Faith and humility

Monday, December 4, 2017
1st Week of Advent
1st Reading: Is 2:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 8:5-11
When Jesus entered Capernaum, an army captain approached him to ask his help, “Sir, my servant lies sick at home. He is paralyzed and suffers terribly.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The captain answered, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof. Just give an order and my boy will be healed. For I myself, a junior officer, give orders to my soldiers. And if I say to one: ‘Go,’ he goes, and if I say to another: ‘Come,’ he comes, and to my servant: ‘Do this,’ he does it.”
When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those who were following him, “I tell you, I have not found such faith in Israel. I say to you, many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The convo between Jesus and the captain showcases the faith of a humble person. Because faith must be humble, part of that convo is now a phrase we recite at Mass: “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…”
Letter “h” completes “faith”. Without it, what remains of faith is “fa-it” (Cebuano for bitter). Isn’t life bitter without faith? Who can understand the mysteries of suffering without it? Faith sustains the martyrs. Like lambs led to the slaughter they undergo martyrdom without complaining. It is precisely because of this faith, tested in fire, that martyrs are declared saints worthy of our veneration.
Letter “h” is rightly placed at the end of the word faith because faith should end in humility. Faith that does not end in humility begins in fear. There was no trace of fear in the faith of the captain because his faith in Jesus was genuine. And because his faith was genuine, he was humble. Humility stood out when he said to Jesus, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof. Just give an order and my boy will be healed”.
Where fear is the starting point of faith, faith ends in superstition. There is no humility in there, for superstitious people are self-righteous. They become so mean on those who do not embrace what they believe. Superstitions have destroyed many families in the past.
The Cebuano term for superstition is “too-too”. In the framework of this dialect, anything repeated renders the root word false. The root word “to-o” means faith. Repetition of the root word is perfect term for superstition, for indeed superstition is fake faith. To make it genuine, one has to restore the virtue of humility. Thus, when in humility the superstitious person abandons his “habak” and his “talisman” and returns to the Lord, true faith is restored. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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