run to the temple, entered the holy of holies, then he opened the letter and showed this to God.  There he prayed to God that the nation will be saved.  God heard the cry of Hezekiah and he promised through Isaiah that God will save Judah from its enemies.  And so it happened that a plague hit the camp of Sennacherib and many of his troops fell ill and died.  Because of this the rest of the troops of Sennacherib went back to their own country and thus God saved his people from a powerful enemy because of the prayers of Hezekiah.

Many times in our life we often wonder how we got this far, how we have survived, how we became what we never thought we could become.  Many times we realize that on our own we could do nothing and yet we find ourselves doing things we thought we could not do.  Many times when you reach my age you will find out that a lot of things happen not really because of talent, not really because of my person or of my knowledge but because of God.  There is no other way of explaining them.  God is there at the precise time, at the right place when I needed him.  It is God through the pleading presumably of Carmel, of my spiritual sisters or of people who promised to keep me in their prayers. 

Many times we think too highly of ourselves, of our abilities, of what we can do, of what we have and who we are.  But in the end I get to remember the words I said during my ordination - in my life, in my disability I have come to know where my efforts end and where God’s grace begins.

In the gospel Jesus warns us that the way to life is a narrow gate.  Jesus was reffering to the narrow gates in walled cities during his time.  These were intentionally made so that people on horses and in heavy armor could not enter easily and attack.  To enter you have to bow low and leave behind those heavy baggages. 

This is how we enter life too.  We go through life humbly.  We go through life bowing low acknowledging that on our own we could not go on.  We go through life relying on God’s providence.  We go through life believing on the strength that God has given us.

This morning I told the seminarians that half my life was spent struggling because of my disease and pain.  I struggle rising up in bed not only because I am still sleepy but because of the pain in my joints.  I struggle going up and down the stairs.  I struggle going from one place to the other.  I struggle to kneel and stand.  These are things, I told them, "with your young and athletic strength you take for granted."  But these are simple things that I have to struggle with everyday.  This is my own gate, the narrow gate through which I will find life, through which I will enter life and find meaning.  I have to humbly submit to the limitations of my body.  I have to humbly submit to my station, to what I can possibly do and what I cannot do on my own.

Hezekiah bent his knees when he was faced with an overwhelming force.  The narrow gate does not just refer to the difficulty of entering life.  It above all refers to the position of approaching life, that we approach life humbly.

 ---------

Learn to live with inconvenience, learn to struggle and fight on with the meager resources we have, with the feeble strength you can muster, with the giftedness we have from God, learn to never give up, learn to go beyond your limits.  We know we can when we believe that God is on our side.  We know we can when we are mindful always that people are praying for us.  We know we can when we pray like Hezekiah, for God will do great things for us.  We approach life as we go through a narrow and low doorway.  We approach life humbly, with heads bowed to the wonder who is God.